March 29, 2025 • 14 mins
Australian actress Rebecca Gibney has made a solid name for herself in a variety of popular TV shows - and her latest project is due to air on Three this week.
Gibney is well known for her roles on The Flying Doctors, Packed to the Rafters and as Dr Jane Halifax, but she's hoping to branch out with her new show Happiness.
The show is a musical sitcom series centred around a community theatre group.
"It just felt like an amateur theatre production - and that's how we felt when we were filming it, it really felt like we became this little family."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks atb Well.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I think we all agree the world needs any jury
we can grab at the moment, and Rebecca Givney's new
show brings it in spades. Rebecca is well known for
her roles on The Flying Doctors, Packed the Rafters and
as doctor Jane Hanifax. But she's really branching out on
this next one. She's singing, she's dancing. It really is delightful.
The show is called Happiness. It's a locally made show
(00:34):
coming to three this week and centers around a community
theater group.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
What they rejected my visa You have to prove that
you hold a critical role in an organization that has
a distinguished reputation in New Field.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
How the hell am I meant to do that? Tara's
gonna help with the show, Rebecca Givney, it's in the
studio with me. Good morning. It is so lovely to
have you with us.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's lovely to be here now, Happiness. First thing I
want to say about Happiness is it has probably one
of the best opening scenes, oh anything I've seen and
a and I'm not going to tell you one about it.
They're just going to have to watch. But I just went,
I love that and I want to do that, my son.
That's all I wanted to do. Anyway, we'll leave that
(01:21):
for the audience to discover. I heard that you campaigned
hard to be in this show, that you messaged the
creators and auditions.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I did. I did. Actually, I was we were filming
under the Vines in Queenstown and everyone was auditioning for
this show and I'm like, what is everyone?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
What is the show?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
And there was just this bus and it was a
show called Happiness, and I went, I have to be
a part of that, anything that's called happiness, particularly the
way the world is at the moment. And I said,
you know, can I can I talk to them and
they went, oh, well, you know, can she sing? And
I'm like, wait a second. And I had to go
back through all my stuff and I found this little
tape that I did of a song called Fever that
(01:59):
I sang years ago, and I went, okay, I want
if I can recreate that. So literally, in the living
room of the place that I was renting in Clyde,
I put on a boombox instrumental to Fever and I
sang along to it into my phone and I sent
them that and said, see, I can hold a chune.
I'm not the world's best singer. And then they came
back and went, right, can she dance?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
I'm not sending you a dancing but I did.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I think the character was so specific and not that
they asked for an audition, but I didn't hear for
a few days, and I went, you know what, I'm
just gonna I'm just going to do the audition and
send it in. And so I did and sent in
and I dressed up for it and everything, and I
just went, I'm born to play this character.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
There is no one that can play.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
This character the way I can, because I've actually been
working on a character similar to Gay Summers for a
very long time and I hadn't been able to get
her on anything. So when I read her, I went, Okay,
I'm bringing my own character to this and that's Gay Summers.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
When was the last time you auditioned for something?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it depends on what it is.
I'm lucky that I do get off of things, but
if there's a film or something that's that people may
not see me in that role. I'm quite happy to
put down a self tape for her.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So you're part of a musical group, a cabaret group,
musical group we should call it.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Is the president ZZ, this amateur theater company in todo
she and she talks like that.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
She talks very softly.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yes, but it's part of an ensemble and I love
that as well. So they keep giving Gay a role
on the show because she's the president. Because she's definitely
not the best singer, and she's not the best dancer,
and she's possibly not the best actor either, but you'll
give it one hundred and fifty percent.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
As you just said, Look, you hadn't done a lot
of singing publicly that we knew about, or dancing. So
was the other reason you're attracted to this role was
because it was going to push you out of your
comfort zone.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Oh totally, absolutely pushed me out of my comfort zone.
And also just to be a part of an ensemble.
