WEBVTT - Leah Purcell on working with Sigourney Weaver & Shania Twain 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:03.239 Welcome to First things First, I'm Brooklett and my pronouns 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:03.920 as she and her. 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.000 I'm Maddie Mills, my pronouns are he and him. And 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.360 before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge custodians of 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:10.280 the land on which we record. And for me today 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:11.480 it's the Gattigol people of the. 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:13.800 Urination and for me it's a under people of the 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:19.840 cooler nation. Let's get in to it all right. 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.640 We are so excited because we have Leah Purcell, who 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.960 is an internationally acclaimed actor, director, producer and writer on 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.760 stage and screen. She is a proud Murray woman from Mergen, Queensland. 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.160 Leah starrs opposite Sigourney Weaver in the recent Amazon Prime 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.280 Video limited series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. She's 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.879 also appeared in many TV shows movies such as High Country, 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.800 The Last Captain Darwin. She was an incredible lead actress 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:50.160 in Wentworth. She wrote, produced directed herself in The Drover's Wife, 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.559 The Legend of Molly Johnson, and there is just so 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.400 much more to talk to her about today on our episode. 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.360 She's won multiple Actor Awards for her roles, as well 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.480 as being nominated countless times for actors and logis. She 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.440 hasn't won a LOGI and that is absolutely disgraceful. What 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:07.440 please give a big warm and welcome to the one 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.080 and only Leah pasel Y. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:10.600 Thank you. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.200 Oh it is so nice to have you in studio. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:14.560 No pleasure to be here. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.080 I didn't want to butcher your traditional name, your traditional 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:20.600 country's name, so I thought, you know what I'm gonna 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:22.080 get you to say it? 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.480 Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, my mob go or Gungri and 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.920 Walker Walker. So that's three three clans from different parts 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.320 of Australia due to stolen generations and being you know, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.920 my grandparents being tossed around. Goer is up near Winton 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.840 Long reach Out that way, and then Gungrii is down Mitchell, 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.200 so that's my grandmother's country in Mitchell, and then my 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:49.840 grandfather's mother's country is Goer. And then because my grandmother 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.440 was stolen from Mitchell and taken to Sherburg, and then 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.520 my grandfather's mother sent him down to her sister who 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.840 was at Sherburg. My mum was born on Sherburg and 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.320 lived their tw isssues about fifteen. Then my grandfather got 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.280 a job in town in Mergen, so I was born 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.840 in Mergen and grew up in that area until I 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.119 was about nineteen, and then I took off. As they say, well. 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:15.760 Talking about Sherburg, you know Sherburg mission, many mob come 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:16.520 from this place. 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.640 What was your childhood like Sherburg's about three point six 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.920 cliques out of Mergen. Mergen was the white township. And 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.840 then back in nineteen four, I think it was the 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.080 government was looking to do an experiment on allowing Aboriginal 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.960 people to govern themselves on a bit of property. But 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:35.799 what they did was fence them all in and told 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.040 them to, you know, look after themselves and live the 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:40.960 best they could. And of course the mob did, but 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.400 within six to eight months they depleted the area of kangaroos, 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.519 of what they were living on and everything else and 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.080 went back and said, we've done what you've said and 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.960 we can't get out to go hunting for more, so 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.200 what are you going to do? So it became that experiment. 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.440 Then the churches came in to run Sherburg's ocean. Yeah. Yeah, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.840 there's a book that's called the Dumping Grend because there 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:05.840 was about three hundred different people from different tribes that 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:08.680 were the start of that area. And then of course, 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.920 anyone that was being stolen generations or had to be 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:15.919 moved somewhere, they bring him to Sherburg. So a lot 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.080 of people have that historical connection to Sherburg, which my 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.000 family does, and we've still got family on Sherburg and 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.120 in Mergen. But growing up, mate, you know, you're very 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.519 fortunate when you go in the bush. 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:27.800 You know. 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.000 I think, of course, there was our trials and tribulations, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.240 you know, being fair skinned black fellows, we got racism 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.320 from both sides of the fence. And I thought about 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.200 that a while back and I went, I wonder why 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:42.320 we got that racism from our own mob, And it 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.000 was because all the other fellows that got exempt from 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.720 the mission left to become the Brisbane Blacks. But my grandfather, 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.920 he stayed in town. So we got that resentment from 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:55.080 some I reckon, that's my theory, because everyone else has 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.520 gone away and made another community, but we stayed. You know, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.560 there was still rules and regulations that applied to my 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.480 family as well, but they had that freedom of movement, 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:07.400 you know, where they didn't have to be back out 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.880 of town by sundown and back on the mish, you know. