Actor Martin Freeman found a special rapport with young actress Simone Landers: "Simone's never acted before, she's been a joy. She's a really lovely lovely girl, she loves to laugh. She was charging me a dollar every time I swore so I ended up giving her a lot of money."
This movie is Australia's first Netflix Original feature film, the first Australian theatrical feature film to be released globally as a Netflix Original.
Actress Simone Landers, who played Thoomi, worked with Indigenous artists and learned local dialects for her role as Thoomi.
The favorite part of making the film for young actress Simone Landers who portrayed Thoomi was "staying up late and making new friends." From Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, she had not spent a lot of time with Australian Indigenous
communities and so connecting with Natasha Wanganeen and Bruce Carter, who play her parents, was a special part of the experience. Bruce, she says "was like a dad to me, he was very friendly. He taught me to be friendly to other people. He told me that you call David Gulpilil 'Uncle David' and he kept me warm and gave me hugs."
Landers is not a big fan of zombie films, but for her, "'Cargo' isn't really a zombie film. 'The Virals' are symbolic of the Western pollution...the film promotes the Indigenous respect for the land, and I am proud to be a part of that."
An extensive consultation process was conducted with members of the Australian Indigenous
community throughout development. Indigenous writer Jon Bell came on board as script advisor, assisting Ramke in understanding specific cultural practices, avoiding stereotypes and delivering authentic contemporary dialogue. This process also greatly informed what would become a central theme of 'Cargo', a disconnect between the modern western world and
Indigenous traditional culture.