I hadn't actually been part of an ensemble for a
long time. I'm often and when I'm in a show,
i'm maybe the lead or I've always got lots to
say and lots to do. And I went, how great
to be part of a group that has to learn
singing and has to learn dance numbers and we all
get to do it together. And it just felt like
(04:17):
an amateur theater production. And that's how we felt when
we were filming it. It really felt like we became this
little family.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It is very funny happiness, but it's just filled with joy.
It looks like it must have been such fun to film.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
It was a joy every day.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Like Harry who plays my son Charlie in the show,
he and I had actually met through other means. He
co wrote some of Under the Vines. He's a writer
as well as an actor.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
But from the minute we.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
All got together on set, from day one, it was
like this little family and we laughed NonStop.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It was just joyous.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I don't think New Zealand has ever produced anything like
this show.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We need a bit of joid right now, totally.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's like being wrapped up in
a warm hug.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
You finished the first episode and you think I have
to watch the second one and the third one because
it just brings you joy. We had a screening the
other night for the cast and crew and most of
them hadn't seen it, and to just be in a
room with everyone watching it and hearing the joy and
the laughter and people just being so excited, and it
was wonderful.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Now it's fabmously written. There are some laugh out loud
witty lines in this How important are community theaters so important?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And that's kind of the theme of the show as
well as the series where Zon we get to an
end where actually the two main characters, Gay and her
son have a fight and she has this piece of
dialogue where she says, people do this because it makes
them happy. We've all got other lives, we've all got jobs.
They come here because it brings them something else. It
brings them joy. And that's what this show is all about.
(05:48):
It's about stepping away from your real life for a
minute and sitting down and experiencing joy for twenty minutes,
half an hour.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That's what the show is clearly kind of stiffing out
of your comfort zone and is something that you're very
interested in or pursuing it a little bit at the
moment because I know that later this year you're also
tuned him to the theater for the first time since
two thousand and six, almost twenty years. What's what's I
don't slightly it was a long time ago, but it
(06:17):
was a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I has brought this about turning sixty.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I turned sixty in December of last year, and I
actually went, I just want to do things. I don't
want to slide into my final act without challenging myself.
I don't want it to just become Okay, well I'm
getting older now, I'm just going to retight.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
At final act at point now.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
But they say from sixty onwards, you know you're lucky
if you have twenty five, thirty to forty years left,
and I just want to make the most of them.
And I think learning something new, learning a new skill,
doing things that will challenge you is going to keep
your brain going and it'll keep your body going. Another
reason why I said yes to Dancing with the Stars
when I've said no to that a thousand times, I
said yes to that. I just finished that hat halfway
(06:55):
through that. I think, why did I say yes to this?
The fifteen year old in me wanted to do it.
The sixty year old body got three.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
Weeks into it, and when you are insane, that was
a stupid thing to do. But I loved it.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I loved it, and you can't tell us anything about it,
to any about it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
It made me.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I did actually think, like I said, my sixtier old
body after week two went wow, there were muscles that
I didn't know I had muscles that just hurt.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Everything hurt, everything hurt for like eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Everybody, everyone who goes on it says, you have no
idea what it's like. You have no idea how hard it.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Is, no idea, No four to five hours of training
a day.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
The judging as well, when you get up and all
of a sudden you're being judged for something that you're
not necessarily good at. And also at my age, i'd
gotten to that thing, well, well, if I can't do something, well,
I don't want to do it and I don't have to.
But I forgot for some reason, I thought, oh, I'm
going to be able to master this, and week three,
week before I'm like, oh I'm not.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
No, I don't want to do this. But it was
too late. I'd already committed.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
So so the sixteen that self doubt, the imposter syndrome,
all those feelings came flooding back. I was in floods
of tears. A lot of the time I was hurting.
