Speaker 1: Welcome to First things First, I'm Brooklett and my pronouns
Speaker 1: as she and her.
Speaker 2: I'm Maddie Mills, my pronouns are he and him. And
Speaker 2: before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge custodians of
Speaker 2: the land on which we record. And for me today
Speaker 2: it's the Gattigol people of the.
Speaker 1: Urination and for me it's a under people of the
Speaker 1: cooler nation. Let's get in to it all right.
Speaker 2: We are so excited because we have Leah Purcell, who
Speaker 2: is an internationally acclaimed actor, director, producer and writer on
Speaker 2: stage and screen. She is a proud Murray woman from Mergen, Queensland.
Speaker 2: Leah starrs opposite Sigourney Weaver in the recent Amazon Prime
Speaker 2: Video limited series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. She's
Speaker 2: also appeared in many TV shows movies such as High Country,
Speaker 2: The Last Captain Darwin. She was an incredible lead actress
Speaker 2: in Wentworth. She wrote, produced directed herself in The Drover's Wife,
Speaker 2: The Legend of Molly Johnson, and there is just so
Speaker 2: much more to talk to her about today on our episode.
Speaker 2: She's won multiple Actor Awards for her roles, as well
Speaker 2: as being nominated countless times for actors and logis. She
Speaker 2: hasn't won a LOGI and that is absolutely disgraceful. What
Speaker 2: please give a big warm and welcome to the one
Speaker 2: and only Leah pasel Y.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Oh it is so nice to have you in studio.
Speaker 3: No pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to butcher your traditional name, your traditional
Speaker 2: country's name, so I thought, you know what I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get you to say it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, my mob go or Gungri and
Speaker 3: Walker Walker. So that's three three clans from different parts
Speaker 3: of Australia due to stolen generations and being you know,
Speaker 3: my grandparents being tossed around. Goer is up near Winton
Speaker 3: Long reach Out that way, and then Gungrii is down Mitchell,
Speaker 3: so that's my grandmother's country in Mitchell, and then my
Speaker 3: grandfather's mother's country is Goer. And then because my grandmother
Speaker 3: was stolen from Mitchell and taken to Sherburg, and then
Speaker 3: my grandfather's mother sent him down to her sister who
Speaker 3: was at Sherburg. My mum was born on Sherburg and
Speaker 3: lived their tw isssues about fifteen. Then my grandfather got
Speaker 3: a job in town in Mergen, so I was born
Speaker 3: in Mergen and grew up in that area until I
Speaker 3: was about nineteen, and then I took off. As they say, well.
Speaker 2: Talking about Sherburg, you know Sherburg mission, many mob come
Speaker 2: from this place.
Speaker 3: What was your childhood like Sherburg's about three point six
Speaker 3: cliques out of Mergen. Mergen was the white township. And
Speaker 3: then back in nineteen four, I think it was the
Speaker 3: government was looking to do an experiment on allowing Aboriginal
Speaker 3: people to govern themselves on a bit of property. But
Speaker 3: what they did was fence them all in and told
Speaker 3: them to, you know, look after themselves and live the
Speaker 3: best they could. And of course the mob did, but
Speaker 3: within six to eight months they depleted the area of kangaroos,
Speaker 3: of what they were living on and everything else and
Speaker 3: went back and said, we've done what you've said and
Speaker 3: we can't get out to go hunting for more, so
Speaker 3: what are you going to do? So it became that experiment.
Speaker 3: Then the churches came in to run Sherburg's ocean. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 3: there's a book that's called the Dumping Grend because there
Speaker 3: was about three hundred different people from different tribes that
Speaker 3: were the start of that area. And then of course,
Speaker 3: anyone that was being stolen generations or had to be
Speaker 3: moved somewhere, they bring him to Sherburg. So a lot
Speaker 3: of people have that historical connection to Sherburg, which my
Speaker 3: family does, and we've still got family on Sherburg and
Speaker 3: in Mergen. But growing up, mate, you know, you're very
Speaker 3: fortunate when you go in the bush.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I think, of course, there was our trials and tribulations,
Speaker 3: you know, being fair skinned black fellows, we got racism
Speaker 3: from both sides of the fence. And I thought about
Speaker 3: that a while back and I went, I wonder why
Speaker 3: we got that racism from our own mob, And it
Speaker 3: was because all the other fellows that got exempt from
Speaker 3: the mission left to become the Brisbane Blacks. But my grandfather,
Speaker 3: he stayed in town. So we got that resentment from
Speaker 3: some I reckon, that's my theory, because everyone else has
Speaker 3: gone away and made another community, but we stayed. You know,
Speaker 3: there was still rules and regulations that applied to my
Speaker 3: family as well, but they had that freedom of movement,
Speaker 3: you know, where they didn't have to be back out
Speaker 3: of town by sundown and back on the mish, you know.
Speaker 3: But you know, nineteen seventy five, there was still a
Speaker 3: superintendent there. We had to get permission to go and
Speaker 3: see family. My mother was a rat bag. She goes,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to know white men tell me that
Speaker 3: I could get to see my mom. Oh mate, I
Speaker 3: used to say, Mom, we're going to get locked up. True.
