After five seasons cooped up in a spaceship, Frankie Adams says it was nice to get out in the garden.
The New Zealand-Samoan actor and Shortland Street graduate stars in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, an adaptation of Queensland author Holly Ringland’s novel about flora, fires and family secrets set mostly on a botanical farm in rural Oz. The show was shot mainly in northern New South Wales with an excursion to the Northern Territory.
The 29-year-old plays Candy Blue, one of the waifs and strays who have become an all-female staff and surrogate family on a flower farm called Thornfield, which is presided over by the formidable June Hart, played by Sigourney Weaver. The story begins with events leading to June’s grand-daughter Alice coming to live at the farm where Candy becomes a doting aunt.
It’s Adams’ second career excursion to Australia after a short stint on prison drama Wentworth and her second big series for Amazon Prime after the streamer took on and kept The Expanse, the space battle epic in orbit for six seasons. For five of those, Adams played Bobbie Draper, a gunnery sergeant in the Martian Marine Corps and one of the toughest women in a spacesuit since … well, maybe Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in the Alien movies.
Adams laughs that she had plenty of prods to bring up their mutual intergalactic frequent-flier miles with the veteran whose sci-fi duties have also included the two Avatar movies.
“I had a lot of people hope that I would talk to her about how we were both these sci-fi heroines … but that’s not even comparative. I’m just this kid from New Zealand who happened upon this show. And she’s Sigourney Weaver. So, I tried to stay away from that. But we kind of established it along the way.”
She saw eye to eye with Weaver on something else when they met at the first read-through.
“She walked straight up to me, and she was like, ‘Frankie, hi … you’re so tall,’ and I was like, ‘You’re so tall as well.’ We were actually the same height. She was just so kind to me. We kind of immediately clicked. It was less intimidating because she’s so kind, really genuine and so welcoming and was just not an egg at all.”
The cast also includes such well-known Australian faces as Asher Keddie (Offspring, Stateless, Nine Perfect Strangers), Leah Purcell (Wentworth) and Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman). The show is another from Australian producer Bruna Papandrea’s television powerhouse Made Up Stories, which has delivered such paperback-to-potboiler shows as The Undoing, Nine Perfect Strangers, Pieces of Her and Anatomy of a Scandal.
Adams auditioned for Lost Flowers via tape from Los Angeles, having polished off the book in two days.
“I was immediately drawn to the character. I felt like there were parts of me in her already. In that audition, I took what I could that I read about Candy in the book and then put a Frankie spin on it, which, I guess, is what I do with most roles.
“The other thing that drew me to the story was that it was so focused on women and certain experiences and trauma that they had, and they’d come together to help each other to heal. I just really loved that about it. It’s about female resilience, womanhood, mana wāhine, all that stuff.”
Another Zoom audition with director Glendyn Ivin later and Adams was on a plane to Sydney. Before the shoot, as well as her script, the show’s writer, Sarah Lambert, sent Adams a backstory to Candy – called “Candy Baby” in the novel – about things in her life that weren’t in the book.
“She did that for everyone – went above and beyond.”
After five seasons of Toronto sound stages and spacesuits, Lost Flowers offered Adams a change of performing style and atmosphere.
“The Expanse was quite jarring for me initially, because on that type of show the stakes are always really high and so it’s this kind of genre acting. That was new to me, because I’m used to intimate dramas and very natural acting. But doing Lost Flowers was kind of going back to what I really love, and I’m used to, which is super intimate, quiet scenes, very human and very vulnerable. I think I’m better at that.
“But there was a lot of action on The Expanse. So, you couldn’t be talking quietly to someone when there’s a spaceship blowing up behind you.”
Lost Flowers had other demands though. Like longer time spent in the make-up chair – giving Candy her vintage style and trademark blue-streaked tresses. On The Expanse, make-up mostly meant adding cuts and bruises.
“I cut all my hair off after that job … it has finally recovered.”
Speaking to the Listener weeks before the Screen Actors Guild strike, Adams hinted she had another role in a production awaiting official announcement. While US-based – yes, there were “Frankie goes to Hollywood” headlines when she made the shift – she’s still been a presence in NZ productions in past years. It has included the film One Thousand Ropes, the mini-series The Panthers and the 2021 Polynesian supernatural series Teine Sā, in which she played a different lead role in each episode.
“Obviously, it’s really lovely to make money, but I quite like the journey of the more artistic, creative side of things. I’m never closed off to doing anything back home. It is kind of nice to have both options.”
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Amazon Prime from August 4.
