Lillian Amanda Luhrmann, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin attend the amfAR Cannes Gala 2022. Photo / Getty Images
Lillian Amanda Luhrmann, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin attend the amfAR Cannes Gala 2022. Photo / Getty Images
Baz Luhrmann’s daughter Lilly has given a rare account of what it was like going through school in Australia with famous parents.
The 19-year-old daughter of the globally-renowned Elvis director and his four-time Oscar winning wife, costume designer Catherine Martin, has been educated bothin Australia and in Manhattan.
Speaking on the Under the Gloss podcast, Lilly said it was significantly more difficult growing up in Australia, where interest in her surname was greater than abroad.
She recalled an instance where she was being driven to school and a story emerged on the radio that Luhrmann was “gay”, citing a report that he and Martin slept in different bedrooms.
“I did get followed to school, by a truck that was paparazzi … They were bullying my dad there for a little bit there. I specifically remember I was driving in the car, on the radio, this guy was like, ‘Today we’re going to be discussing, is Baz Luhrmann gay? Breaking news, they sleep in two different bedrooms’,” Lilly said.
“And I went to school and the kids were like, ‘Is your dad gay?’
“That was the first time I felt embarrassed … Not embarrassed, but more like, ‘Why are these people talking about my dad? Why are they making fun?’ I’m like, ‘They just have different sleeping schedules.’”
Lilly didn’t specify exactly when the incident happened, but added it was the “first time” she felt her upbringing wasn’t entirely normal.
“I mean, I’m not traumatised for life by it. I’ve gotten over it. There’s worse things to go through. But it was the first time I was aware something was a bit amiss,” she said.
“It was pretty intense in Australia, then we moved to New York and no one cared. So that was really good.”
John Leguizamo, Baz Luhrmann and his daughter Lillian Luhrmann in 2014. Photo / Getty Images
After relocating to the Big Apple and changing schools, Lilly, who also has a younger brother, William, admitted to telling students that her dad was in marketing because she was worried about “friendships being in-genuine [sic]”.
“For the first year [at school in New York] I lied about it. I made friends and I had to tell them about my life … I was going to Paris, I’m from Australia, and they were like ‘beep, beep, beep’, this is not adding up girl,” she said.
“My best friend, who’s still my best friend, Chris, thought I was a compulsive liar. He started a whole rumour about me that I was making up my Aussie accent.”
Lilly Luhrmann and Baz Luhrmann in 2013. Photo / Getty Images
Shortly after The Great Gatsbywas released in 2013, the New York Times reported that Luhrmann and Martin – who have been married for over two decades – sleep on separate floors of their New York townhouse.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph a few months later, Luhrmann admitted the report was true, and that it was not just the case in New York, but in all their homes, including their iconic Iona in Sydney.
“For a very simple reason: just because we’re constantly surrounded by people,” he said at the time.
“And you know the Baz team and the CM team – they’re large teams and they’re great and we get together, but they all live different hours because they do completely different jobs.
“But our rule is: no matter where we are and what we do – and I said it in passing and I’m not sure I should have because it used to be our secret – every Saturday night we stay in a hotel.
“We have done that I think since we first realised public life would become a holiday you never come home from, and that was around the time of Strictly Ballroom [in 1992].”