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:12.720 But you know, nineteen seventy five, there was still a 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.280 superintendent there. We had to get permission to go and 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.039 see family. My mother was a rat bag. She goes, 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:19.640 I'm not going to know white men tell me that 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:21.840 I could get to see my mom. Oh mate, I 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.000 used to say, Mom, we're going to get locked up. True. 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.080 But I remember, and I you know, as you get 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.159 old on fifty four, now you sit back and you think, 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.720 and you know, we call it that murray joy, that 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.800 big loud laugh, blackahlah la fee, And I remembered I 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.560 was thinking someone was telling me a yarn, you know 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.160 that they got told to be quiet, and they said, oh, 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.479 you're destroying my murray Joy. And I went, you know 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:44.719 what I was back in the days in the seventies, 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.280 I was a lookout, okay. And it was in my 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.719 uncle's house on Schoburg. And when my mother would go 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.920 out there to visit them, of course, not getting permission. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.760 They'd pull all the curtains and they'd sit in that 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.880 kitchen and the talk and when they laughed, it'd be silent. 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.280 And I remember sitting at the front door because I'd 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.600 watched it said policeman was driving around, a coppers or 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.479 someone was coming, and I wonder I got anxiety. But 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.120 I remember sitting at that front door and I'd look 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.960 back at them and they'd all be this silently laughing. 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.039 And not until years later I remember that and I went, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:18.560 it's because we weren't allowed. And now I wonder we're 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.080 loud and proud now, which we should be. I think 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:22.919 it had to do with loud and proud and black, 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.440 you know, for the thing, And so it was. It was, 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:28.520 you know, that was interesting and this is true. God. 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.680 Just the other night at fifty four, I sat there 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.159 and I went, I know why I do what I 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.440 do because I get often go Leah, why were you 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:40.039 that one child that got out? Made it out? And 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:41.359 I was thinking about last night, and I said, you 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.560 know what, it's because I had three things in my 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.520 life that I was able to be passionate about, and 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:52.680 that was neple. Yes, did you play gold offence? I 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:54.880 made it to the Queensland All Blacks team, but that 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:56.560 year they ran out of money so we couldn't go 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.360 to New Zealand. I was about fifteen sixty and then 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.880 I did acting at school. They had a short course 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.600 music theater, so I went, I was lucky to have 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:09.160 that and I guess the other one was that extended family. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.159 You know, I grew up the youngest of seven kids, 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.159 so it was like I was home alone, you know, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.320 all the other all my other brothers and sisters a 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.000 lot older than me, So it was just me and 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.760 my mom and my grandmother. She looked after my grandmother 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.599 for twenty seven years. She was bedridden with arthritis and 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.720 Parkinson's disease. So she was my spiritual connection to culture. Mean, Nan, 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.239 we were quite close. And then having that extended family 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.880 of my mum was very close with the mob out 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.360 at Sherburg, and we would go there and everyone would 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.000 come and see Annie Flower or missus p. And even 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.120 though my mother, at times I could see her being 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:48.000 the servient black woman of people that was higher authority 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.680 in town, she'd become this other woman. And then at 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:52.760 other times when she was allowed to be herself, she 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.719 was this loud, proud, determined She was four foot nothing, mate, 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.280 but she could make grown men quiver, you know what 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.200 I mean. And everyone had got gone on, Tellani low 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:04.280 on you, and she'd waddle over, you know, so you know, 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.320 but she was four foot and not and I've got 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.359 a bit of hype a bit of shoulder, but she 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.400 was deadly. And I think having that and then just 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.280 just that extended family love and being at that generation 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.000 coming through the eighties where we didn't have technology where 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:22.160 you actually sat down and entertainment was singing, Like I 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.040 had a sister that was a jukebox, you know what 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.080 I mean. It's only thinking about that the other day, 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:28.560 and we'd sit down, they'd be singing, they'd be dancing, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.440 they'd be laughing, they'd be crying, there'd be political story 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.040 spoken about. So it was a real education, you know. 