Looking for Alibrandi: Pia Miranda spills on embarrassing scene

The stars of Looking for Alibrandi have revealed some secrets about the film for its 20th anniversary.

Based on the book by Melina Marchetta, the film went on to win five AFI awards and launched the acting careers of Pia Miranda (who played Josie Alibrandi) and Kick Gurry (who played Jacob Coote).

This morning, those two actors appeared on Today Extra to discuss the film, and Miranda revealed what it was like to film the memorable motorbike scene on Sydney’s ANZAC bridge.

“It was so embarrassing,” Miranda said. “They wouldn’t let Kick ride the motorbike because he didn’t have a license, so we were on the back of a trailer and we weren’t even going that fast.

“People were just laughing at us from their cars,” she said. “It just looked like we were making a bad motorcycle ad for some weird country.”

The film grossed more than $8 million at the Australian box office and received critical acclaim, including from one of the world’s biggest movie stars, who was staying in Australia at the time.

“When the movie came out I was living in a street in Sydney and one of the other residents of the street was Tom Cruise,” Gurry said on Today Extra. “I’d got an Oporto burger and had it all over my face as I was walking back to my apartment.

“Suddenly Tom was steamrolling down the street and he yelled, ‘Kick!’” the actor recalled. “He’d seen the film the night before in a theatre in Sydney and he loved it. He gave a big critique of the movie and everyone’s performances. He thought Pia was extraordinary.”

Gurry actually went on to work with Cruise in the 2014 film Edge of Tomorrow. The two stars bonded over a mutual love of the Bon Jovi song Dead or Alive, the Aussie actor revealed on radio last week.

“He (Cruise) got me tickets to an NFL game at Wembley stadium - it was the New England Patriots and their number one ticket holder is Jon Bon Jovi and he was there on the sideline,” Gurry told the Hit Network’s Hughesy and Ed Show.

“I’m standing there with Tom and he goes, ‘Hey Kick, let’s go say hi to Jon Bon.’ So we go over … Tom goes, ‘Hey Kick, why don’t we give Jon Bon a taste of our duet?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know about that.’ And Tom was like, ‘No, come on, you lead us off, give Jon Bon a taste of our duet.’ So I had to sing Jon Bon to Jon Bon at the NFL game!”

The cast of Looking for Alibrandi (which is available to stream on Foxtel) have given several interviews over the past week to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary.

On the weekend they spoke to Stellar magazine, with Gurry going into detail about his hilarious first encounter with Greta Scacchi who played Christina Alibrandi.

“Greta and I had a first interaction, which both elevated my anxiety and relieved my nerves a little,” he said. “She had a famous line from a movie called Presumed Innocent, where Harrison Ford is in his office and she comes in, sits on his desk and they’re about to be intimate, and she looks at him and says, ‘It’s going to be so good.’

“I walked into the make-up trailer on my first day and Greta was sitting in there by herself, and I looked over and thought, ‘Oh my God, what do I say to Greta Scacchi? I’ve got to sound cool.’ And then suddenly she just looked over and she said, ‘Are you Kick?’ and I was like, ‘Ahh … yeah.’ She just looked at me and said, ‘It’s going to be so good.’”

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