Cold Feet star Hermione Norris fell for Australia after filming Seven’s Between Two Worlds
Cold Feet star Hermione Norris decided to ‘shake things up’ and come to Australia to film Seven’s new drama Between Two Worlds — and she has no regrets.
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When Hermione Norris marked her milestone, half-century birthday, she did so “with gratitude and grief” for her new stage of a life well lived.
The refreshingly candid and philosophical UK star of Luther, Spooks and Cold Feet, used her latest “coming of age” as the inspiration to shake up her career and leap at the chance to film Seven’s new thriller, Between Two Worlds.
Packing up her family, including sons, 12 and 16, for five months of work on the Bevan Lee production made the 51-year-old reticent at first.
But so welcomed and happy was her experience, Norris tells The BINGE Guide, it’s one of the best decisions – and best friends – she’s every made.
“I thought ‘just step into it … shake things up a bit … step into the unknown.’ Of course, I was really nervous about coming over so far to an environment I’d never worked in before. It was just a leap of faith, if you like, and I’m so glad I did.”
Playing Cate Walford, the miserable, self-medicating wife of a Machiavellian millionaire businessman [played by Philip Quast] was a rich and complex character for Norris to explore; coupled with the adventure of flying to work in Australia for the first time.
“I fell in love with Australia, I really did. I met some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life, who I hope will be lifelong friends … I loved it,” she gushed. “I think Sydney is ridiculously amazing … you’ve got that beautiful coastline, the food and lovely people. I just thought it was amazing. It’s a very special place.”
Her UK agent, who also happens to represent Quast, encouraged her to read the script “and we both really enjoyed it.”
“I thought it was quite an epic tale and then I spoke to [creator] Bevan [Lee] who I fell in love with him. I just really loved his enthusiasm, his passion, and it’s obviously been his life’s ambition to make this particular piece of drama. Just that wealth of experience, having committed that much of his life to this industry and to TV drama, in particular, I just thought ‘good on you, mate and yeah, I’d love to be a part of it.’”
With her manicured hair and bodycon suiting, Cate Walford looks the part of any upper class spouse who fills her days with salon sessions and day-drinking.
She’s a woman instantly recognisable to Norris, “who needs to anaethetise themselves from their awful marriages.”
Despite all the luxury and creature comforts her husband’s income can afford, it’s apparent from the seething animosity between the couple that happiness isn’t one of them.
“She’s just very conflicted, a prisoner of her secrets and a prisoner of Philip,” Norris says.
“A prisoner of her own story and the choices that she has made in her life. I love that … complex, conflicted. A complicated woman is always better to play.”
Norris looks back over her career credits with pride, but says her age has changed the acting offers she is made.
And she’s exactly fine with that.
“What shuts down for a woman? Well first of all your reproductive system does … it’s very real and not an imagined thing. I do feel it’s been the beginning of a different journey and a journey I’ve actually enjoyed.
The lead up to it and coming out of it was quite painful but once you’ve passed through the door, it can be a really rich and rewarding journey,” she explains.
“In your youth you’re usually looking outside of yourself: I would like that job, I would like that partner, I would like that home, I would like children. And then at my age, I feel it’s been a more internal journey: I would like peace, I would like joy, simplicity, I would like grace and just to live my life. I think that’s where it’s at because I think if you were still striving for all that other stuff, you’d just be miserable.”
* Between Two Worlds, 8.30pm, Sunday, on Seven.
Originally published as Cold Feet star Hermione Norris fell for Australia after filming Seven’s Between Two Worlds