‘I’m 57 and I feel that I’m just getting started’: Helen Thomson

This story is part of the March 23 edition of Sunday Life.See all 14 stories.

I am running late to meet Helen Thomson, which is never how you want these things to start. To make matters worse, an unknown number is calling my phone, which turns out to be Helen politely asking if I am lost (correct) and then providing detailed directions.

“Turn right near the bus stop and the cafe is on the corner,” explains Thomson. “I just want to make sure you find it OK. Also, I don’t know what you look like, but I will keep an eye out for you!”

Luckily, I know precisely what Helen Thomson looks like, her being one of Australia’s most celebrated actors. It also doesn’t hurt that I am fresh from re-watching Colin from Accounts, the breakout comedy created by married couple Patrick Bramall and Harriet Dyer. Thomson, 57, steals the show as Dyer’s mother, Lynelle, an ultra-conservative, slightly bonkers men’s rights activist and founder of WAWAM (Women Against Women Against Men).

“Would you believe, after 30 years in this business, that’s the role I get most recognised for?” says Thomson, laughing. “I do love Lynelle, though. What a character!”

A long-time star of stage and screen, Thomson’s résumé is as exhaustive as it is comprehensive. She’s appeared on almost every major Australian TV series, including Blue Heelers, All Saints, Rake and Kath & Kim, and will next star in The Last Anniversary, the latest Liane Moriarty novel to be adapted by the powerhouse producer of Big Little Lies, Bruna Papandrea.

In addition to the small screen, there’s film: a breakout role in the 2003 crime comedy Gettin’ Square and her impressive turn in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic playing the crooner’s mother, Gladys Presley. And, of course, on stage. This is where Thomson, a Helpmann Award winner and a staple of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), has been most prolific.

Thomson’s long association with the STC perhaps explains why she found our meeting spot – a cafe a few hundred metres from the company’s harbourside headquarters – without issue. “I’ve got lunch there later today,” says Thomson, glancing towards the theatre. “It’s odd being there and not being on stage, but I enjoy coming to Sydney without having to work.”

These days, Thomson calls the Blue Mountains home, having relocated there in 2008 with her husband, actor David Roberts, in search of a slower pace of life. “We’d just had our second child, Lachlan, and I remember pushing our three-year-old, Darcy, on the swing at the local park,” says Thomson. “From where I was standing, you could spy the top of the Blue Mountains.”

Jacket and pants both by Zara.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford

She admits the move was paired with a nagging fear – actors are conditioned to stay where the work is – but ultimately, it paid off. “It’s a great place to raise kids. We have a massive garden that I spend every day tending to, and it’s all the things everyone who lives in Sydney long enough ends up dreaming about. You know, the quiet life.”

And when the silence becomes deafening? “That’s when I’m on the phone to my agent.”

There was no hesitation when Thomson’s agent called about The Last Anniversary, the latest Liane Moriarty bestseller to be adapted for television.

Moriarty’s books have a habit of working well on screen. In 2017, HBO optioned Big Little Lies, casting Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley in lead roles. The series, which follows a group of wealthy white women who become embroiled in a murder scandal, was a critical and commercial hit and studios raced to replicate the buzz.

Since then, several more Moriarty novels have been adapted, including Nine Perfect Strangers, Apples Never Fall and now The Last Anniversary. As with much of Moriarty’s work, The Last Anniversary centres on a murder in a tight-knit community.

The story begins in 1932 on Scribbly Gum Island when two sisters, Connie and Rose, find a baby abandoned in a house. The baby – later named Enigma – is the daughter of island residents Jack and Alice Munro, who have seemingly disappeared without a trace. Fast-forward several decades, and Enigma now has children of her own and runs a thriving business on the island that capitalises on tourists’ appetite for true crime by offering guided tours of the “Munro baby house”.

Trench by Oroton, Max Mara shirt, Jimmy Choo shoes.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford

“I hoovered the book, couldn’t put it down,” admits Thomson, who plays Enigma. “Originally, I auditioned for another role and the feedback came in that I did well, but they would like to see me read for Enigma.”

As luck would have it, Enigma suited Thomson just fine. “She’s a mother who never had a mother of her own, so is a bit of a lost soul,” she says. “It does worry me slightly, though, that she’s described in the book as a ‘total narcissist’ and they thought I’d be perfect for it.”

