Daniel MacPherson opens up about partner and family life
Former Neighbours star Daniel MacPherson has opened up about being back in Sydney, his partner, model Jessica Dover, and his ‘wonderful’ family life.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Daniel MacPherson is finally home, in every sense of the word.
Performing in Sydney for the first time — a milestone in itself — it’s also the first time he can juggle real life with work — the things most take for granted. But there’s nothing mundane about daycare drops or family dinners and spending time with a bunch of tight-knit mates he’d normally see when living out of a suitcase.
Now in his mid 40s, the Cronulla actor has a new-found confidence he didn’t have in decades past. And it feels bloody good.
“I think if I’m being really honest, that’s probably come from a real growth in my self belief as an actor, that maybe deep down in my 20s and 30s, I didn’t have,” he tells Insider.
“But to turn around, now in my 40s and go — well, hang on a second, you’ve been working back to back for 25 years.
“It’s not a fluke.
“And to go back and study and work with great acting coaches and great acting teachers and then work opposite people like Jared Harris and Russell Crowe, and to now work on something like the Woman in Black – it’s like dude, you can’t still be crippled by self doubt, can you? So there is a wonderful self belief and self confidence — and maybe a calmness that comes with that.”
To be able to go to work for Woman In Black — the best role and performance of his career yet, he says — and get to pick up four-year-old son Austin from daycare and have dinner before going to work doing what he loves, well that means the world, because he’s never had it before.
He shares Austin with fellow performer Zoe Ventoura, who this weekend closed Chicago at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre and will move on to Adelaide, just as MacPherson takes to the Royal Theatre stage.
“Life is wonderful and I’m very happy — everything is great,” he says.
“And I will be juggling — I mean, the idea of coming back and performing in Sydney will also mean I’ll be juggling daycare pick-ups and drop-offs, and it will be a great balance of coming home, but also navigating real life commitments, and that’s something you don’t have to do when you’re off on tour.
“The idea I can pick up my son from daycare and have an early dinner with him and then go off and do what I love doing at night-time and come home to my boy is special.
“And that’s something I haven’t been able to do in my career.
“There’s lots of great stuff in my life, and my relationship with Jess is one of those and we are a wonderful support to each other,” he says of model partner Jessica Dover, who was with him in Melbourne to open the season and will come back and forth from Sydney and Adelaide.
“She’s incredibly supportive of me. Because touring is hard. Touring is hard on everybody. It’s hard on family and partners.
“Even Austin turned around and said ‘dad, when your show’s finished, can we go away on holidays?’ — and this is from a four-year-old.
“He’ll say ‘dad, can you can you come home in one week?’ and it’s ‘sorry mate, I’ll come home in two weeks’.
“And he’ll say ‘aw – can you come home in two weeks – and then the week after too?’.
“Touring is tough.
“But it’s be great to be back home and I’m well supported by those in my life so it’s great fun.”
The Neighbours alumni has come a long way since Ramsay Street, and gets nostalgic at the thought. His journey — which included two years in the UK on the popular TV series The Bill, and starring on stage in Godspell alternating in the roles of Jesus and Judas — has also seen him add film credits like Poker Face and A Wrinkle In Time to his name.
Closer to home, it was City Homicide and Wild Boys, as well as hosting Dancing with the Stars for seven seasons.
Most recently, he featured on stage in 2:22 — A Ghost Story in Melbourne opposite Ruby Rose and Gemma Ward, and will next be seen opposite Russell Crowe in the upcoming feature Land of Bad.
“I am getting nostalgic,” he tells Insider.
“I love these full-circle moments of going, you know, we started out of the (Neighbours) studio in Nunawading (in Victoria) where I had no idea what I was doing.
“Fast forward 25 years, and you’re all coming to the opening of an incredible play that I’m really proud of where I’m standing on stage, with one other person, for two hours every night.
“It’s extraordinary.
“Funnily enough, I had Jan Russ, who cast me in Neighbours come to see the show, my opening night tickets went to my very first vocal and acting coach on Neighbours in 1998 … who I’m still working with now.”
And what better way to celebrate his homecoming than with the performance he’s most proud of, in a work that’s challenged him like nothing else.
He stars in Woman In Black opposite theatre great John Waters, who played the same role when the show — dubbed the most terrifying live theatre experience in the world — came to Australia 18 years ago.
It’s the second longest-running play in West End history, after Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, and MacPherson says for good reason.
“2:22 last year was like going away for a sort of dirty weekend that reignited my passion for theatre, and 12 months later, now I’m madly in love with it and we’re getting married,” he laughs.
“I’m just loving being back on stage — but then a show like this, which is the complete sort of other end of the spectrum when it comes to spooky tales and ghost stories from 2:22 — this is a really classic, tried and tested English style of gothic horror that’s survived over 30 years in the West End.
“It’s beautifully well written, it’s really rich, and it’s been far beyond being terrifying and scary.
“It’s got so much depth to its story and to its characters – it’s a real treat.
“And not only do we have a show that’s been carefully refined and beautifully performed all around the world, but also, I’m in the hands of a wonderful stage partner, who knows the thematic and the workings of the show first-hand, albeit that John is the first to admit that his memory of 18 years ago and the show was a little bit hazy, so he certainly brings a freshness to it as well.”