Speaker 3: But I remember, and I you know, as you get
Speaker 3: old on fifty four, now you sit back and you think,
Speaker 3: and you know, we call it that murray joy, that
Speaker 3: big loud laugh, blackahlah la fee, And I remembered I
Speaker 3: was thinking someone was telling me a yarn, you know
Speaker 3: that they got told to be quiet, and they said, oh,
Speaker 3: you're destroying my murray Joy. And I went, you know
Speaker 3: what I was back in the days in the seventies,
Speaker 3: I was a lookout, okay. And it was in my
Speaker 3: uncle's house on Schoburg. And when my mother would go
Speaker 3: out there to visit them, of course, not getting permission.
Speaker 3: They'd pull all the curtains and they'd sit in that
Speaker 3: kitchen and the talk and when they laughed, it'd be silent.
Speaker 3: And I remember sitting at the front door because I'd
Speaker 3: watched it said policeman was driving around, a coppers or
Speaker 3: someone was coming, and I wonder I got anxiety. But
Speaker 3: I remember sitting at that front door and I'd look
Speaker 3: back at them and they'd all be this silently laughing.
Speaker 3: And not until years later I remember that and I went,
Speaker 3: it's because we weren't allowed. And now I wonder we're
Speaker 3: loud and proud now, which we should be. I think
Speaker 3: it had to do with loud and proud and black,
Speaker 3: you know, for the thing, And so it was. It was,
Speaker 3: you know, that was interesting and this is true. God.
Speaker 3: Just the other night at fifty four, I sat there
Speaker 3: and I went, I know why I do what I
Speaker 3: do because I get often go Leah, why were you
Speaker 3: that one child that got out? Made it out? And
Speaker 3: I was thinking about last night, and I said, you
Speaker 3: know what, it's because I had three things in my
Speaker 3: life that I was able to be passionate about, and
Speaker 3: that was neple. Yes, did you play gold offence? I
Speaker 3: made it to the Queensland All Blacks team, but that
Speaker 3: year they ran out of money so we couldn't go
Speaker 3: to New Zealand. I was about fifteen sixty and then
Speaker 3: I did acting at school. They had a short course
Speaker 3: music theater, so I went, I was lucky to have
Speaker 3: that and I guess the other one was that extended family.
Speaker 3: You know, I grew up the youngest of seven kids,
Speaker 3: so it was like I was home alone, you know,
Speaker 3: all the other all my other brothers and sisters a
Speaker 3: lot older than me, So it was just me and
Speaker 3: my mom and my grandmother. She looked after my grandmother
Speaker 3: for twenty seven years. She was bedridden with arthritis and
Speaker 3: Parkinson's disease. So she was my spiritual connection to culture. Mean, Nan,
Speaker 3: we were quite close. And then having that extended family
Speaker 3: of my mum was very close with the mob out
Speaker 3: at Sherburg, and we would go there and everyone would
Speaker 3: come and see Annie Flower or missus p. And even
Speaker 3: though my mother, at times I could see her being
Speaker 3: the servient black woman of people that was higher authority
Speaker 3: in town, she'd become this other woman. And then at
Speaker 3: other times when she was allowed to be herself, she
Speaker 3: was this loud, proud, determined She was four foot nothing, mate,
Speaker 3: but she could make grown men quiver, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. And everyone had got gone on, Tellani low
Speaker 3: on you, and she'd waddle over, you know, so you know,
Speaker 3: but she was four foot and not and I've got
Speaker 3: a bit of hype a bit of shoulder, but she
Speaker 3: was deadly. And I think having that and then just
Speaker 3: just that extended family love and being at that generation
Speaker 3: coming through the eighties where we didn't have technology where
Speaker 3: you actually sat down and entertainment was singing, Like I
Speaker 3: had a sister that was a jukebox, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. It's only thinking about that the other day,
Speaker 3: and we'd sit down, they'd be singing, they'd be dancing,
Speaker 3: they'd be laughing, they'd be crying, there'd be political story
Speaker 3: spoken about. So it was a real education, you know.
Speaker 3: And I was quite love young. So I'm very lucky that.
Speaker 3: I guess one thing I got from my white dad
Speaker 3: was he had a good memory and he was tall.
Speaker 3: So but that's about it, you know. But yeah, no,
Speaker 3: I was only thinking about that, and I said, I
Speaker 3: think that's why I was able to grasp that dream
Speaker 3: that I had. I had no idea how I was
Speaker 3: going to achieve it, but I had three things in
Speaker 3: my life that actually fed my passion.
Speaker 2: And recently you've discovered that, like as.
Speaker 3: In two nights ago, I'm line in bed and I'm going, gosh,
Speaker 3: I'm fifty four. I think I know why I managed
Speaker 3: to do it I had. Even though there was hardship,
Speaker 3: I had joy. There was there was this passion, not
Speaker 3: so much if it was joy either, but there was
Speaker 3: like I loved my sport and I you know, played
Speaker 3: it hard because I could see it took my aggression
Speaker 3: out on the field, you know, or on the court.
Speaker 3: And then the passion to be able to go to school,
Speaker 3: like I was no good at anything else. But when
Speaker 3: that three months, that's when I could shine. And you know,
Speaker 3: I was junior to get the first dancer, then the teacher.
Speaker 3: On those days we had Saturday's rehearsal and they'd smoke
Speaker 3: and le you take them kids outside and make them learn.
Speaker 3: Don't bring them back, you know, drawn back hardway on
Speaker 3: a cigarette. So I was choreographing and then I got
Speaker 3: the first junior to get lines, you know, because you
Speaker 3: had to earn your stripes to go through. And then
Speaker 3: grade twelve, I was going, I'm going to be the lead.
