PureWow: Where were you last March when the world came to a grinding halt?
Angourie Rice: I was actually shooting Mare of Easttown and they made the decision to shut down production, which was for the safety of everyone. I hightailed it out of America as soon as I could and was very fortunate to get home to Australia when I did—right before everything shut down. I was also fortunate to spend lockdown with my parents and sister, which was really nice.
PureWow: You have a podcast, The Community Library, which you describe as a book club for anyone interested in storytelling. I know you started that before lockdown, but were you able to put more time into it during the pandemic?
Rice: Yes! When I was working, the podcast had to take a backseat. Then, when we got into isolation, I was like, OK, I can start doing more in-depth critical analysis episodes that take longer to write because I have more time now. I did more essay-like discussion episodes, which was really fun.
PureWow: What inspired you to start your podcast?
Rice: I had just graduated high school and I knew I wasn’t going to [college] straight away, but I wanted a way to keep reading and talking about books. I also wanted to make it accessible to everyone and not scary. But it did begin as a self-improvement project. Now, I’m really happy that I get to share it with people.