Griffin Dunne on survival, stardom and the strange afterlife of Practical Magic

Griffin Dunne's memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club, is out now, charting the grief and glamour of his Hollywood life.
Griffin Dunne. Photo: Melbourne Writers Festival.

When Griffin Dunne – the 70-year-old actor, director and writer responsible for Practical Magic – logs into our Zoom call, he’s not sitting still. He’s pacing around his Brisbane hotel room, laptop in hand, mid-conversation with housekeeping. 

‘There we go. Real life,’ he jokes, completely unfazed.

His mother, Ellen Dunne, founded the Justice for Homicide Victims group and his father, Dominick Dunne, wrote a piece for Vanity Fair about the murder that led to a permanent gig at the publication covering high-profile cases like the OJ Simpson trial.

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Silvi Vann-Wall is a Melbourne-based journalist, podcaster, critic and filmmaker who loves frogs and improv comedy. They were the ScreenHub Film Content Lead from 2022 to 2025. Twitter (X): @SilviReports / Bluesky: @silvi.bsky.social‬ / Website: silvireports.com