Speaker 3: I've hurt the stripes. After grade ten when I got
Speaker 3: I was the first junior to get speaking lines of
Speaker 3: Bye Bye Boodie. It was Gloria the sexy Secretary, and
Speaker 3: I got my first laugh with the splits that I
Speaker 3: had to do. And I even remembered when I because
Speaker 3: the teacher said, I just pretend you can't get up,
Speaker 3: like that's the joke, and I went, yeah, right. And
Speaker 3: it was the town hall fit about four hundred people,
Speaker 3: and Morgan would come and support. It'd be packed night
Speaker 3: every night, over three nights. And I remember getting that
Speaker 3: first laughter and I looked upstage and I went, wow,
Speaker 3: you know, and then I just hammed it up, mate,
Speaker 3: and it was so you know, it was that that encouragement.
Speaker 3: And then you know, going through a high school, I
Speaker 3: had the opportunities and told the teacher that they can't
Speaker 3: direct and I should do it.
Speaker 2: You sound like me, I'm telling you. I remember being
Speaker 2: that little kid. And I want to ask you this
Speaker 2: question of like, do you think that some of us,
Speaker 2: like you know, some of us whould go off and
Speaker 2: do the the dream and chase the dream. Do you
Speaker 2: think we're born with something that is like innately in
Speaker 2: us that we have to achieve what we set out
Speaker 2: to do, or like, for instance, for me, I'm completely
Speaker 2: different to my mom. My mom were really happy back
Speaker 2: at home in Tamworth Onngomory Country, living content lives in
Speaker 2: the bush, you know, for me. I had this dream
Speaker 2: since I was a little kid, and I had to
Speaker 2: achieve it no matter what, and it changes all the time.
Speaker 2: But did you have.
Speaker 3: That or oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah no. There's a
Speaker 3: photo of me at four years old with my brother's guitar,
Speaker 3: you know, and we shopped at the dump and my
Speaker 3: mum would made this little chair for me that folded up.
Speaker 3: So I thought I was real deadly, like that was
Speaker 3: my production. And when they'd have them sing alongs charge
Speaker 3: alongs at home, I'd in the kitchen, I'd pull that
Speaker 3: chair out and I'd play the guitar and sing a
Speaker 3: blues version of Humpty Dumpty and five times. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I think that was performance was in I come from
Speaker 3: a lot. My mother could sing, dance. I've got an
Speaker 3: auntie that was a writer, sing a songwriter back in
Speaker 3: the forties, you know. So I come from that family.
Speaker 3: But I think you've got to have something that it's
Speaker 3: just in your DNA that makes you that little bit different,
Speaker 3: even though I had no idea, Like I felt pregnant
Speaker 3: when I was seventeen and eight my daughter just after
Speaker 3: I turned eighteen. A month after I had my daughter
Speaker 3: in September, my mother died in October, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. So I looked at myself in the mirror
Speaker 3: and I said, remember, you wanted to be an actor,
Speaker 3: but I have no idea how I'm going to come
Speaker 3: from little old Morgen and I got a newborn on
Speaker 3: my hip, how I'm going to achieve that. So but
Speaker 3: it was having that dream and remembering what strangers in
Speaker 3: the street said to me. You know, one follower. I
Speaker 3: remember I was jogging somewhere, I think it was a
Speaker 3: Friday afternoon, going to the pub to see where my
Speaker 3: mother was, and I jogged past him and he went,
Speaker 3: you should be in Hollywood. And I was fifteen, and
Speaker 3: I went what But he kept walking, but I heard
Speaker 3: it and I went, oh, that's nice that they think
Speaker 3: that you know that you know? And then I think
Speaker 3: that just kept the drive, kept the drive, and then
Speaker 3: sort of. And my mother always used to say, look
Speaker 3: out for number one. Number one being you, and if
Speaker 3: you look after yourself, then everyone that you look after
Speaker 3: is going to be fine. Yeah, And when I looked
Speaker 3: at myself in that mirror that day, I was on
Speaker 3: the wrong side of where I should be, and this
Speaker 3: little voice went, didn't you want to be an actor,
Speaker 3: and oh yeah, I did. And then I just sort
Speaker 3: of put one foot in front of the other until
Speaker 3: and taking opportunities. I think we see opportunities or it's
Speaker 3: our dreaming and it's all mapped out in front of us,
Speaker 3: and it's up to us whether we churn left or
Speaker 3: turn right and take those steps. You know, so luckily
Speaker 3: I took the right direction. I think.
Speaker 1: I love hearing about your childhood and your experiences, and
Speaker 1: there's so many that I guess connect mob in different ways.
Speaker 1: Like I think Maddie and I always talk about how
Speaker 1: how situations in our childhood like we were separated at
Speaker 1: birth or something, because they're so parallel. And then I
Speaker 1: guess some of the stories that you talk about remind
Speaker 1: me of my grandmother and my mom too. Growing up
Speaker 1: messages that come up. I think there're like little sparks
Speaker 1: like here and there, like the little motivations along the way,
Speaker 1: and I truly believe that, yeah, there is some sort
Speaker 1: of dreaming that kind of leads you down the path.