The great thing was so were all the other contestants
were like newsreaders. You know, Michael Lasher, who's the news reader,
is in his forties or early fifties. He said he
his hands hadn't shaken for twenty seven years. He used
(08:15):
to have to hold a pen when he read the
news because his hands were shaking, he said, in twenty
seven years. That didn't happen until he got on the
stage for the first time I did the dance. All
of a sudden, his hands started to shake, and he
said in all the fears came flooding back from when
he was an intern, and everyone felt like that.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Did you get a little bit competitive though? Did you
decide while I am here, now I might as well
try And when.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
That did get competitive, except when I walked out in
front of a studio audience, I actually froze my poor
dance partner. I deer in headlights and went, I can't
do this. I actually when I can't do this, it's
it's still a blur to me. My first dance because
I don't know how I got through it. But he
just grabbed my hand and when you're doing it, and
of course you never do it as well as you've
(08:57):
done it in rehearsals, and so then you beat yourself
up thinking, oh I could.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Can I just do it exactly exactly? And that's the
thing has an actor.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
When you're I'm making television, you can see I'm going
to do another take, another third tap that you don't
get another go at this. It was like when I
did Master Chef. You didn't get another go. If you
burnt the steak, you burnt the steak. Honestly, last year
I watched you and under the Vines prosper a remarkable
place to die. And now we have happiness, and I'm wondering,
(09:27):
do you ever stop? No, I've now got a crime
drama and development in Australia, fantastic about an investigative journalist.
So no, I'm my brain never stops. I don't sleep,
so I'm always awake at like two in the morning
thinking about well, recently it was Dance Steps, and now
I'm thinking about the thing that i'm writing and that
i'm working on. And yeah, no, I'm constantly I've got
(09:48):
a film that i'm writing about. Weirdly enough, a dance
group for older women. So yeah, no, I'm I don't
want to stop because I do think we've got one life.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
I don't know how long I've gone. I just want
to make the most of every day.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
You were inducted into the LOGI Hall of Fame last year.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
What's it?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Knowledgement like that mean to you?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Well, again, you know, the first thing that you think
of when that happens is imposter syndrome.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
You go, there must be way more people that are
way more you know, deserving of it than me.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
So overwhelming, very humbling, and then on the night to
have it actually presented by my son was extraordinary, Like
that's probably the highlight for me. Yes, getting the award
was phenomenal and having all these incredible people saying amazing things,
watching my body of work and thinking, yes, I've been
doing this a very long time. But then when my
son came out and said you're a good person and
(10:39):
you're kind and all those things that went meant way
more to me.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Oh, that would have been very hard to get up
there and actually do the speech after hear it, well,
I imagined, because you are only the fourth woman I
know in forty years. What are they doing over there.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
I know, well, you know, it's hard again because you know,
part of me goes, oh my god, that's insane. But
then I also went, well, it's just, you know, thank you,
and let's hope that there's many more to come, because
again I thought I could rattle off names and names
and names of females.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
That deserve it.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
But hopefully that's just a start.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Next year's going to be another woman.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You've mentioned sort of imposter syndrome and things a few
times in this interview, and I'm intrigued it. As you said,
you've just turned sixty that you still have this. What
do we need to do apart from inducting you into
that favor to convince you that it's been an incredible
career and you deserve to be where you're at and
you belong. I do believe that.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
It's weird.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
The dancing thing brought up some issues about actually tapping
into the younger me, because that's the other thing that
I keep wanting to go back to the fifteen year
old me that I was so I judged so harshly
in the twenty three year old that had panic attacks
and the thirty two year old that I had a
nervous breakdown and full of self loathing, and I do
often when I'm fully aware of it, I can go
(11:57):
back and remind myself that I've come a long way.
But what Dancing with the Stars did teach me?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Or is it still there?
Speaker 4 (12:04):
The young girl still gets hurt and there is all
those feelings, and so I think it's just what you
just got to talk about it. You can try and
cover it up. I don't want to pretend that everything's
amazing all the time. I'm certainly a lot happy than
I was ten years ago, way more comfortable with where
I'm at. I am very contented in my life. But
it doesn't mean that things don't come up every so often.
(12:24):
And when they come up, I want to face them.
