Rachel Griffi ‘I OFTEN WONDER, WHAT WOULD RHONDA SAY?'

The beloved Muriel’s Wedding star is older, wiser and happy to be home from Hollywood

- Claire Isaac

For actress and director Rachel Griffiths, going home to Australia after 10 years in the US meant a chance to regroup, to try new things and also soak up some good old Aussie home life.

“I didn’t want to be under a TV contract for five years,” the Six Feet Under and Brothers And Sisters star tells Woman’s Day of her decision to settle in Melbourne.

“I’d been under contract consistently for 10 years on two shows. As well as that, I realised I’ve suffered terrible homesickness in all the periods I’ve been out of this country.”

Now 52 – “I look so old, my phone doesn’t recognise my face. It’s decided I’m no longer Rachel Griffiths!” – Rachel, her artist husband Andrew Taylor, and their children Banjo, 17, Adelaide, 15, and Clementine, 11, don’t regret a thing after making their return in 2012.

Rachel smiles at just how quintessentially “home” she is. “I’m living in St Kilda, where I lived in my early 20s. I live 50 metres from a share house I used to live in. I go to the same café I went to when I was 18!”

While she may have put an end to those tight Hollywood contracts, Rachel has certainly not stopped working, going on to star in Australian series House Husbands, Barracuda, Paper Giants and Aftertaste in recent years.