Speaker 1: Whether you want to take that road or not. Is
Speaker 1: like you just got to trust the process. And I
Speaker 1: think that's really hard to trust the process. And I
Speaker 1: can imagine with your you know, experience. Now there are
Speaker 1: so many opportunities flying at you, like how do you
Speaker 1: navigate that and choose what you do? And what you
Speaker 1: don't do is with what I'd love to know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, and you know, I've been what is it
Speaker 3: thirty three, thirty four years in the industry now, so
Speaker 3: you've got to earn your stripes. You know, there was
Speaker 3: times where you had to do things because you've got
Speaker 3: to keep relevant. You've got to keep your talent honed,
Speaker 3: you know, your skills up. But it does get to
Speaker 3: a point that the that the roles become repetitive, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And it is about going what
Speaker 3: do I want to do as a performer because I
Speaker 3: was sort of going to semi retire from acting to
Speaker 3: focus on my direction and writing. Just before I got
Speaker 3: went with like can you believe it? And I made
Speaker 3: this big speech to Bayane. I went, right, that's it.
Speaker 3: I'm going to just hang the acting add up for
Speaker 3: a minute, and you know.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: W worth in that change.
Speaker 3: And then that phone call, and then to get that
Speaker 3: phone call and you're kidding me? And then I and
Speaker 3: then what are you going to do?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Oh, they had me in mind yeah.
Speaker 2: Of course, I mean it's perfect.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I said, well, if I put my actor's
Speaker 3: hat back on, I said, mate, a television show that's
Speaker 3: already established number one drama around the world, A role
Speaker 3: where I collaborated on, and they, you know, had me
Speaker 3: in mine when they wrote it. I would be stupid
Speaker 3: not to take it, wouldn't I? And of course with
Speaker 3: Lost Flowers of Alice Heart, you know, when the phone
Speaker 3: call came men, I went, who's in it?
Speaker 2: Big?
Speaker 3: Oh? That was after I was a big note and going,
Speaker 3: I'd big, go, who's in it? Who's the lead? Then?
Speaker 3: If I've just got this little sport role? And they
Speaker 3: went Sigourney weaver O went yep, I said, I will
Speaker 3: carry oxygen for her, I will give her water. I'll
Speaker 3: just stand beside her. She can have all my loans
Speaker 3: if she wants. Yeah. So, so that that sort of
Speaker 3: thing where I was wanting to be. But every role
Speaker 3: that I take, I want to be challenged, and I
Speaker 3: think that's where I what I look at now in
Speaker 3: a role is won the writing. Of course, how much
Speaker 3: work will I have to do on the script for
Speaker 3: someone else? You know what I mean? So I do
Speaker 3: look at the writing and that collaboration if there's an
Speaker 3: urge to do it. But then someone of Sigourney Weaver's
Speaker 3: legend Hollywood and her talent, and you know, I go,
Speaker 3: I want to be challenged. I want to be nervous again.
Speaker 3: It's nice to go in and be nervous, you know,
Speaker 3: on your first day when Sigourney Weaver walks in, you.
Speaker 2: Know, it was an inspiration for you going up, Oh mate,
Speaker 2: I was yeah.
Speaker 3: In Mergan, like I think Alien first come out seventy nine,
Speaker 3: so by the time it got to Mergen it was
Speaker 3: eighty four. I was fourteen saw her and went and
Speaker 3: into my acting at this stage and I went, oh
Speaker 3: my god, that's me, Like, I've got to I've got
Speaker 3: to meet her. I said, We've got the same jaw,
Speaker 3: we got curly hair. And at that stage when I
Speaker 3: watched Daily and of course they had already started Alien too,
Speaker 3: but I went, there's going to be a second I
Speaker 3: know it, And I said, and I'd walk around Morgan
Speaker 3: going how do I get a letter to Hollywood? And
Speaker 3: they went, what do you want to get a letter
Speaker 3: to Hollywood for? I said, because I've got to tell
Speaker 3: them that I should play her daughter, because there's a
Speaker 3: daughter in that at the end of that thing, and
Speaker 3: I think it's got to be me.
Speaker 2: This is so freaky.
Speaker 3: Yeah what yeah? And then I said to her when
Speaker 3: we met over Zoom, I was playing very cool as
Speaker 3: you got to do. And then I went to goourney
Speaker 3: Before we go, she because there there anything else with you?
Speaker 3: You know, we've talked about the script and it, and
Speaker 3: I went, yeah, there is one thing I said for
Speaker 3: me to be able to do my job right, You're
Speaker 3: going to give me one thing. And she goes, what's that?
Speaker 3: And I said a fangirl moment, and I said, just one.
Speaker 3: I got to tell you this good yard. So I
Speaker 3: told her and she kissed us off, laughing and yeah,
Speaker 3: and then it was and that sort of broke the
Speaker 3: eyes for me too, because I could just be me,
Speaker 3: you know, And and she was great. We did a
Speaker 3: screening of Drover's Wife for her and the and the
Speaker 3: car and the crew and the cast of that production.
Speaker 3: We're out wherever we were out Tamworth Way there. I
Speaker 3: can't remember the musclebrook. Is that that the way? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: So we went there to the theater, to the Picture cinema.
Speaker 3: She's a picture show that's real the cinema and showed
Speaker 3: her and she she loved it, you know, cried a
Speaker 3: river and gave a beautiful speech. So it was really cool.
