Here’s what the stars of prison drama Wentworth are doing in real life lockdown
They spend their lives playing people living in isolation, but how are the cast members of hit drama Wentworth spending their time in actual lockdown? We find out from five key players.
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They spend their lives working in a TV prison, but how are the cast of hit drama Wentworth coping with actual lockdown?
KATE JENKINSON (ALLIE NOVAK)
HOW ARE YOU STAYING SANE?
I give myself one thing to achieve per day. Today I’m going to the doctor which is probably the most exciting thing I’ve done in the last three weeks. I’ve put a full face of make up on. I’ve picked out a cute outfit. My gynaecologist is going to see the best version of me.
COOKING
I started doing Cooking With Covid on Instagram. It was out of necessity at that hairy point when people were panic buying and you couldn’t get eggs or pasta or milk. I started to get incredibly creative with what’s been in the cupboard for years. I’ve found use-by dates are a mere suggestion! And the more alcohol you can add to your diet the better. It’s medicinal, it’s antibacterial, I say have a cocktail a day. If it’s good enough for the Queen it’s good enough for me.
BINGEING
Aside from Tiger King just really depressing documentaries and crime shows like How To Fix a Drug Scandal, that kind of thing. It makes me feel at least like my situation isn’t that bad.
FITNESS
My gym FitnessXO went online lightning fast so I signed up. I think I go to the virtual gym more than the regular gym.
UPSKILLING
My partner Nathan owns a digital marketing company. He’s been teaching me how to do copywriting. At 38 I feel like it’s time I had a back up plan
READING
Bizarrely that’s been the biggest challenge for me. I thought it’d been brilliant in putting away some novels but I find the worlds that exist in novels confronting, the fact that people get to see each other and hug each other and gather in groups of more than two. So I’m reading Roxane Gay’s series of essays called Bad Feminist.
LISTENING TO
I always turn to Beyonce when I’m working out, she’s just my inspiration for everything. She gets played on blast when I’m doing my online workouts. I’ve been going hard on the most depressing, bleak, violent podcasts I can find, usually crime or murder based.
WHAT ARE YOU MISSING MOST?
Work for sure. I’m so invested in the world of Wentworth, we’re so close to finishing it off for good. We have a Wentworth WhatsApp group, we swap banana bread recipes and Government press releases. That’s been a nice unifying thing
FIRST THING YOU’LL DO WHEN THIS IS OVER?
There’s a game plan. Nathan will go back to work at his office, I’ll go back to prison. And as soon as humanly possibly we’ll go to a restaurant, order lots of deep fried things and alcoholic beverages and consume them. My arteries are probably thanking me for the home cooked meals.
KATRINA MILOSEVIC (BOOMER)
HOW ARE YOU STAYING SANE?
When this all started I thought I will have time to write in my diary, I will solve the world’s problems. Do you think I’ve done any of that? My brain is living moment to moment. I’ve reorganised some cupboards. I do laps of my house pottering about.
COOKING
I tried baking. No word of a lie I baked biscuits that would kill a bird if you threw them out the window.
BINGEING
Not as much as I planned to but I’ve become addicted to Babylon Berlin. It’s German, but watch the one with the subtitles. The acting is phenomenal. It reminds me of Bertolt Brecht, to sound like a wanker.
FITNESS
I go for walks. I do a weird weight routine when I get home that feels like it goes for an hour but it’s 10 minutes. I’m waiting for that period where the endorphins kick in and I can’t go without exercise but it just hasn’t happened. I have not become one of those people ‘I have to go for a run’ yet.
UPSKILLING
I looked at the TAFE site and thought I might become a pharmacist. Anything would be an upskill for me. I tried gardening and realised there’s a nest of redbacks in the backyard. Now I don’t want to go out there. I’ve realised in isolation I’m really not terribly good at anything!
READING
Just the Centrelink application form now I’ve had to go on the dole. That’s an epic.
LISTENING TO
I’m obsessed with this British indie rock band Nothing But Thieves, the lead singer sounds like Jeff Buckley reincarnated. He’s doing some isolation sessions. I’ve put a playlist together Pandemic Walk. And lots of Richard Marx, oddly. There’s a lot of musos doing isolation stuff which has me in floods of tears, it’s gorgeous. My hat goes off, what a generous thing to do to share their talents in such an intimate way when we need them.
WHAT ARE YOU MISSING MOST?
I actually miss working, I miss the stresses that I used to have. I miss working with my people at Wentworth.
FIRST THING YOU’LL DO WHEN THIS IS OVER?
Aside from hair removal and bothering to get dressed properly, I just want to go back to work. Kick this thing into gear. Bring into the character all the stuff this time has brought up for me. And I just want to hug people.
BERNARD CURRY (JAKE STEWART)
HOW ARE YOU STAYING SANE?
I’ve got plenty of things going on. I write music, play guitar, we do family trivia on Zoom, we’ve got a bush property and the regulations state we can go there so that helps us decompress with the kids after homeschooling.
COOKING
I’m the main cook in the house, every night I come up with something different. I’ve got a tasty salmon pasta dish, the kids love that, I got my kimono on and got the nori paper and we made sushi rolls. Roasted pumpkin and sage risotto. Chicken schnitz and mash potato and peas. Bernie’s Burritos with good guacamole. I’ve got a fair rotation of dishes.
BINGEING
We got through Tiger King, obviously.
