Australian actress Rose Byrne reveals why she keeps going back to comedy and why it works

MUCH as she might groan at the suggestion, May is apparently Rose Byrne month in Australia.

After just one release last year, the comedy smash Spy, the Sydney-born actor, who gave birth to her first child with partner of four years Bobby Cannavale in February, has three movies coming out in as many weeks.

“That’s funny,” she protests over the phone from Los Angeles. “You don’t plan it like that.”

From the very adult mainstream comedy Bad Neighbours 2, to the superhero blockbuster X-Men: Apocalypse and the indie dramedy The Meddler, they could hardly be more different, which is exactly the way the versatile beauty likes it.

“I love diversity and I think most actors probably say that,” Byrne says. “To be able to do something like X-Men and then a little movie like The Meddler and then returning to comedy with Neighbours — I love that. It’s interesting and challenging and scary and to me that’s always been the ideal.”

Ever since her breakout role opposite Heath Ledger in the 1999 homegrown hit, Two Hands, Byrne has been an impossible actor to pigeonhole. She built a solid international profile with mostly dramatic parts in films such as Troy, Marie Antoinette, Sunshine and 28 Weeks Later and cemented that standing with her role as law graduate Ellen Parsons in the acclaimed legal thriller Damages, which ran for five seasons from 2007 to 2012.

But she turned that serious image on its head with a turn as a foul-mouthed pop singer opposite Russell Brand in Get Him To the Greek that was as surprising as was hilarious. She followed that up with scene-stealing parts in Bridesmaids, Bad Neighbours and Spy, earning such acclaim for her comedy chops that The Hollywood Reporter recently declared her to be “the most in-demand supporting actress for comedies”.

Byrne, however, takes it all in her stride and gives the impression that she’s just glad to be working.

“It comes and goes in waves — people always immediately once you do one thing, you get things that come your way that are all very similar,” she says of her career path.

“So you gravitate towards the opposite I suppose. To do comedy for me is still really challenging and I think that’s why I keep gravitating toward it again. That’s always been one of my reasons. But I have been really lucky to work with some incredible people who make it look easy, like Seth Rogen and Melissa McCarthy and Russell Brand. But things come your way, things don’t come your way — you really just have to navigate it as best you can.”