Speaker 3: So when I'm looking at stuff, I want to be
Speaker 3: challenged with the role. It had a stolen generations thing
Speaker 3: in it, and I sort of said, you guys got
Speaker 3: to tread lightly, you know, use a wifeless coming in
Speaker 3: on this. And I said, you know, my grandmother stolen,
Speaker 3: so your story better being better than mine, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. And I've said that about back in
Speaker 3: the nineties. Eight film scripts came to me about Solo Generation.
Speaker 3: I said no to every single one of them, and
Speaker 3: none of them got made, and rightly so, so I
Speaker 3: look at that subject matter and yeah, I can be
Speaker 3: picky now to convert my stripes. And I've got my
Speaker 3: own production company, so you know, it's about where I
Speaker 3: want to spread my energy as well, because I want
Speaker 3: to get my own shows up. You know, I want
Speaker 3: to get my own stories. But you know, sometimes I
Speaker 3: did Shader because I got a lovely letter from the
Speaker 3: director Norah, and you know, she said amazing things. It's
Speaker 3: about also giving my support and putting energy behind new
Speaker 3: voices from diverse mob as well, you know. And yeah,
Speaker 3: so it just depends. But I really want to know,
Speaker 3: put a lot of energy back into my own stuff
Speaker 3: now because I've done everyone else so well.
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll get to Drover's wife, but I want
Speaker 2: to take you back to maybe this is either a
Speaker 2: myth or a legend, but I want to ask you
Speaker 2: you talk about now that you can pick and chew
Speaker 2: is back in the day when you were just starting out,
Speaker 2: is it true that you were the support act for
Speaker 2: Shania Twain.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was Oh my life, what a cook? Yeah yeah, No,
Speaker 3: I had a band, yeah, and it was just because
Speaker 3: I started out in music in Brizzy. There was the
Speaker 3: Murray Music work cop for eight for eight weeks and
Speaker 3: it was at Juggera Arts there at Musgrave Park with
Speaker 3: all my uncles. Yeah yeah yeah. My partner Bane said
Speaker 3: you should go and do it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I was singing in the share it is play and
Speaker 3: I said, oh naw, I said, I know all their mob.
Speaker 3: They will running up mob, you know. But mate, those
Speaker 3: uncles were so well behaved. It was awesome because I
Speaker 3: just wouldn't leave the mic. They'd get it for a
Speaker 3: smoking cup of tea and maybe looking at the door.
Speaker 3: They go, Leah, sit down, you're making us no good.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm just waiting for you to take your time.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't leave it. It was unreal. So anyway, so yeah,
Speaker 3: came through music that way. We did a little tape
Speaker 3: out there called Sharing the Load and my that's the
Speaker 3: first song I wrote and recorded second best and and
Speaker 3: then came to Sydney. Wanted to keep the music gone
Speaker 3: because I was enjoying it. But nothing, nothing serious. We
Speaker 3: had a gig at Strawberry Hills Hotel.
Speaker 2: At all time at the night was at four am
Speaker 2: because that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, this was before this was just before the
Speaker 3: Pokey's and all that dropped. I was the last gig
Speaker 3: there before they brought the machines. And so no, we
Speaker 3: would do a must have been eight thirty time slot
Speaker 3: lovely and then around midnight up the Cross was my
Speaker 3: other little haunt on a Wednesday night. And then and
Speaker 3: doing the busiest times and the best times that we
Speaker 3: ever did music was when we were through Nadock month,
Speaker 3: you know, and you know through that month of July
Speaker 3: May festivals everywhere, and it's such a shame we don't
Speaker 3: have that now, mate, And Some of the best times
Speaker 3: were going out Alice Springs and the Mob because they
Speaker 3: love their inma. They'd come for that rock and roll,
Speaker 3: you know. So yeah, I got a Shania Tain was touring.
Speaker 3: She was looking for an indigenous support and they sort of,
Speaker 3: you know, would have wanted a male so that she
Speaker 3: could she's the female, she's dominant. But there was no
Speaker 3: one sort of that was around to be quick and
Speaker 3: that could do country. There was probably Nocturnal was the
Speaker 3: only other four band because they said we just want
Speaker 3: a four piece, you know. But they were heavy metal
Speaker 3: and they said, Leah, can you swing your music country?
Speaker 3: And I went, for sure, yeah I can. I can
Speaker 3: swing whatever you want to swing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: So and then yeah, I had that opportunity to tour
Speaker 3: the East Coast with her, and but she panicked when
Speaker 3: we did a sound check because we said, oh, well,
Speaker 3: since we can't do our heavy stuff, we started sound
Speaker 3: check with his real heavy lot. We got some heavy
Speaker 3: rock stuff, and she come flying out of the dress
Speaker 3: room going, you got me a heavy band. I went, oh,
Speaker 3: calm down, and says they it's all good. I got
Speaker 3: my three four for you. Later, you know, I said, well,
Speaker 3: we're just having fun because yeah, this is just warm up.
Speaker 3: Because the boys, this mixing group just come off a
Speaker 3: tour with Bruce Springsteen, so it was so cool to
Speaker 3: play our music and they were sort of bopping, you know,
Speaker 3: you go, that's a compliment, you know, because they know
Speaker 3: good music or not, and it was really really cool.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: The first time I heard you sing was at the
Speaker 2: end of your most recent film, you know, Drover's Wife,
Speaker 2: And as soon as you started singing, I was like,
Speaker 2: why haven't I heard her voice before? It's beautiful? You
Speaker 2: wrote that song for the film and performed it in
Speaker 2: the end.