I'm not going to bury them back down, because that's
how you get sick. If you pretend that something doesn't
exist and just push it down, you'll get sick. So
if something comes up that creates a feeling in me,
I'll either talk to a therapist or I'll talk to
my husband, or I'll talk about it, get it out
and try and figure out how am I going to
deal with this now?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It is a tough industry you're in. Yah, it's a
cruel industry at times. You have to be able to
deal with a lot of rejection, you know, criticism, judgment,
all sorts of things. When you just go about your
day to day job. You do have to have quite
a thick skin.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
I don't have a thick skin at all. Weirdly enough,
you know. The good thing is that I because I
think I was so.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Tough on myself in my twenties and even my thirties.
You get into your forties and it stopped. You stop
caring as much. And what I've tried to say to
my son Zach, because he's obviously just starting out as
an actor, when you don't get a job, it's not
a rejection of you. It is because someone else they
saw something in a certain person that that they needed.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Completely different vision of it.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Maybe they want the right height whatever, I had blue
eyes exactly. So Zach. I think he's got a very
healthy self esteem because of that. And he's a very
secure young man, like he knows what he wants and
how to get it, and he also knows that he's
got parents that will support him no matter what.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So so does he listen to his mother when you
give him advice on the industry and acting.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Mostly I do.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Actually, sometimes I'll say something and I can just it
goes in one air and out the other thing, or
that didn't that didn't land at all. But then three
days later he'll be talking to someone else and he
might repeat it and I'll got oh, he wasn't listening.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
He probably won't attribute it to you. Will I will
have I will have heard it somewhere.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Sometimes Yea attributes it to me.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Oh well, look, it's so exciting. It's really exciting to
see what is next for you. And I can't wait
for more episodes of Happiness and really looking forward to
watching Zach and his career blossom as well.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Oh no, I think I have no doubt that he's
going to do well. He's got so many auditions coming up.
That's a great thing. We can help each other. He
helps me with mine and I help him with his.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, thank you so much for coming in, Thanks for
giving me. It's been a delight.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And if you want to catch Rebecca's new show, Happiness,
it's coming to three and three now this Thursday, April third.
And if you were wondering how she went and dancing
with the stars. We can't tell you because it doesn't
air until about June or July, even though it's been filmed.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, Listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks atb Well.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I think we all agree the world needs any jury
we can grab at the moment, and Rebecca Givney's new
show brings it in spades. Rebecca is well known for
her roles on The Flying Doctors, Packed the Rafters and
as doctor Jane Hanifax. But she's really branching out on
this next one. She's singing, she's dancing. It really is delightful.
The show is called Happiness. It's a locally made show
(00:34):
coming to three this week and centers around a community
theater group.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
What they rejected my visa You have to prove that
you hold a critical role in an organization that has
a distinguished reputation in New Field.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
How the hell am I meant to do that? Tara's
gonna help with the show, Rebecca Givney, it's in the
studio with me. Good morning. It is so lovely to
have you with us.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's lovely to be here now, Happiness. First thing I
want to say about Happiness is it has probably one
of the best opening scenes, oh anything I've seen and
a and I'm not going to tell you one about it.
They're just going to have to watch. But I just went,
I love that and I want to do that, my son.
That's all I wanted to do. Anyway, we'll leave that
(01:21):
for the audience to discover. I heard that you campaigned
hard to be in this show, that you messaged the
creators and auditions.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I did. I did. Actually, I was we were filming
under the Vines in Queenstown and everyone was auditioning for
this show and I'm like, what is everyone?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
What is the show?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
And there was just this bus and it was a
show called Happiness, and I went, I have to be
a part of that, anything that's called happiness, particularly the
way the world is at the moment. And I said,
you know, can I can I talk to them and
they went, oh, well, you know, can she sing? And
I'm like, wait a second. And I had to go
back through all my stuff and I found this little
tape that I did of a song called Fever that
(01:59):
I sang years ago, and I went, okay, I want
if I can recreate that. So literally, in the living
room of the place that I was renting in Clyde,
I put on a boombox instrumental to Fever and I
sang along to it into my phone and I sent
them that and said, see, I can hold a chune.