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.480 And I was quite love young. So I'm very lucky that. 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.000 I guess one thing I got from my white dad 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:45.040 was he had a good memory and he was tall. 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.200 So but that's about it, you know. But yeah, no, 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:50.160 I was only thinking about that, and I said, I 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:54.840 think that's why I was able to grasp that dream 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:56.720 that I had. I had no idea how I was 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.600 going to achieve it, but I had three things in 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.040 my life that actually fed my passion. 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.160 And recently you've discovered that, like as. 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.520 In two nights ago, I'm line in bed and I'm going, gosh, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.520 I'm fifty four. I think I know why I managed 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.520 to do it I had. Even though there was hardship, 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.560 I had joy. There was there was this passion, not 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:19.600 so much if it was joy either, but there was 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.240 like I loved my sport and I you know, played 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.480 it hard because I could see it took my aggression 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.040 out on the field, you know, or on the court. 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.120 And then the passion to be able to go to school, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.199 like I was no good at anything else. But when 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.480 that three months, that's when I could shine. And you know, 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.920 I was junior to get the first dancer, then the teacher. 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:43.839 On those days we had Saturday's rehearsal and they'd smoke 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.200 and le you take them kids outside and make them learn. 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:48.520 Don't bring them back, you know, drawn back hardway on 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.719 a cigarette. So I was choreographing and then I got 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.120 the first junior to get lines, you know, because you 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.839 had to earn your stripes to go through. And then 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.600 grade twelve, I was going, I'm going to be the lead. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.080 I've hurt the stripes. After grade ten when I got 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.400 I was the first junior to get speaking lines of 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.160 Bye Bye Boodie. It was Gloria the sexy Secretary, and 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.880 I got my first laugh with the splits that I 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.240 had to do. And I even remembered when I because 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:15.920 the teacher said, I just pretend you can't get up, 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.360 like that's the joke, and I went, yeah, right. And 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.840 it was the town hall fit about four hundred people, 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.120 and Morgan would come and support. It'd be packed night 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.560 every night, over three nights. And I remember getting that 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.160 first laughter and I looked upstage and I went, wow, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.920 you know, and then I just hammed it up, mate, 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.559 and it was so you know, it was that that encouragement. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.240 And then you know, going through a high school, I 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:42.880 had the opportunities and told the teacher that they can't 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:44.040 direct and I should do it. 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.640 You sound like me, I'm telling you. I remember being 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:49.920 that little kid. And I want to ask you this 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.840 question of like, do you think that some of us, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:55.320 like you know, some of us whould go off and 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.599 do the the dream and chase the dream. Do you 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.800 think we're born with something that is like innately in 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.120 us that we have to achieve what we set out 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.480 to do, or like, for instance, for me, I'm completely 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:09.440 different to my mom. My mom were really happy back 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.920 at home in Tamworth Onngomory Country, living content lives in 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.400 the bush, you know, for me. I had this dream 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:16.760 since I was a little kid, and I had to 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.160 achieve it no matter what, and it changes all the time. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:21.320 But did you have. 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:23.880 That or oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah no. There's a 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.000 photo of me at four years old with my brother's guitar, 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.800 you know, and we shopped at the dump and my 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.520 mum would made this little chair for me that folded up. 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:34.120 So I thought I was real deadly, like that was 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.880 my production. And when they'd have them sing alongs charge 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.280 alongs at home, I'd in the kitchen, I'd pull that 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:41.559 chair out and I'd play the guitar and sing a 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.240 blues version of Humpty Dumpty and five times. So yeah, 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.079 I think that was performance was in I come from 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.920 a lot. My mother could sing, dance. I've got an 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.560 auntie that was a writer, sing a songwriter back in 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.079 the forties, you know. So I come from that family. 