Speaker 3: Or no, that was that's a Irish lament, yeah lament
Speaker 3: and yeah. So it's been around forever and there's many
Speaker 3: variations of it. And actually, when we were doing the play,
Speaker 3: the composer and sound designer, I said that there needs
Speaker 3: to be a song, and I was looking at some
Speaker 3: more hymn bassed kind of stuff, and then he came
Speaker 3: in with a few suggestions and Nina Simone sings it
Speaker 3: that does a does a version, and then I sort
Speaker 3: of did my version of black is so yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and then but when we did that in the film,
Speaker 3: I had no intentions. I was looking at someone I
Speaker 3: could just mal boy Lisa. No. The composer come back
Speaker 3: and said, Leara, it has to be you. I was
Speaker 3: given all these names. She said, why are you giving
Speaker 3: me all these names? And I said, just for the
Speaker 3: singers for the end. She goes, no, no, no, it
Speaker 3: has to be Molly Johnson singing to the next generation.
Speaker 3: And she knows. What she said was it had to
Speaker 3: be it has to be used singing to the next generation.
Speaker 3: And I said, I haven't sung in twenty years. She goes, no,
Speaker 3: I meant Molly needs to sing. She said, so good
Speaker 3: over yourself, Lea, we need Molly to sing. And I said, okay, thanks,
Speaker 3: and it was look I was. I was good nunger myself.
Speaker 3: And I walked back into the to the sound you
Speaker 3: know when I have to go and record, and I'm
Speaker 3: making all these excuses and the engineer was Grady, said, Leah,
Speaker 3: shut up, you know how to sing. Off we go
Speaker 3: and you just pressed the button and away we away
Speaker 3: we went. So yeah, Nah, it's something every now and then,
Speaker 3: you know, you do you get itchy for the for
Speaker 3: the stage or if I go see a live performance,
Speaker 3: I go because the power in music is just just
Speaker 3: next level. You know.
Speaker 2: Obviously that film had massive impact. You got the actor
Speaker 2: for it, you know, like it was a big moment
Speaker 2: and big I actually when I first watched it, I
Speaker 2: watched it on a little laptop when I got sent
Speaker 2: to screener and I remember the thing that I remembered
Speaker 2: and I thought, this is the epitome of Australian film.
Speaker 2: Like I felt like, wow, this is such a rich,
Speaker 2: beautifully told story. You didn't just direct, you produced, you
Speaker 2: acted in it. Out of those three things, what's the
Speaker 2: go to for you? What's your favorite thing to do?
Speaker 2: Or is there a delicate balance there?
Speaker 3: There's a delicate balance. But if like writer, director is
Speaker 3: pretty powerful, especially in film because in film you have
Speaker 3: more control. Television is more of a producer's domain. But
Speaker 3: I also like the challenge that that gives because you're
Speaker 3: taking on other people's notes and you're got your creativity
Speaker 3: and it's about finding the balance. Yeah, acting is when
Speaker 3: you get to my age now you go, yep, I
Speaker 3: just want to rock up, hit my mark, say my line,
Speaker 3: be deadly, and go home, you know, and then you
Speaker 3: don't have the worry of what's tomorrow other than learning
Speaker 3: your lines. You know. So it does vary. But when
Speaker 3: I am in my performance mode, I get so much
Speaker 3: work done. Like when I was in Wentworth, I finished
Speaker 3: the book of Drover's Wife when reader was in the
Speaker 3: slot in series seven when they the big siege, when
Speaker 3: they when I was locked up, I was there writing
Speaker 3: like yeah, no, no, I couldn't get out there and
Speaker 3: be superwoman. But I was being superwoman type. And and
Speaker 3: the first they d would tap on the window as
Speaker 3: he'd walk past to call action. And when he tapped,
Speaker 3: I'd slip that computer under the mattress. And I'm up
Speaker 3: at the door at the.
Speaker 2: Water Contramand.
Speaker 3: So I am at my most you know, we're on
Speaker 3: Creative and I catch up on my work because I'm away,
Speaker 3: I can focus on I've got a schedule, so I
Speaker 3: put my writing schedule around that and just smash stuff out. Look,
Speaker 3: I can come across as a snobby bitch because I'm
Speaker 3: sitting in the green room work and all the time.
Speaker 3: But I say to people, mate, I'm running a company,
Speaker 3: and if i want work next when this is over,
Speaker 3: I've got to put the hours in.
Speaker 2: I know that you're talking about an opera. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: opera version of this film. What does that look like?
Speaker 3: Oh mate, it's pretty awesome when when you get the
Speaker 3: big voices in the room and singing your words. So
Speaker 3: we took the libretto off the play. The composer came
Speaker 3: to us chase me for a year, saying, I really
Speaker 3: think this could be an opera, and he said, let's
Speaker 3: just work to edit the play into a libretto. I
Speaker 3: had written some arias, some songs for it, you know,
Speaker 3: or edited his and put ideas in and then we're
Speaker 3: looking to have a workshop at the end of the
Speaker 3: year with and just listen to the orchestra play it,
Speaker 3: because that's what we have. And we've had we've had
Speaker 3: sort of looking at the story seeing what it felt like,
Speaker 3: you know, looking for actors out there. So if there's
Speaker 3: any Aboriginal males out there or Torres, straight Islander men
Speaker 3: that might have a big voice, I'd love to see
Speaker 3: you for the for the lead role of Yadika. So
Speaker 3: it's pretty awesome when they're you know, singing the words
Speaker 3: that you wrote and it's opera and what oh yeah, no,
Speaker 3: he's on the list. Yeah yeah, yeah, no, I saw
Speaker 3: him go. He come in for an audition and I
Speaker 3: told all them mob I got, you know, I had
Speaker 3: some wild cast. I said, don't come singing pop songs.
