Alice Englert spent a lot of time on film sets as a child. The daughter of the filmmaker Jane Campion, she was raised behind her mother's camera; as a toddler, Englert copied her mum and shouted “action” on the set of Nicole Kidman's 1997 period adaptation The Portrait of a Lady, and she spent many afternoons kicking about in the editing suite of the 2003 psycho-sexual drama In The Cut. (She was eight; if the scenes became too adult, Englert was sent to the waiting room.) A few years later, Englert was the one in front of the camera, appearing in Campion's short film The Water Diary.
Film sets were an endlessly fascinating place for a kid, says Englert. “I just remember being amazed at watching adults know exactly what they were doing. You are watching them being so, so serious and focused about something that is just so ridiculous. It felt like tenderness and toughness all at once,” Englert smiles. “Watching the ‘action’ when everyone goes really quiet, and some strange little thing happens. It was
