An Interview with Amy Dowdle

If Amy Dowdle’s life were a movie it would no doubt be directed by Sofia Coppola. Not only because Lost in Translation is one of her favourite films, but also because Amy’s life shares many of the signatures of Coppola’s works. 

Think about it — she’s a 19-year-old woman entering a new stage of adulthood, who grew up on the Gold Coast but in the hinterland (near but removed from the all of the glitz), who plays in a band but is thoughtful and has a touch of cheekiness — the script writes itself.

It makes sense then that Amy’s approach to life is rather cinematic. She draws inspiration from her favourite movies, like Lost in Translation or Blade Runner, when it comes to both style and music. For clothing this is reflected physically. She loves to wear simplistic and minimalist pieces with futuristic elements that sometimes end up shared with her brother, Josh. It’s just one of the many reasons she’s the perfect star for our U-Nique campaign.

But when it comes to music Amy channels inspiration from films through an emotional place, by inserting herself and inhabiting a film’s characters and story. “I think it's cool to write about other stories. Like take a movie story and make it my own. It's almost like scoring the movie,” she tells us.

The Japanese side of the sibling’s heritage is also an inspiration for Amy, particularly the frequent trips to visit her maternal grandparents, “I got heaps of inspiration from when I was in Japan. Every time we go to our grandparent's house, there's nothing to do, so I’d just go for walks. It's right next to the ocean, but behind it is forrest.”

One of those trips turned into a song, as do other moments of Amy’s life. All of these small memories that she turns into vignettes of her experiences. Slowly but surely the number of those little scenes will build up and we’ll have our movie. But for now we’re barely through the first act, and we can’t wait to see what comes next.