“I tend to just jump in”: the 2013 movie Elizabeth Debicki called her “baptism by fire”
Elizabeth Debicki has described her role in Baz Luhrmann's 2013 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby as a "baptism by fire," recalling the scale and intensity of shooting her very first film scene. The Australian actress, who went on to win an Emmy for playing Princess Diana in The Crown, credits Luhrmann's film as the project that launched her career, casting her opposite established stars in a lavish, large-scale production.
Debicki played Jordan Baker alongside Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher and Leonardo DiCaprio, and told The Guardian that her debut scene involved around 400 extras and seven cranes, which she assumed was standard practice as she had no prior experience to compare it to. The film, shot largely in Australia with Sydney's International College of Management standing in for Gatsby's mansion, grossed over $350 million against a budget of roughly $105-190 million, though critical reception was sharply divided and it is often ranked among Luhrmann's weaker works.
- Elizabeth Debicki called The Great Gatsby her "baptism by fire" debut
- Her first scene featured 400 extras and seven cranes
- The 2013 film split critics but launched her acting career
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Elizabeth Debicki is an Australian actress best known for winning an Emmy for playing Princess Diana in The Crown. Before that, in 2013, she made her feature film debut in The Great Gatsby, director Baz Luhrmann's big-budget adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel, playing the character Jordan Baker alongside established stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan.
The film was shot on a lavish scale, largely in Australia, and Debicki has spoken about how overwhelming it was to start her acting career on such a large production, with hundreds of extras and complex camera setups on her very first day of filming. Gatsby went on to be a commercial success worldwide, though critics were divided on its merits, and it is often regarded as one of the less well-received films in Luhrmann's body of work.
The story matters because it offers insight into how a now-prominent actress's career began, and how the scale of that early experience shaped her approach to acting.