I'm not the world's best singer. And then they came
back and went, right, can she dance?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
I'm not sending you a dancing but I did.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I think the character was so specific and not that
they asked for an audition, but I didn't hear for
a few days, and I went, you know what, I'm
just gonna I'm just going to do the audition and
send it in. And so I did and sent in
and I dressed up for it and everything, and I
just went, I'm born to play this character.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
There is no one that can play.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
This character the way I can, because I've actually been
working on a character similar to Gay Summers for a
very long time and I hadn't been able to get
her on anything. So when I read her, I went, Okay,
I'm bringing my own character to this and that's Gay Summers.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
When was the last time you auditioned for something?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it depends on what it is.
I'm lucky that I do get off of things, but
if there's a film or something that's that people may
not see me in that role. I'm quite happy to
put down a self tape for her.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So you're part of a musical group, a cabaret group,
musical group we should call it.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Is the president ZZ, this amateur theater company in todo
she and she talks like that.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
She talks very softly.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yes, but it's part of an ensemble and I love
that as well. So they keep giving Gay a role
on the show because she's the president. Because she's definitely
not the best singer, and she's not the best dancer,
and she's possibly not the best actor either, but you'll
give it one hundred and fifty percent.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
As you just said, Look, you hadn't done a lot
of singing publicly that we knew about, or dancing. So
was the other reason you're attracted to this role was
because it was going to push you out of your
comfort zone.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Oh totally, absolutely pushed me out of my comfort zone.
And also just to be a part of an ensemble.
I hadn't actually been part of an ensemble for a
long time. I'm often and when I'm in a show,
i'm maybe the lead or I've always got lots to
say and lots to do. And I went, how great
to be part of a group that has to learn
singing and has to learn dance numbers and we all
get to do it together. And it just felt like
(04:17):
an amateur theater production. And that's how we felt when
we were filming it. It really felt like we became this
little family.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It is very funny happiness, but it's just filled with joy.
It looks like it must have been such fun to film.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
It was a joy every day.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Like Harry who plays my son Charlie in the show,
he and I had actually met through other means. He
co wrote some of Under the Vines. He's a writer
as well as an actor.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
But from the minute we.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
All got together on set, from day one, it was
like this little family and we laughed NonStop.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It was just joyous.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I don't think New Zealand has ever produced anything like
this show.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We need a bit of joid right now, totally.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's like being wrapped up in
a warm hug.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
You finished the first episode and you think I have
to watch the second one and the third one because
it just brings you joy. We had a screening the
other night for the cast and crew and most of
them hadn't seen it, and to just be in a
room with everyone watching it and hearing the joy and
the laughter and people just being so excited, and it
was wonderful.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Now it's fabmously written. There are some laugh out loud
witty lines in this How important are community theaters so important?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And that's kind of the theme of the show as
well as the series where Zon we get to an
end where actually the two main characters, Gay and her
son have a fight and she has this piece of
dialogue where she says, people do this because it makes
them happy. We've all got other lives, we've all got jobs.
They come here because it brings them something else. It
brings them joy. And that's what this show is all about.
(05:48):
It's about stepping away from your real life for a
minute and sitting down and experiencing joy for twenty minutes,
half an hour.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That's what the show is clearly kind of stiffing out
of your comfort zone and is something that you're very
interested in or pursuing it a little bit at the
moment because I know that later this year you're also
tuned him to the theater for the first time since
two thousand and six, almost twenty years. What's what's I
don't slightly it was a long time ago, but it
(06:17):
was a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I has brought this about turning sixty.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I turned sixty in December of last year, and I
actually went, I just want to do things. I don't
want to slide into my final act without challenging myself.
I don't want it to just become Okay, well I'm
getting older now, I'm just going to retight.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
At final act at point now.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
But they say from sixty onwards, you know you're lucky
if you have twenty five, thirty to forty years left,
and I just want to make the most of them.