In addition to Thomson, the series stars Teresa Palmer, Miranda Richardson, Danielle Macdonald and Claude Scott Mitchell. Booking the job also doubled as a bucket-list milestone for Thomson, a self-confessed Black Adder fan who describes working with British actor Richardson as “a pinch-me moment”.

“Miranda was spectacular, all the girls were,” she says. “Not to count out the men – we do have a couple of lovely blokes in it; Jeremy Lindsay Taylor is a joy – but this is a female-driven story.”

Ostensibly, the mystery surrounding Jack and Alice frames all six episodes, but scratch the surface and The Last Anniversary is really an exploration of family, trauma, motherhood and the women who define the generations that follow them.

“One of Moriarty’s strengths is writing for women at different stages of their lives and then unpacking how each stage presents different issues,” explains Thomson. “This story is about complex women who love each other but have also got unresolved tension, so it’s chaotic and messy, just like real life.”

Thomson wears Macgraw suit, shirt and tie, and Jimmy Choo shoes.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford

Chaos and mess, small towns and big families; the source material spoke to Thomson, who grew up on a farm outside the tiny town of Thangool – population 685 – in central Queensland, the second youngest of five children.

Her farmer father headed out before the sun was up and did not come home until well after it went down. Still, the family would congregate around the kitchen table each night, swapping stories, sharing laughs, occasionally stealing one another’s food. “My elder brother Malcolm had this clever skill of distracting you, then grabbing your best baked potato when you weren’t looking.”

She adds, “Everything was done with love and cheek, our parents made sure it was a place we all felt that we belonged.” Yet, as Thomson observed her classmates “leaving school and having babies”, her mother urged her to seek a life beyond Thangool.

“Mum was 21 when she had her first baby, and she was typical of her generation in that she wanted us to do all the things she missed out on, to see the world and get an education.”

Hightailing it to Brisbane, Thomson enrolled at the University of Southern Queensland, then toured extensively with the Queensland Theatre Company. In the late ’90s, she met fellow actor David Roberts, who tagged along with one of his mates to watch her on stage. The pair hit it off at a post-show celebration. “This was back in the day when actors used to drink heavily,” say Thomson. “Now we’re all very well-behaved.”

The pair married in 2000 and while they’ve only worked together a handful of times, having a partner who understands the business has proved helpful.

Zara jacket and pants, Joseph shirt from Christensen Copenhagen.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford

“This life has such highs and lows, and even when you’re well established, you do not get all the roles you go for, so you deal with rejection frequently,” says Thomson. “We’re able to cut each other slack in a way other people don’t always understand.”

The highest point of Thomson’s career was arguably in 2020, when she was cast as Gladys Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, replacing Maggie Gyllenhaal, who left the project due to scheduling conflicts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The moment you get a big role like that stays with you forever,” she says. “I was doing 110 kilometres on the M4 [motorway], and my agent rang with the news. I just kept telling her she’d made a mistake!”

This imposter syndrome continued until the first day of shooting, an interior scene at the meticulously re-created Graceland compound opposite Tom Hanks and Austin Butler.

“The thought came into my head that if I’m not good at this, I will be sacked because I’m not famous and can easily be replaced. Then Baz called a wrap, and he walked past me, squeezed my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and just nodded. It was his way of telling me I belonged.”

A trip to the Oscars followed, which proved a chance to catch up with old friends (“Cate Blanchett introduced me to a very nice man with grey hair who turned out to be Steven Spielberg”) while also allowing Thomson to wonder if this might be her moment.

“People were telling me I was going to take off and have a kind of Jackie Weaver-style breakthrough,” she says. “And it’s not that Elvis hasn’t led to other things, just not in a really obvious way.”

Instead, she says, it was a reminder that acting, like everything in life, is messy, chaotic and wonderfully unpredictable. “One thing you get with maturity is the realisation that you’re not going to be right for every role, but if they’ve cast you, it’s because they saw something special in you.

“I’m 57 now, and I feel that I’m just getting started. No one knows what the future holds, but I’ve never been in such a strong position.”

She may not know what comes next, but if her impeccable sense of direction is anything to go by, Helen Thomson will be in the right place at the right time.

Fashion editor: Penny McCarthy; Hair: Brad Mullins using Oribe; Make-up: Sarah Tammer using Charlotte Tilbury.

The Last Anniversary will stream on Binge from March 27.

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