Photo Source: The Daily Telegraph

University of Melbourne’s recent arts graduate, Elizabeth Debicki, has been given the role of a life time!

Director Baz Luhrmann has cast Debicki, an unknown Melbourne talent fresh out of acting school, in a major role for his 3D remake of The Great Gatsby.

Debicki has landed the part of Jordan Baker, the love interest of narrator/protagonist Nick Carraway, who will be played by Spiderman’s Tobey McGuire.

Luhrmann explained the casting choice in a statement to the website, Deadline.

“It was a surprising result, but Elizabeth’s grasp of the material and her chemical connectivity to Tobey Maguire, in addition to her striking, athletic appearance, had us in a place where we were fully confident and ready to take the leap of giving the role of Jordan Baker to what, I guess, people would term ‘a discovery,’” he said. “We are thrilled.”

The cast also includes Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and possibly Australian actress Isla Fisher as Tom Buchanan’s mistress, Myrtle.

Cast alongside these top-named actors, Debicki told Australian website PerformersHub.au she was overwhelmed about scoring the career-changing role.

“I guess the bigger you dream, the further you have to fall if you don’t get it, so it can be a bit of a scary thing to be that ambitious. But I was,” she said.

OzTREKK staff members are avid Great Gatsby fans, and whenever we hear of a connection with one of our Australian university partners, such as the University of Melbourne, we can’t help but get excited!

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Learn more about the University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts is renowned for its talent pool of graduates. Find out how you can apply to the University of Melbourne Undergraduate Arts Degrees.