At home with actress Andrea Demetriades
A SELF-CONFESSED gypsy, Andrea Demetriades keeps only the most precious objects, writes Elizabeth Fortescue.
Confidential
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As soon as you walk into Andrea Demetriades’ Art Deco apartment, you feel right at home.
There’s an atmosphere of arty peacefulness and good living.
Books line all the shelves and the warm, French provincial kitchen holds the promise of slow-cooked casseroles.
Zorro the cat prowls around the overstuffed furniture until he finds your lap.
Zorro belongs to both Andrea and her close friend and fellow actor Tahki Saul. Tahki owns the ground-floor apartment into which Andrea moved two years ago.
Mitty, the other house cat, could not be coaxed from under Andrea’s big double bed while Home was visiting.
Mitty is clearly used to a quiet life with Andrea, who loves nothing more than curling up in a big chair to read or to watch old episodes of Seinfeld on video.
Whatever the time of day, Andrea is sure to be cradling an enormous cup of tea. She has a collection of 40 different kinds.
“Thank God it’s good for me,” Andrea laughs, glad that her obsession is not
with chocolate, as she drinks 12 cups a day.
Perth is Andrea’s home town but she moved to Sydney in 2004 to study at NIDA, graduating in 2006.
Her career quickly gathered pace, and her roles have included Lina Badir in ABC drama series Crownies, and Eliza in the Sydney Theatre Company’s Pygmalion.
She is just finishing a run of Oedipus Rex at Belvoir Street Theatre.
Andrea thinks of herself as a gypsy.
“I try not to keep too much stuff,” she says.
“The show Hoarders is both deeply fascinating and disturbing to me.” She values tidiness, and her home is certainly an oasis of order and quietude.
Words Elizabeth Fortescue
elizabeth.fortescue@news.com.au
Pictures Bob Barker
Andrea’s prized possessions
Mum’s painting
My mother Athena has an extraordinary talent for painting and has recently got back into it. Every time I go back to Perth I steal one of her works.
Model of the planets
A friend bought me this from a shop in London. I’m fascinated by the infinite. Space is both beautiful and terrifying to me.
Tap shoes
My mum was sewing sequins on my costumes until I was 18. She took me to a Swan Lake dress rehearsal when I was quite young. It was the catalyst for my obsession with the art form.
Piggy bank
My nephew Nicholas painted this for me when I first moved to Sydney in 2004. He is so precious and big now. I miss all my nephews including Michael, Costas, Harry and my niece Mary.
Books
I’m obsessed with reading. I just finished The Outsider by Albert Camus, and love an autobiography, especially by English actors. I loved Judi Dench’s And Further More and Dawn French’s Dear Fatty.
Cat leash
Our two cats are Mitty, who was found by the side of the road, and Zorro. They are granted outside tours every day. And yes, people look at me strangely.
My tea collection
I drink about 12 cups a day. I love all kinds of teas. Anything from black tea with milk to one I just tried with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. I have over 40 kinds.
Detailed pillow
Grandma Mary detailed this pillow. My grandma just turned 90. She is the classiests and wisest and most beautiful grandma a girl could wish for.
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