Pictures: Rebecca McMillan Photography
After a painful decade, Wellington actress Loren Taylor is back on top, celebrating good health, new motherhood, an unbreakable family bond and a thrilling career milestone – writing and directing her first feature film, which was inspired by her beloved sister, author Anna Taylor.
The Moon Is Upside Down is a comedy-drama starring Loren, alongside local acting legends Robyn Malcolm, Robbie Magasiva, Rachel House, Elizabeth Hawthorne and Flight Of The Conchords funnyman Jemaine Clement, who was Loren’s love interest in Taika Waititi’s 2007 classic Eagle Vs Shark.
Following a Russian mail-order bride who gets more than she bargained for when she marries a lonely Kiwi petrol station owner, Loren’s screenplay was based on a “beautiful, extraordinary” short story from Anna’s award-winning 2009 collection Relief.
“That story felt so vivid to me – I could really see and feel it,” says Loren, 46, adding that Anna closely consulted on the script and editing.
The project might have happened sooner were it not for a devastating real-life plot twist after the success of Eagle Vs Shark. “I got breast cancer. I could only work in really limited ways for all of my thirties,” the actress, then known as Loren Horsley, tells Woman’s Day.
“One of the reasons I’m alive and well is because of the loving support of my family, especially Anna and Mum, but everyone’s careers, our creative momentum, got stalled due to health.”
Anna, 41, adds, “It’s like you’re writing a story, then life becomes the story and that’s all you can do. You can only live in it and find your way through. That’s been a big journey for us.”
Now the sisters say they couldn’t have done justice to The Moon Is Upside Down if they hadn’t gone through that cancer journey. “During that time, there was lots of suffering and lots of difficulty, but we laughed a lot,” Loren recalls.
They’ve poured those sensibilities into the film, which combines heart-wrenching tragedy with laugh-out-loud comedy. Some of the most outrageously funny scenes are intimate ones between the two couples. Without spoiling it, we can say that both Robbie and Jemaine must have had complete trust in Loren as a director – audiences have never seen them this vulnerable.
“Lots of female writer-directors show sexuality in a really different way,” Loren reflects. “I think we’re so sick of the candlelight and the beautiful, erotic stuff. It’s like, ‘Can we please show the other side – the funny, animal, awkward, painful side?’”
It was the first time Loren and Jemaine had worked together since Eagle Vs Shark, although they’ve remained close friends.
She says, “Because I know him so well and we have trust, I could push him into sensitive territories that he doesn’t do so much. His dramatic acting is gorgeous. He has such sensitivity and tenderness.”
Loren even convinced Anna to make a cameo as her sister in the film. Anna had acted in her teens and early twenties, before realising, “I actually might hate this.” She laughs that being on set again was her “worst nightmare”, but the sisters’ on-screen rapport is a joy to watch.
In real life, Loren says, they have a “dreamy dynamic” living across the road from each other in Wellington’s Lyall Bay and raising their young families together. Loren’s daughter Aiko, five, and Anna’s daughter Antika, seven, were both adopted from Thailand, adding to their deep connection.
Anna says, “They call each other sisters because they’re heart sisters.”
Loren’s husband Tom and Anna’s hubby Dylan are in their second year of running a picture-framing business together, and the sisters’ mum Erin and stepdad Mark live on the same street. Their 92-year-old grandmother Bobbie, who makes her onscreen debut in one of The Moon Is Upside Down’s most darkly funny scenes, is around the corner.
Meanwhile, Loren and Anna have plans to collaborate on another film and a TV show.
“It’s a very good creative fit,” Loren enthuses. “Anna is the sentence master…”
“And she’s the ideas master,” Anna adds. “From the outside, the way that we live so closely and work together could look kind of cutesy, but we’re anchored in something deep.
“We’ve traversed some really rocky terrain, and learnt how to be together, communicate and take care of each other because of that. I don’t know that any of this would be possible without the challenges we’ve encountered.”
The Moon Is Upside Down is in cinemas from Thursday.
