Radha Mitchell on challenge of decades-spanning role in 2 Hearts

Radha Mitchell has described the challenge of playing a character whose story spans 40 years of her life in her latest movie.

The former Neighbours actress, 47, who is now best known for roles in films such as Man On Fire, Pitch Black and Silent Hill, stars opposite Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi in 2 Hearts, based on a true story of two couples whose relationships unfold in different decades until they are eventually brought together.

Mitchell plays a flight attendant who falls for a Cuban exile, played by Designated Survivor actor Adan Canto, and the film first meets the couple in their 20s, following their journey until they are in their 60s.

She told the PA news agency: “When I got the script I was like ‘How cool? Ok! How do you do that?’

“It was done subtly. They put stockings on the lens! I don’t know what they did so we started off in our 20s and then we ended up in our 60s and how cool to be able to attempt to do that and imagine oneself, it was like some sort of an illusion.

“That is always some sort of a projection, that I’m always here, I’m never actually going to be 65. But it is real and it is going to happen and we got to do it, so that was fantastic.

“It was like a rehearsal so Adan and I realised that when you get to that part of your life, if you’re in the right frame of mind, it’s quite relaxing and you can just let go of a bunch of crap and just be yourself.

“Everyone says that, but it does feel a bit like that. He got more grey hair and I got some, for the feminine version of 65 it was a bit of a softer touch, but it was more of a state of mind.

“I think that is what we had to take on, and just the physicality, you’re less robust, it felt like.

“We had to be careful so that it wasn’t a cartoon of things, because these things aren’t a cartoon.

“But it was just interesting playing with our own sense of reality and trying to find a real tone, that actually was really what I was interested in when I read the script, I was like wow, what a fun opportunity.”

Canto said he was moved by the way the couple navigated the challenges and tragedy of their lives, saying: “There is always a choice of how you are going to look at adversity, a glass half full or half empty when you think about it.

“One of the elements that really got my attention was this truth that we are no island, we are all connected and this story in particular, it’s quite significant and in such an amazing way.

“Having met these people and learned everything they went through and how they have developed this beautiful friendship between the families, it’s really admirable to see that and quite surreal.”

2 Hearts is available for digital download on February 8.