Speaker 3: I said, you can look at Porgy and Bess. I said,
Speaker 3: because that's allowing you to have a big voice. Like,
Speaker 3: look at the music the opera of that. I said,
Speaker 3: watch some old movies, old musicals, and get those big songs,
Speaker 3: those big numbers. But no, goody come with a pop song.
Speaker 3: So I'm watching it there. Yeah, and he was all
Speaker 3: little high, you know, little squeaky voice, and it was
Speaker 3: you know, it was all good. And then I then
Speaker 3: I started saying, God, shake a leg now, bro, because
Speaker 3: I can see he could move. And I'm looking because
Speaker 3: Yadika's going to be able to move. So I'm watching
Speaker 3: him and I said, uncle can move. Then when they
Speaker 3: get over their nerves, I go stand in one corner
Speaker 3: and I said, I said, if I was one of
Speaker 3: your nephews, little nephews, and I was in your room
Speaker 3: going to steal some money out of your drawer, how
Speaker 3: would you yell out to me?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Then they got the big voice, you know, yeah, And
Speaker 3: I said, see that that's your singing voice. Open it
Speaker 3: up and you know. And then I would do. I said,
Speaker 3: repeat after me, and I'd do Stevie Wonders Happy. But
Speaker 3: you know, it's something real simple. And then I go,
Speaker 3: that's your singing voice, dude. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sore up together his family, you know, black fellow country music,
Speaker 2: Royalter and Buddy and so we grew up together, and
Speaker 2: we went to the same school. We had like basically
Speaker 2: our teens together. And then I came here started you know,
Speaker 2: working in media, and I always wanted him to come,
Speaker 2: you know, to come to the big smoke, and he
Speaker 2: ended up coming and and he's just gone from you.
Speaker 3: Know, oh mate, you know six he's going to be
Speaker 3: sitting in that for six months. And then I said,
Speaker 3: then I want you to come straight to me an
Speaker 3: audition for for Yerika.
Speaker 2: He Isn't it funny that I brought him up and
Speaker 2: didn't absolutely when people come to mind for certain things,
Speaker 2: you know, you do you speak about powerful voice, I think, oh,
Speaker 2: he's got.
Speaker 3: It, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So no, it's exciting.
Speaker 2: But I wanted to bring up something with you, which
Speaker 2: is quite funny. So when you probably auditioned hundreds and
Speaker 2: hundreds of actors over the years, do you think that
Speaker 2: you remember most of them?
Speaker 3: A name I might not, but a face I do.
Speaker 3: And I am a very loyal director. If I like someone,
Speaker 3: and if someone's you know, got something special, I'll always
Speaker 3: try to push them, you know, because I get phone
Speaker 3: calls all the time, ask him, do you know this
Speaker 3: mob or that mob? And even now where I did
Speaker 3: here out West, you know, there's I worked with the
Speaker 3: Chinese group and Indian mob, you know, and there were
Speaker 3: some great actors in there. So I'm always where I
Speaker 3: can I push people to the front. I said, never
Speaker 3: mind if they need to be blonde hair, blue eye,
Speaker 3: I said, have a look at this. I'm always and
Speaker 3: even when I direct, when i'm directing something, I'll always
Speaker 3: bring a wild card in. And that wild card, for example,
Speaker 3: the fellow who played Robert Push and Tony well, maybe
Speaker 3: he'll listen to this. But when I was looking, I
Speaker 3: was just looking at you know, you get sent the
Speaker 3: casting I ate booklets and photos and then I said,
Speaker 3: okay for my wild card. I picked three. Two of
Speaker 3: them no good. But this one follow come in and
Speaker 3: it was just because of his jaw, just his jawline,
Speaker 3: and I said, I want him to come in. And
Speaker 3: the funny thing is I had moved back to the door,
Speaker 3: and I know Tony. I'd worked with him ten years
Speaker 3: ago on something. He's got a great voice. And when
Speaker 3: he walked in and said miss Purcell, and I went, hey,
Speaker 3: I know that follow's voice, but that doesn't match the faith.
Speaker 3: And then when I turned around, it was Tony and
Speaker 3: he did the audition. You know, if it wasn't for
Speaker 3: his photo looking different from him, I might not have
Speaker 3: got him in because I, oh, yeah, no Tony. But
Speaker 3: he just had this jawline, great photo. I brought him
Speaker 3: in and he did it, and he's and that was
Speaker 3: about you know, I had twenty five years in the
Speaker 3: industry at that stage, and I hadn't had goosebumps from
Speaker 3: an audition. No one had moved me that much in
Speaker 3: about twenty years.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And before he literally left the room, he was walking
Speaker 3: across the belvoir upstairs rehearsal area. It's quite a distance
Speaker 3: to the door. I just turned around to everyone and
Speaker 3: I there you go for I'm whispering to you're on
Speaker 3: Radio two. It's yeah, And I just said I haven't.