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.160 But I think you've got to have something that it's 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.880 just in your DNA that makes you that little bit different, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.120 even though I had no idea, Like I felt pregnant 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:07.680 when I was seventeen and eight my daughter just after 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.880 I turned eighteen. A month after I had my daughter 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.040 in September, my mother died in October, you know what 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.320 I mean. So I looked at myself in the mirror 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.839 and I said, remember, you wanted to be an actor, 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.400 but I have no idea how I'm going to come 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:21.720 from little old Morgen and I got a newborn on 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.559 my hip, how I'm going to achieve that. So but 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.520 it was having that dream and remembering what strangers in 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:32.839 the street said to me. You know, one follower. I 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.120 remember I was jogging somewhere, I think it was a 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.600 Friday afternoon, going to the pub to see where my 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.720 mother was, and I jogged past him and he went, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:41.800 you should be in Hollywood. And I was fifteen, and 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.080 I went what But he kept walking, but I heard 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.480 it and I went, oh, that's nice that they think 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.760 that you know that you know? And then I think 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.320 that just kept the drive, kept the drive, and then 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.280 sort of. And my mother always used to say, look 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:57.839 out for number one. Number one being you, and if 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.560 you look after yourself, then everyone that you look after 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:04.160 is going to be fine. Yeah, And when I looked 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.480 at myself in that mirror that day, I was on 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.880 the wrong side of where I should be, and this 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:11.720 little voice went, didn't you want to be an actor, 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:14.199 and oh yeah, I did. And then I just sort 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:15.960 of put one foot in front of the other until 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.960 and taking opportunities. I think we see opportunities or it's 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.800 our dreaming and it's all mapped out in front of us, 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:24.760 and it's up to us whether we churn left or 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.199 turn right and take those steps. You know, so luckily 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.760 I took the right direction. I think. 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.960 I love hearing about your childhood and your experiences, and 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.360 there's so many that I guess connect mob in different ways. 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.160 Like I think Maddie and I always talk about how 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.400 how situations in our childhood like we were separated at 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:53.640 birth or something, because they're so parallel. And then I 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:55.959 guess some of the stories that you talk about remind 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.040 me of my grandmother and my mom too. Growing up 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.959 messages that come up. I think there're like little sparks 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.200 like here and there, like the little motivations along the way, 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.120 and I truly believe that, yeah, there is some sort 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.440 of dreaming that kind of leads you down the path. 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.200 Whether you want to take that road or not. Is 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.000 like you just got to trust the process. And I 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.360 think that's really hard to trust the process. And I 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:27.320 can imagine with your you know, experience. Now there are 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.600 so many opportunities flying at you, like how do you 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:36.760 navigate that and choose what you do? And what you 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.280 don't do is with what I'd love to know. 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.360 Yeah, look, and you know, I've been what is it 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:44.360 thirty three, thirty four years in the industry now, so 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:46.559 you've got to earn your stripes. You know, there was 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:48.600 times where you had to do things because you've got 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.080 to keep relevant. You've got to keep your talent honed, 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:54.880 you know, your skills up. But it does get to 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.640 a point that the that the roles become repetitive, you 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.640 know what I mean. And it is about going what 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.719 do I want to do as a performer because I 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.200 was sort of going to semi retire from acting to 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.240 focus on my direction and writing. Just before I got 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.679 went with like can you believe it? And I made 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:15.880 this big speech to Bayane. I went, right, that's it. 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:17.600 I'm going to just hang the acting add up for 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:19.200 a minute, and you know. 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:19.880 And. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.600 W worth in that change. 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.480 And then that phone call, and then to get that 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.120 phone call and you're kidding me? And then I and 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:32.200 then what are you going to do? 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:33.480 Yeah? 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:35.040 Oh, they had me in mind yeah. 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:36.640 Of course, I mean it's perfect. 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.640 Yeah. And I said, well, if I put my actor's 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.560 hat back on, I said, mate, a television show that's 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:49.120 already established number one drama around the world, A role 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.840 where I collaborated on, and they, you know, had me 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.120 in mine when they wrote it. I would be stupid 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.040 not to take it, wouldn't I? And of course with 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.600 Lost Flowers of Alice Heart, you know, when the phone 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:01.680 call came men, I went, who's in it? 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:02.080 Big? 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:04.920 Oh? That was after I was a big note and going, 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.400 I'd big, go, who's in it? Who's the lead? Then? 