FITNESS
I’ve got a weights system, adjustable dumbbells, a little bench. I’ve set up high intensity interval training circuits and weight training.
UPSKILLING
I’ve repurposed our dining room as my audio studio, so I can do self-tape auditions and I’ve built a vocal booth for voiceover work which I can do remotely in this current environment.
READING
Flea’s Acid for the Children, the structure of the narrative is not your typical autobiography, he’s got an interesting way of telling stories.
LISTENING TO
When I mow the lawn I listen to Foo Fighters. It gets me going. I’ve had the Facebook challenge for 10 albums that influenced you, No.1 is Grace by Jeff Buckley, probably The Bends or OK Computer by Radiohead.
WHAT ARE YOU MISSING MOST?
Work. Wentworth is a family. It’s been devastating for a lot of cast and crew members.
FIRST THING YOU’LL DO WHEN THIS IS OVER?
Go to the MCG and watch the Tigers play. I really miss the footy.
KATE ATKINSON (VERA BENNETT)
HOW ARE YOU STAYING SANE?
I’m used to living in solitude, I’m very good at it. I’ve been in training for solitude and self-sufficiency for quite some time! I can be more introverted than people think, I could just hide myself away but it’s healthy to keep reaching out to people and checking on other people.
COOKING
I like baking. Which is funny when you live alone. You bake a big cake, that’s hilarious, so I’ll cut it in half and take it to a friend or neighbour. There’s something about the chemistry and alchemy of baking.
BINGEING
I’m learning guitar so I’m watching this amazing documentary series by Ken Burns on SBS called Country Music which I highly recommend. Plus Stateless, Mystery Road, Sex Education and Babylon Berlin.
FITNESS
I go out walking every day. This is embarrassing but dancing around the house is a great way of lifting your mood. Tends to happen to me while I’m cooking. That’s a tip. Cooking and dancing at the same time.
UPSKILLING
I’m a beginner guitar player, I have more time to practice but I’m still very bad at it. That’s great for my neighbours. And I have a vegetable garden. I don’t want to sound smug but my biggest achievement is concocting a little barrier over my vegetable patch to keep the possums off. It’s a little bit of warfare in my garden and I seem to be winning.
READING
I’ve always been a big reader. I’m tucking into the books that are a bit fatter and more unwieldy than usual, so I’m reading David Copperfield at the moment.
LISTENING TO
I start the day with classical music, by the afternoon I’ve gone folk/country and by the time I start cooking and the disco dancing starts. You’ve got to mix it up. I normally crack out a lot of blues but it’s not a good time for that at the moment.
WHAT ARE YOU MISSING MOST?
The collective nature of going to the cinema and the theatre, that’s a lot of my friends’ worlds. I hate the idea these spaces are dark at the moment. I miss seeing friends in group but I like the one-on-one time I have with people on the phone.
FIRST THING YOU’LL DO WHEN THIS IS OVER?
Get back to work and also see my mum who lives in West Australia and get back into the country and ride horses.
JANE HALL (ANN REYNOLDS)
HOW ARE YOU STAYING SANE?
Well, I’m moving house. When everyone is madly Marie Kondo’ing and cleaning out their drawers I’m just doing a more extreme version of it. So the insanity of packing doesn’t help, but I’m kind of good with my own company. I’ve become obsessive about plucking my own eyebrows, that’s killed a lot of time. Every woman’s worst nightmare is a magnifying mirror, especially during lockdown. Apart from desperately missing my colleagues and my job and being broke, I haven’t found it too personally challenging.
COOKING
I joined the iso baking craze, I had a crack at hot cross buns from scratch, they were a treat I was loving myself sick with those.
BINGEING
I’m watching every bit of local content I can get. Bloom series two, I loved Stateless, Mystery Road is an amazing cast. Plus Better Days and I’m hooking into Unorthodox and The Stranger on Netflix.
FITNESS
I tried so online yoga but I’m crap at it. I’ve been doing a lot of gardening which makes me sound like a pensioner. I’ve been doing two hour walks each day.
UPSKILLING
I do voiceovers, so I had to set up a home studio which required me downloading programs and working out how to plug in microphones. Brain strain 101. People of my era aren’t very good with computers, so I’m leading the way, 50 is never too late to learn new tech kills.
READING
I’m churning through books. Anne Tyler Redhead By the Side of the Road and Helen Garner’s Yellow Notebook and I’ve got The Dutchhouse by Anne Patchett on the go. I do a lot of reading in the bath. I’m living my best life. I was built for this.
LISTENING TO
In this packing up process I found my first ever iPod, before they came phones. Retro cool, plugged it in to the ancient Bose sound dock I’ve also got and listening treats from 2002-2007 came into my ears and it was divine. Lots of Powderfinger, a bit of Oasis, I’ve started dancing at night, crazy old lady stuff, anything you can shake loose to. I highly recommend putting on tunes at night and dancing, that’s a good iso exercise.
WHAT ARE YOU MISSING MOST?
My family. My daughter. Saying hello to people. Social catch ups. Having people over for tea, it’s weird not being able to do that.
FIRST THING YOU’LL DO AFTER THIS?
Have a dinner party. And my hair really needs some attention. I went blonde for Wentworth, it’s a whole world of pain being a blonde and you really don’t want to tackle the roots with an at home job by yourself.
Wentworth seasons 1-7 are available to screen on Foxtel, season 8 will launch later this year
Originally published as Here’s what the stars of prison drama Wentworth are doing in real life lockdown