Nikki Webster » Sydney 2000 Olympic Games » Behind the Scenes

Hero Girl

The opening ceremony artistic director/producer David Atkins explained in a 2002 interview by the Powerhouse Museum how the 'Hero Girl' character came about: "One of the functions of my role was to give the cultural display a sense of cohesion and a through-line, a narrative, if you will. And the way I did that was to introduce two characters into the story that would become the story. And it was their journey that you would follow. Right from the outset, and I’ve got no idea why, other than just instinct, I felt that it was best that it would be a little girl."

"The juxtaposition of the Nikki Webster character was Djakapurra Munyarryun, who was the tribal elder. The two of them provided us the theme; they were the characters who would then link the theme of one segment to the next. And their journey through it, her journey as a dream and then him as the spirit guide for the dream."

"There was lots of things that contributed to the way she looked and who she might be. She is a sort of archetypal Australian sunny freckle-faced kid. The sort you’d see in any public pool or at the beach. And the idea that she should have a beach-culture sort of feel about her mostly because most urban Australians live and socialise and involve in sport by the water. So water was a big theme; it wasn’t a long stretch to actually make her a little beach girl."

Director of Ceremonies Ric Birch said in his Lateline interview on the 2nd of October, "David came up with the idea of having the little girl, of having a Nikki Webster, who turned out to be, gosh, better than central casting could have provided. Nikki is amazing. Once we had Nikki, then that was the thread that linked all the scenes together. Then we had Djakapurra the dancer and just putting them together in the same television frame, let alone in the same arena was theatrically perfect, but it turned out, of course, to have a strong political connotation which wasn't obvious at the time that we were planning it."

Auditions and casting

Casting calls and auditions for the 'Hero Girl' role began more than a year before the opening. Nikki was one of 2, 000 girls aged between 8 and 14 years old. Her first audition was in March of 2000. The final twelve girls were taken to the stadium, a few months before the opening ceremony, and given the chance to 'fly'.

Deep Sea Dreaming segment director & choreographer Meryl Tankard was involved in the casting of the Hero Girl, said David Atkins, "although it wasn’t finally her decision because the little girl covered all the segments. She was more specifically related to Meryl’s than any other because she was integral to that segment. She had to interact with the fish. She had to fly for the whole time. And of course once we added that criteria to the list of things the little girls had to do, it sorted them out very quickly because some of them just weren’t keen at all about being suspended 35–40 metres above an arena with no net and on one single line, and which was quite safe, but scary."

In September 2010, Nikki spoke about "flying" for the first time during auditions: "First of all they took us to a little warehouse and they just took us off the ground, then they brought us out to the stadium and took us a little higher off the ground, and I went down and I said to David Atkins, 'Is that as high as you're gonna take me tonight? 'Cause that's kinda boring,' and he went, 'OK, take her up!' And he took me right up, and I think, you know, he tells me that that was the moment he knew I'd have no fear about flying."

In Ric Birch's book Master of the Ceremonies, he writes, "In the end, we had a short list of four girls - our musical director Max Lambert worked with them on their vocals, the ceremonies photographer Kylie Smith photographed them so we could check their 'look' on camera, and David and I talked to the girls and their parents to evaluate how they'd handle the stress. In the end, Nikki was our unanimous choice, and it's now impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Aged thirteen at the time of the Olympics, she epitomised young Australia - frank, friendly and fearless, an innocent on the edge of greatness."

During a live web interview on October 15th 2000, Nikki described the day she was told the role was hers: "It was on the fourth of August, at night-time, and we were all sitting in a room when David Atkins told me. I was just so excited I was shaking. I just wanted to get out of the room so that I could really express my joy. I can't describe it - it was just amazing."

The Closing Ceremony

Ric Birch had wanted to have the Seekers sing 'The Carnival Is Over' at the closing ceremony, but it didn't work out. He said, "That was when David came up with the Nikki Webster idea of singing the song, we found the song. And in the end, I think despite 'The Carnival is Over' being one of the great iconic songs of Australia and I think it would have been fabulous, in the end, seeing Nikki going up on that perspex pole fearlessly as the flame went out, I think in the end was a better bookend."

David Atkins told Nikki of her part in the closing ceremony the morning after the opening ceremony. As she told 2UE on the 10th anniversary, "We were sitting on The Morning Show at 5am, and he went, 'Yes, and Nikki will be in the closing ceremony,' and I lent over and went, 'Excuse me?' He goes, 'Oh, I forgot to tell you that part.'"