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.560 If I've just got this little sport role? And they 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:14.600 went Sigourney weaver O went yep, I said, I will 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.800 carry oxygen for her, I will give her water. I'll 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:20.800 just stand beside her. She can have all my loans 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.200 if she wants. Yeah. So, so that that sort of 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.840 thing where I was wanting to be. But every role 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:29.920 that I take, I want to be challenged, and I 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.520 think that's where I what I look at now in 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.160 a role is won the writing. Of course, how much 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:37.600 work will I have to do on the script for 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.160 someone else? You know what I mean? So I do 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.160 look at the writing and that collaboration if there's an 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.880 urge to do it. But then someone of Sigourney Weaver's 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.560 legend Hollywood and her talent, and you know, I go, 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:53.520 I want to be challenged. I want to be nervous again. 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.440 It's nice to go in and be nervous, you know, 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.960 on your first day when Sigourney Weaver walks in, you. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:00.920 Know, it was an inspiration for you going up, Oh mate, 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:01.720 I was yeah. 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.600 In Mergan, like I think Alien first come out seventy nine, 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:06.440 so by the time it got to Mergen it was 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.760 eighty four. I was fourteen saw her and went and 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:12.840 into my acting at this stage and I went, oh 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.400 my god, that's me, Like, I've got to I've got 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.320 to meet her. I said, We've got the same jaw, 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:19.640 we got curly hair. And at that stage when I 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.680 watched Daily and of course they had already started Alien too, 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:24.400 but I went, there's going to be a second I 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:26.960 know it, And I said, and I'd walk around Morgan 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.280 going how do I get a letter to Hollywood? And 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:30.480 they went, what do you want to get a letter 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.200 to Hollywood for? I said, because I've got to tell 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.360 them that I should play her daughter, because there's a 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:36.640 daughter in that at the end of that thing, and 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:37.720 I think it's got to be me. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:39.680 This is so freaky. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.040 Yeah what yeah? And then I said to her when 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.440 we met over Zoom, I was playing very cool as 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.760 you got to do. And then I went to goourney 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.160 Before we go, she because there there anything else with you? 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.440 You know, we've talked about the script and it, and 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.600 I went, yeah, there is one thing I said for 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.680 me to be able to do my job right, You're 0:16:57.680 --> 0:16:59.400 going to give me one thing. And she goes, what's that? 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.880 And I said a fangirl moment, and I said, just one. 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:05.760 I got to tell you this good yard. So I 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.760 told her and she kissed us off, laughing and yeah, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:10.919 and then it was and that sort of broke the 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:12.720 eyes for me too, because I could just be me, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.440 you know, And and she was great. We did a 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.199 screening of Drover's Wife for her and the and the 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.080 car and the crew and the cast of that production. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:24.920 We're out wherever we were out Tamworth Way there. I 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.200 can't remember the musclebrook. Is that that the way? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.600 So we went there to the theater, to the Picture cinema. 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.879 She's a picture show that's real the cinema and showed 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.040 her and she she loved it, you know, cried a 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:40.960 river and gave a beautiful speech. So it was really cool. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:42.440 So when I'm looking at stuff, I want to be 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.919 challenged with the role. It had a stolen generations thing 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:47.800 in it, and I sort of said, you guys got 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.919 to tread lightly, you know, use a wifeless coming in 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.679 on this. And I said, you know, my grandmother stolen, 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:56.680 so your story better being better than mine, you know 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.359 what I mean. And I've said that about back in 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.320 the nineties. Eight film scripts came to me about Solo Generation. 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:04.000 I said no to every single one of them, and 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.000 none of them got made, and rightly so, so I 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:12.040 look at that subject matter and yeah, I can be 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.760 picky now to convert my stripes. And I've got my 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:16.960 own production company, so you know, it's about where I 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.719 want to spread my energy as well, because I want 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:21.080 to get my own shows up. You know, I want 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:25.040 to get my own stories. But you know, sometimes I 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.280 did Shader because I got a lovely letter from the 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:33.760 director Norah, and you know, she said amazing things. It's 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:38.320 about also giving my support and putting energy behind new 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:42.160 voices from diverse mob as well, you know. And yeah, 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.239 so it just depends. But I really want to know, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.080 put a lot of energy back into my own stuff 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.320 now because I've done everyone else so well. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.960 I mean, we'll get to Drover's wife, but I want 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:55.919 to take you back to maybe this is either a 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.800 myth or a legend, but I want to ask you 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:00.000