Susan Hill’s acclaimed ghost story comes dramatically alive in Stephen Mallatratt’s stage adaptation, by all accounts a brilliantly successful study in atmosphere, illusion and controlled horror.
Through June and July, the gripping production performed limited seasons in Melbourne, Canberra, Wollongong and Newcastle, and it will open in Sydney next week.
“It’s like being in fight camp or training camp, but for your acting, and I love that,” MacPherson explains.
“I love that every single day, and often twice a day, I get to step into the arena and work on a really robust piece of writing that stretches you from laughter to tears to fear to anger in every which way under the sun, opposite a master like John Waters.
“Some days you go ‘oh my god, how am I going to get through today’ when you’re on tour, because it’s a really taxing physically, emotionally, spiritually taxing performance, and taxing show – but my god is it rewarding.
“When we get to the end of that show and the final couple of scenes with John and myself and so much is revealed – you can feel the collective inhale and exhale of the audience and you could hear the proverbial pin drop.
“But when all that work is done, I don’t think there’s any other experience like it in the acting sphere – certainly not, I don’t think, in film and television.
“So much of my career has been outside of Sydney that it’s kept family and friends slightly separate for a long time — starting out in Melbourne when I was younger or in London in Los Angeles — and the idea of constantly travelling when I’ve got to go to work … and then all of a sudden not only am I back in Sydney, but I’m back doing theatre in an extraordinarily stripped back, and exposing type of performance,” he says.
“So it’s going to be very different than what I’m used to.”
Different is right. As is the confidence he’s feeling about his craft, because he didn’t have that as a young actor, and it’s been transformative in all aspects of his life.
“That’s been the joy of ageing, for me,” the six-time Ironman Triathlon finisher says. He’s even represented Australia at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.
“My 20s and 30s, I really thought success was about being busy,” he explains.
“And it was. That level of success was doing as much as I could as well as I could for as long as I could. “And that was film, TV hosting, triathlons, you name it. Being busy meant being successful.
“I think now, as I’ve aged, I’ve traded that for being better.
“I only really want to work at a really high level that I love, and that challenges me, with people and material that I love working with, and working on.
“And I’m really happy with that.
“It means I’ve got more energy – by saying no to much more stuff, I’ve got much more energy to put into the stuff that I really care about and I think the quality of work and life that comes from that is through the roof.
“I’m certainly much more satisfied.
“Where I’m refining and where I’m at in my mid 40s – oh geez I don’t know if I’ve used that term before – and I think definitely fatherhood as well – I think I’m finally learning a little bit more balance.”
He says the challenge of the Woman In Black became evident when he and Waters first started reading the work together over Zoom.
“But about two weeks in I went, wow, this is the biggest thing I have ever learned in my career,” he admits.
“It is the most challenging role and complex role I’ve ever taken in my career.
“And I think ultimately, it’ll be one of the best performances and certainly one that I’m most proud of – in my career.
“But also, when pushing myself in all different ways, I think fatherhood, taking on a job like this – and being in my mid 40s – has forced me to find a bit more balance.
“So, in putting in the effort that this show requires, forces me to turn down the effort that goes into other areas.
“So instead of trying to go ‘I have to be super fit, super active, a super present dad, and be on stage eight shows – well actually, performing this show is challenging and satisfying enough, that actually, the rest of my energy goes into fatherhood, the key relationships in my life, and my mental and physical health and well being – which is a bit different for me.”
There’s a rawness to the show, he says – and as a performer – there’s nowhere to hide
“That’s been one of the joys of it,” he says of the intimate production.
“Audiences have been really enjoying the stripped back nature of this show.
“It’s an experience, and it’s an exercise of imagination for an audience.
“It’s a great theatre show to experience and it’s a very intimate performance from John and I, and it’s by far the most exposing and vulnerable performance that I’ve ever done.
“But that’s where the magic is.
“That’s where the good stuff is.
“No one wants to see you’re hiding behind makeup and costume and whatever else.
“It’s a really rich, raw place to be working from and I’m addicted.”
And now, Sydney calls. Finally.
“It absolutely feels like I’m coming home,” he says.
“To have close family, close friends, people that I love and care about, able to come and see me do something I’m very proud of, is very special to me.
“And in the city I grew up in – it’s really special.
“I haven’t experienced that before.
“For me, work has always been about jumping on a plane and going somewhere to work – this is a new chapter for me.
“It’s slightly surreal and odd and awesome all at once.
“It’s like – I went to school just there, and my sister worked there, and hang on, I’m gonna jump on stage just there – oh wow.
“I’m such a softie as I get older, I’ll probably shed a tear and go ‘look how far you’ve come, mate’.
“I used to go and trade basketball cards at the card shop after school 26 years ago and 26 years later, here I am, on stage at the Theatre Royal – who would have thought.”
The Woman in Black opens at Sydney’s Theatre Royal on Tuesday and will run until August 18. theatreroyalsydney.com
Originally published as Daniel MacPherson opens up about partner and family life
Join the conversation
Sharyn Ghidella’s replacement for Channel 7’s flagship anchor role revealed
A Brisbane-born journalist has been named as the replacement for Sharyn Ghidella to anchor Channel 7’s 6pm bulletin alongside Max Futcher after her predecessor’s shock exit.
Read more
I never need to work again … but choose to anyway
An Aussie entrepreneur says she never needs to work again – but continues to do so anyway.
Read more