Why you know Melanie Zanetti’s voice but not her name

She stars in the most watched Australian show of all time, yet can walk through supermarkets and airports in complete anonymity. So who is the Australian actor whose smash hit appears on television screens across the world every day?

Melanie Zanetti is the voice of Bluey’s mum, Chilli Heeler. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

With a roll call of accolades that any TV or film project would bark and roll over for, a legion of celebrity fans, tens of millions of viewers in more than 60 countries and pride of place as the top dog of Australian television, Bluey is the biggest little show in the world. But across nearly five years on air, one of its most beloved elements – the woman who voices Bluey’s mum Chilli Heeler – has remained almost an enigma, at least until now. In a photo shoot with Stellar and a sit-down with its podcast Something To Talk About, Melanie Zanetti reveals how she feels about having one of the most recognisable voices on the planet, ponders why people still believe that Bluey (and her sister Bingo) are boys and considers the bizarre

theory that seems to prove that dogs love watching the show as much as humans big and small do

On Bluey’s enormous global success and how she feels about the five-year milestone of the show: “It definitely doesn’t feel like five years, even though so much has happened to this little Aussie show. Recently, I think, it was the second most streamed show in the world, which is just wild. I’m so proud to be part of such a beautiful production that’s come out of Australia. When I first saw the beginnings of the pilot, I knew it was special. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. It was so beautiful, my heart actually hurt watching it and I was like, ‘This I want to be part of.’ I don’t think anyone could have predicted how big it’s blown up, but I did know it was special.”

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted how big it’s blown up, but I did know it was special,” Zanetti says of the show. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

On how she came to voice the character of Chilli: “It was a really serendipitous situation. I was putting a voiceover down in a home studio of Dan Brumm [the sound designer of Bluey and younger brother of the show’s creator and animator Joe Brumm], who plays Stripe in the show. He said, ‘My brother’s making this animation. It’s already cast, but you’ve got a great voice – can you put some demos down for some of the pilot stuff?’ And he showed me the animatics, which is like the very early few frames a second – that’s what I saw and fell in love with – and then closer to the release date, they wanted to change up the voices. I think the ABC wanted something different. I think the mum’s voice was maybe English and they wanted it to sound Australian, so they chucked my vocals in. I was very excited. Then they did their due diligence and auditioned for like three months over the entire country, then they came back to me and went, ‘You were actually right all along.’ A couple of years later, one of the producers told me that they just couldn’t find the same warmth in anyone else’s voice. So that was lovely.”

Listen to the full interview with Melanie Zanetti below or wherever you get your podcasts:

On how she gets into character: “I’m not a mum myself, but I am one of six kids, so there are certain lines where I’m like, ‘How would my mother…? Oh yeah, that’s how mums would say that.’ So, I just imagine having two little cartoon puppies.”

On the controversy earlier this year over the storyline in an episode titled Exercise, in which Bluey’s father, Bandit, pinches his sides and laments being overweight. (Body-image experts and some fans criticised the scene for being fatphobic, and the ABC eventually edited it out): “To be honest, I think the creators handled that really beautifully. Obviously it wasn’t intended that way and it was looking at the reality [of] what a lot of humans do, but I think they took on the messaging of people saying ‘Even if this is what people do, perhaps it’s not the best message.’ [They] removed that bit that wasn’t necessary and [weren’t] defensive or reactionary. And that’s a testament to the producers and the team and Joe. What the show already does is say that we’re all human/canine and we all make mistakes; one of my favourite parts of the show is we have examples of the parents owning their mistakes and apologising. I’m trying to think of pre-Bluey cartoons that did that in such a concise and beautiful way... And for parents to firstly have that modelled, but then [for] children to go, ‘Oh, we’re all human, we all make mistakes and we own them.’ I think in a meta way we saw Bluey do that in real life. There are people who disagreed with the removing of [the scene] but we’re trying to look after as many people as possible and be as inclusive as possible.”

Zanetti stars on the cover of this week’s edition of Stellar.

On how she fosters a rapport with David McCormack, who plays her onscreen husband Bandit, and who she didn’t meet face-to-face until four years into the show: “It is kind of wild. We’ll record separately. But I think what you’re feeling, that magic connection, is in the writing. It’s really Joe – he’s a genius, he’s incredible. When I first talked to Dave, I was like, ‘Oh, you’re a legend. You’re the warmest, friendliest [person].’ He is Bandit. He has two little girls. That’s genuinely just him, so I think casting really kind, friendly people who have the essence of those characters and then really good writing is what brings it all together.”