Speaker 3: I said, look, I've got goosebumps. I have not felt
Speaker 3: that in twenty years. And he got the role of
Speaker 3: one of the stockmen.
Speaker 2: I love this well. The reason I bring it up
Speaker 2: is because I'm going to take you back a long time.
Speaker 2: But you auditioned me for something. Oh no, it was
Speaker 2: I nice, you were you were, but I was a kid.
Speaker 2: Oh so I'm going back to when I was fifteen
Speaker 2: years old. Yeah, and I came in and I was
Speaker 2: auditioning for Redfern. Now it was the callbacks. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: I came in in school uniform and it was me
Speaker 2: and with Shannie McDermott.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so it was in some audition room in Surrey Hills. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I came in and obviously knowing of you, I
Speaker 2: was so intimidated. It was bloody leoposel. I had no
Speaker 2: idea that you were going to be in the audition room.
Speaker 2: And it was such a good learning experience for me.
Speaker 2: But you pushed me Like I was a young kid
Speaker 2: and this is one of my first auditions. But I
Speaker 2: remember you pushing me and it was a tough scene.
Speaker 2: It was like it was a scene where I had
Speaker 2: to be quite like aggressive with Charnie. And I was like,
Speaker 2: after all these years, obviously like now connecting with you,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh gee, that That was such a moment
Speaker 2: for me because I remember I got I got two
Speaker 2: callbacks for Redford. Now, yeah, and at the last one
Speaker 2: you were there. Yeah. It's just a bit of a
Speaker 2: full circle moment.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I'm glad I pushed it because I do. I
Speaker 3: do push people. But one of the things I say
Speaker 3: to everyone that comes in, I want you to win this.
Speaker 3: I said, so don't hold nothing back. And no one's
Speaker 3: ever said that to me when I walked into it,
Speaker 3: but it was it was something that Russell Crowe said
Speaker 3: once where he goes, I do what they ask and
Speaker 3: then I asked them to let me do one take that.
Speaker 3: I how I see it.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: So that's what I That's what I do. I walked in.
Speaker 3: I went, that's such a good thing because and that's
Speaker 3: why I asked someone. I said, do you want me
Speaker 3: to direct you and first and give you my interpretation,
Speaker 3: or would you like to show me what you've prepared
Speaker 3: and or But now I just go show me what
Speaker 3: you prepare because you might have a better idea of
Speaker 3: what this role is about, you know, And it makes
Speaker 3: them feel so comfortable. And I said, there's no wrong here, mate,
Speaker 3: I said, it's about just diving in and doing your best.
Speaker 3: And I say to people, do not walk out of
Speaker 3: this room if there's one more take in you really,
Speaker 3: because that might be the one that wins you over.
Speaker 3: And a lot of actors have come up and said,
Speaker 3: no one's ever said that to me before, and I
Speaker 3: felt that I could be myself in that situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, what a beautiful way to wrap this yard up.
Speaker 3: We could talk all day, talk all day to start.
Speaker 2: I know, it's like one of those things where you
Speaker 2: have so much to give, and I feel like you've
Speaker 2: given the industry and especially First Nations Mob so much.
Speaker 2: So thank you for what you've done and what you
Speaker 2: continue to do. I think that, like if you look
Speaker 2: at someone's legacy, it's quite profound what you've done in
Speaker 2: the industry. So thank you so much for everything you've done.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being on our pot today.
Speaker 2: I'd have to say Brooke before she met you the
Speaker 2: other day at ABC, she was real big fan girl.
Speaker 1: Well, Leah, I don't want to say girl, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you are probably one of my biggest inspirations because I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm early in my acting career. Obviously, my journey
Speaker 1: has been reality TV which it's been very, very different,
Speaker 1: so learning the craft have been. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: have many people to look up to, and I think
Speaker 1: you're one of them. Because I enjoy the writing aspect,
Speaker 1: I like really enjoyed directing as well, and I think
Speaker 1: you inspire me that you can have it all, but
Speaker 1: you can do it all, but you can, you know,
Speaker 1: do it with such grace as well. And I just
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't want to get too sentimental,
Speaker 1: but you are probably one of my my idols in
Speaker 1: this industry. And I'm actually just so grateful that you
Speaker 1: came on and said yes to doing the podcast for us.
Speaker 1: It means so much to us, to my pleasure.
Speaker 2: You should have said for me to do my job right,
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you one thing.
Speaker 1: I felt like I'm not even hosting. I just was
Speaker 1: like a fly on the But it was the best
Speaker 1: because I think either I know that the audience are
Speaker 1: going to feel so inspired by this episode, even if
Speaker 1: you're not even in the industry. I think your messaging
Speaker 1: and everything that you say is just so inspirational. But
Speaker 1: I think also like some learnings in there if you
Speaker 1: you know, look at it from that, So thank you
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you to you both.
Speaker 2: Fast, let's all we have time for today. Thanks for
Speaker 2: listening to First things first, if you love what you hear,
Speaker 2: leave us a rating and a little review, and.
Speaker 1: If you want us to share anything on the podcast,
Speaker 1: hit us up on the socials. My handle was that
Speaker 1: Brooked up Let and Maddie's is that It's Maddie Miles
Speaker 1: and Leah as Atlea Percel And you can check out
Speaker 1: all the over action that Nova Podcast official. See you
Speaker 1: on the next episode.
Speaker 2: Bye.