And I think learning something new, learning a new skill,
doing things that will challenge you is going to keep
your brain going and it'll keep your body going. Another
reason why I said yes to Dancing with the Stars
when I've said no to that a thousand times, I
said yes to that. I just finished that hat halfway
(06:55):
through that. I think, why did I say yes to this?
The fifteen year old in me wanted to do it.
The sixty year old body got three.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
Weeks into it, and when you are insane, that was
a stupid thing to do. But I loved it.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I loved it, and you can't tell us anything about it,
to any about it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
It made me.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I did actually think, like I said, my sixtier old
body after week two went wow, there were muscles that
I didn't know I had muscles that just hurt.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Everything hurt, everything hurt for like eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Everybody, everyone who goes on it says, you have no
idea what it's like. You have no idea how hard it.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Is, no idea, No four to five hours of training
a day.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
The judging as well, when you get up and all
of a sudden you're being judged for something that you're
not necessarily good at. And also at my age, i'd
gotten to that thing, well, well, if I can't do something, well,
I don't want to do it and I don't have to.
But I forgot for some reason, I thought, oh, I'm
going to be able to master this, and week three,
week before I'm like, oh I'm not.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
No, I don't want to do this. But it was
too late. I'd already committed.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
So so the sixteen that self doubt, the imposter syndrome,
all those feelings came flooding back. I was in floods
of tears. A lot of the time I was hurting.
The great thing was so were all the other contestants
were like newsreaders. You know, Michael Lasher, who's the news reader,
is in his forties or early fifties. He said he
his hands hadn't shaken for twenty seven years. He used
(08:15):
to have to hold a pen when he read the
news because his hands were shaking, he said, in twenty
seven years. That didn't happen until he got on the
stage for the first time I did the dance. All
of a sudden, his hands started to shake, and he
said in all the fears came flooding back from when
he was an intern, and everyone felt like that.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Did you get a little bit competitive though? Did you
decide while I am here, now I might as well
try And when.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
That did get competitive, except when I walked out in
front of a studio audience, I actually froze my poor
dance partner. I deer in headlights and went, I can't
do this. I actually when I can't do this, it's
it's still a blur to me. My first dance because
I don't know how I got through it. But he
just grabbed my hand and when you're doing it, and
of course you never do it as well as you've
(08:57):
done it in rehearsals, and so then you beat yourself
up thinking, oh I could.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Can I just do it exactly exactly? And that's the
thing has an actor.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
When you're I'm making television, you can see I'm going
to do another take, another third tap that you don't
get another go at this. It was like when I
did Master Chef. You didn't get another go. If you
burnt the steak, you burnt the steak. Honestly, last year
I watched you and under the Vines prosper a remarkable
place to die. And now we have happiness, and I'm wondering,
(09:27):
do you ever stop? No, I've now got a crime
drama and development in Australia, fantastic about an investigative journalist.
