Trailer
Plot summary
Dave Lovelace, an Irish talent scout, hears Gail, Cynthia and Julie sing and sees a use for them: American troops in Vietnam need performers. The sisters' mother is reluctant, but the girls argue that the chance may not come twice. Their grandmother advises them to find their cousin Kay, who was taken from the family ten years earlier by the government because she is half-white. Kay first refuses the offer, then meets them at their uncle's home. They rehearse their moves for the audition in Melbourne.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Sapphires (2012)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The US DVD cover put Chris O'Dowd in the foreground with the four female stars small and blue-washed in the background. The design was called sexist and racist, and O'Dowd called it "ill-judged, insensitive and everything the film wasn't"; Anchor Bay said it regretted any upset and was considering different artwork.
- In real life the group's Briggs and Mayers turned down the Vietnam tour because they opposed the war, so Laurel Robinson took her sister Lois Peeler instead. The pair sang backing vocals there for a New Zealand Māori band, which introduced them to soul music; the film's Dave Lovelace character never existed.
- Australian singer Casey Donovan, who had played Cynthia in the 2010 stage production, tried out for the same part in the film but lost it to newcomer Miranda Tapsell. Deborah Mailman, Cynthia in the 2004 original, was cast as Gail, and Jessica Mauboy played her sister Julie.
- The real Sapphires, a 1960s Aboriginal singing group, had three members: Laurel Robinson, the mother of screenwriter Tony Briggs, Beverly Briggs and her sister Naomi Mayers. They performed at hotels, pubs, cabarets, clubs, parties, army barracks and universities around Melbourne.