On being a “household voice” and whether or not people do a double take when they hear her speak: “Never. I have never been vocally recognised, I think, because my actual voice is just a couple of steps away from Chilli. Also, I’ve had the feedback that I don’t necessarily look like what they had in their mind. I don’t know what they’re imagining... I’m not actually a red heeler. That’s sort of a little bit separate. Dave has such a unique voice that he’s told me he’s been in the supermarket and someone an aisle over runs around to find Bandit. But I kind of love the anonymity. I’ve often been in situations where I’ve walked past whole families decked out in Bluey gear. Once at an airport in Atlanta – they weren’t even Australian, they were American – and they were reciting parts of Bluey and I’m walking past going, Wow, you guys have no idea, but I’m loving this. I was going up the escalator

and they said a line and I threw my line back and their whole face went ‘boom’. Anyway, they all had a moment. It was very funny. But usually I just keep to myself.”

Melanie Zanetti plays Chilli Heeler, Bluey’s mum, first on the left. Picture: supplied/ABC

On the pros and cons of the anonymity that being a voice actor provides: “One of the positive things about being a voice is that you’re not going to be pigeonholed into a specific role or character because they know you ‘vocally’ as that; it leaves space to do all of these other things in the acting world, which is really wonderful – having breadth and space. And, as we all know, fame is a double-edged sword. I look at some of those people at that really top A-lister level and go, ‘That is so much work.’ There’s so much self-preservation that has to happen. There’s a level of exhaustion with having your every move analysed. I’m an introvert. I love people but I need a lot of my own space, so I can very clearly see the tricky parts of that. And with social media, there’s so much more access that people have to everyone and access to share opinions that aren’t always necessary or kind. There are some beautiful parts of it and there have been lots of wonderful doors opened by being part of such a gorgeous project and a project that’s spreading such incredible messages. There are beautiful learning things in Bluey that aren’t didactic – nothing shoved down your throat. I’ve had so many parents, particularly fathers, tell me that it has helped them learn how to play with their kids, help them be better parents, even [helped with] learning how to apologise to [their] kids, learning how to talk about death – so many interesting things that

it brings up in a gentle and kind way and, you know, you don’t always get that when you’re working in this industry. Sometimes you’re like, ‘What is this all for? Does this mean anything? It’s not brain surgery.’ But then a show like Bluey comes along and you realise how special it is.”

“There’s a lot of joy about not having to care [about] what you look like,” Zanetti says of being a voice actor. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

On being enamoured with animation work, given her theatre background (after graduating in theatre arts from the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba in 2007, the now-38-year-old worked extensively with the Queensland Theatre company before moving into film, TV and voiceover work): “There’s a lot of joy about not having to care [about] what you look like. Being in an industry that is so looks-focused and so much of the time it doesn’t matter what you [do]... You have to do great work and be consistent but there’s so much stuff outside your control. I was told, ‘She feels too tiny for a police person’ or for a number of [roles]. I’m a tiny person, so there are things outside your control, but being in a medium where it literally doesn’t matter and it’s just your voice... There’s something so freeing about that, which I love.”

On the viral TikTok theory that dogs love watching Bluey due to the show’s use of dog-friendly colours (canines’ eyes can only perceive blue and yellow, and the Heeler family are predominantly blue or a yellow-y orange): “It was news to me and also to Joe. He was like, ‘I want to say it was intentional. Awesome.’ I actually thought dogs were colourblind – I think they are to an extent but those two colours work well. I know people who don’t have children but have dog children and they’re like, ‘I don’t like my dogs to watch anything stressful or violent and this is the perfect show for them.’ I even have friends who started putting it on for their dogs and then got hooked, and they’re just a couple in their 30s. No kids. Adore the show.”

On why so many people assume Bluey, a now-seven-year-old girl, is a boy: “We’re so used to having our protagonist being male, and also because Bluey is blue and we have this cultural association with blue for boys and pink for girls. I think it’s as simple as that, and we just assume, ‘Well, one of them is going to be a boy if the other one is a girl.’ I love that Joe created these characters and didn’t gender them in any way, didn’t put like bows or big eyelashes or anything to say that they’re a female character but what it’s meant is that all kids, it doesn’t matter what gender, love Bluey. Bingo and Bluey just happen to be girls. Joe didn’t do it to go, ‘Oh, I’m sending a message here.’ He was just like, ‘Oh no, that’s just what they are.’ Because there was no push for intentions behind it, it has been this beautiful showing that gender isn’t important [in] who is the protagonist. Everyone can follow along

to stories about little girl dogs, too.”

The ABC is celebrating five years of Bluey with Bluey Fest from October 23. For more information, visit abc.net.au/abckids.

Originally published as Why you know Melanie Zanetti’s voice but not her name