So no, I'm my brain never stops. I don't sleep,
so I'm always awake at like two in the morning
thinking about well, recently it was Dance Steps, and now
I'm thinking about the thing that i'm writing and that
i'm working on. And yeah, no, I'm constantly I've got
(09:48):
a film that i'm writing about. Weirdly enough, a dance
group for older women. So yeah, no, I'm I don't
want to stop because I do think we've got one life.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
I don't know how long I've gone. I just want
to make the most of every day.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
You were inducted into the LOGI Hall of Fame last year.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
What's it?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Knowledgement like that mean to you?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Well, again, you know, the first thing that you think
of when that happens is imposter syndrome.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
You go, there must be way more people that are
way more you know, deserving of it than me.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
So overwhelming, very humbling, and then on the night to
have it actually presented by my son was extraordinary, Like
that's probably the highlight for me. Yes, getting the award
was phenomenal and having all these incredible people saying amazing things,
watching my body of work and thinking, yes, I've been
doing this a very long time. But then when my
son came out and said you're a good person and
(10:39):
you're kind and all those things that went meant way
more to me.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Oh, that would have been very hard to get up
there and actually do the speech after hear it, well,
I imagined, because you are only the fourth woman I
know in forty years. What are they doing over there.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
I know, well, you know, it's hard again because you know,
part of me goes, oh my god, that's insane. But
then I also went, well, it's just, you know, thank you,
and let's hope that there's many more to come, because
again I thought I could rattle off names and names
and names of females.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
That deserve it.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
But hopefully that's just a start.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Next year's going to be another woman.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You've mentioned sort of imposter syndrome and things a few
times in this interview, and I'm intrigued it. As you said,
you've just turned sixty that you still have this. What
do we need to do apart from inducting you into
that favor to convince you that it's been an incredible
career and you deserve to be where you're at and
you belong. I do believe that.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
It's weird.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
The dancing thing brought up some issues about actually tapping
into the younger me, because that's the other thing that
I keep wanting to go back to the fifteen year
old me that I was so I judged so harshly
in the twenty three year old that had panic attacks
and the thirty two year old that I had a
nervous breakdown and full of self loathing, and I do
often when I'm fully aware of it, I can go
(11:57):
back and remind myself that I've come a long way.
But what Dancing with the Stars did teach me?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Or is it still there?
Speaker 4 (12:04):
The young girl still gets hurt and there is all
those feelings, and so I think it's just what you
just got to talk about it. You can try and
cover it up. I don't want to pretend that everything's
amazing all the time. I'm certainly a lot happy than
I was ten years ago, way more comfortable with where
I'm at. I am very contented in my life. But
it doesn't mean that things don't come up every so often.
(12:24):
And when they come up, I want to face them.
I'm not going to bury them back down, because that's
how you get sick. If you pretend that something doesn't
exist and just push it down, you'll get sick. So
if something comes up that creates a feeling in me,
I'll either talk to a therapist or I'll talk to
my husband, or I'll talk about it, get it out
and try and figure out how am I going to
deal with this now?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It is a tough industry you're in. Yah, it's a
cruel industry at times. You have to be able to
deal with a lot of rejection, you know, criticism, judgment,
all sorts of things. When you just go about your
day to day job. You do have to have quite
a thick skin.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
I don't have a thick skin at all. Weirdly enough,
you know. The good thing is that I because I
think I was so.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Tough on myself in my twenties and even my thirties.
You get into your forties and it stopped. You stop
caring as much. And what I've tried to say to
my son Zach, because he's obviously just starting out as
an actor, when you don't get a job, it's not
a rejection of you. It is because someone else they
saw something in a certain person that that they needed.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Completely different vision of it.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Maybe they want the right height whatever, I had blue
eyes exactly. So Zach. I think he's got a very
healthy self esteem because of that. And he's a very
secure young man, like he knows what he wants and
how to get it, and he also knows that he's
got parents that will support him no matter what.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So so does he listen to his mother when you
give him advice on the industry and acting.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Mostly I do.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Actually, sometimes I'll say something and I can just it
goes in one air and out the other thing, or
that didn't that didn't land at all. But then three
days later he'll be talking to someone else and he
might repeat it and I'll got oh, he wasn't listening.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
He probably won't attribute it to you. Will I will
have I will have heard it somewhere.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Sometimes Yea attributes it to me.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Oh well, look, it's so exciting. It's really exciting to
see what is next for you. And I can't wait
for more episodes of Happiness and really looking forward to
watching Zach and his career blossom as well.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Oh no, I think I have no doubt that he's
going to do well. He's got so many auditions coming up.
That's a great thing. We can help each other. He
helps me with mine and I help him with his.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, thank you so much for coming in, Thanks for
giving me. It's been a delight.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And if you want to catch Rebecca's new show, Happiness,
it's coming to three and three now this Thursday, April third.
And if you were wondering how she went and dancing
with the stars. We can't tell you because it doesn't
air until about June or July, even though it's been filmed.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, Listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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