Elizabeth Debicki In 'The Great Gatsby': Australian Newcomer Grabs Jordan Baker Part

College Grad's 'Chemical Connectivity' To Tobey Maguire: Who Is She?

A star has been born. Or found, out in the Australian outback.

Newcomer and recent drama school Elizabeth Debicki has been cast as Jordan Baker, love interest of narrator/protagonist Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), in the upcoming big screen adaptation of "The Great Gatsby." Director Baz Luhrmann explained the unlikely casting of Debicki in a statement to 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."

Speaking to the Australian website PerformersHub.au, Debicki spoke about her stratospheric rise from performing in a 10-years old performance of "CATS" to drama school to major motion picture, staying humble despite her gigantic new role.

"It all seems so outrageous that I will get an agent. 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.

Clearly, there will be no fall at all.

She did have some advantages: Luhrmann himself is Australian, and the film will be shot in their home country. Debicki joins a cast that, beyond Maguire, includes Leonardo DiCaprio as the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and perhaps Isla Fisher as Tom Buchanan's mistress, Myrtle.

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