Asher Keddie: ‘We can, and should, speak up’
WITH the Logie Awards upon us, nominee Asher Keddie reflects on the power of supporting her fellow women in what can be a notoriously cut-throat industry.
Stellar
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A RATHER intimidating burly man wearing a black suit is watching Asher Keddie very closely. His name is Clayton and he is on security detail — not for Keddie, but instead for the elaborate Dior Fine Jewellery bracelet she is wearing for her Stellar photo shoot.
It is an experience the Offspring actor, 43, says may end up being replicated when she attends the Logie Awards tonight.
“I did very much enjoy wearing that Dior jewellery,” she tells Stellar later with a throaty laugh, a symptom of the laryngitis she is currently battling. “It was so delicate, yet with so much drama at the same time. Just beautiful.”
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It’s a description that could be used to describe the seven-time Logie winner’s successful career on Australian screens. It kicked off when she was just 10 years old, appearing in Disney’s western TV series Five Mile Creek, and culminated in the role for which she is most widely known — at least for now. Her star turn as the complex, flawed and always quirkily attired Nina Proudman in Network Ten’s much-loved Offspring brought Keddie’s celebrity to a whole new level — and cemented her status as Logies’ royalty. This year, she is once again up for the Most Popular Actress gong, a nod that brings her to a combined 18 wins and nominations.
“I’ve been privileged to get those opportunities and to be rewarded with those Logies and nominations for work I’ve really cared about,” Keddie says, reflecting on the milestone. “It is thrilling, and so appreciated. TV, when it’s relatable and moving, is powerful and nights like the Logies give the audience an opportunity to celebrate their favourite entertainers.”
It will also just be a chance for a nice night out for Keddie, who is mum to a three-year-old son, Valentino, with husband Vincent Fantauzzo. She admits counterbalancing motherhood with her flourishing career has been a fierce ride at times — but never an unwelcome one.
“At the time I became a parent, I was taking on a more active creative role in my industry,” she says. “I truly love the challenges of being a mother, co-parenting and finding the space to allow myself to work rigorously. Ultimately, trying to balance the two has made me hungry for as much diversity as I can manage.”
Besides her Logie nomination, the enduring popularity of Offspring — it’s now seemingly off the air for good, but Keddie once again reassuringly concedes: “Never say never!” — also afforded her the opportunity to build and nurture partnerships with other females. Given the current emphasis across the world on women’s rights and gender equality, this has proven especially important to her.
“I think when your confidence is still growing as a young artist, your capacity for generosity and partnership can be hindered, probably in large part due to self-involvement,” Keddie says. “As the world changes and we find ourselves living in a very transparent culture, the need to encourage and cultivate female friendships is vital.
“I feel a really strong sense of responsibility to encourage young women in my industry to embrace strength and vulnerability alike, and to develop their own ideas as courageously as possible.”
While younger actresses may look up to Keddie, she draws her own inspiration from the women around her, particularly in her family: “They are brave, kind, honest women leading authentic lives. And they are an incredible example to the children in our family — girls and boys alike.”
Keddie also admires the change-makers in the film and television industry. “Women who are using their voices to inspire, including directors Emma Freeman and Shannon Murphy, producer Imogen Banks and also the women that I work with every day. Women who champion each other — they are the women I surround myself with.”
The Logie Awards, being held for the first time in Queensland on the Gold Coast tonight, may be a celebration for the viewers and fans, but the glitzy ceremony also provides a platform for the television industry to make bold statements. This is, after all, a year that began with the usually frivolous Golden Globes transformed to a black-dress clad nod of solidarity for the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, which have dominated news headlines in the US, and which have also become talking points here in Australia, albeit less stridently.
Love Child’s Sophia Forrest, 23, is a Logies nominee for the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent this year, and tells Stellar she is hoping a “Golden Globes moment” might take place tonight. “I would love to get behind something like that happening at the Logies,” she says.
“It’s important for the industry to take a stance in the same way that Hollywood has. Time is up on sexual and racial inequality. We need to make active changes and steps forward. I’ve already felt a huge shift, just in this past year, with everything that’s gone down.”
Most Outstanding Supporting Actress nominee Jenni Baird agrees. The 42-year-old actor, from Foxtel’s A Place To Call Home, has been in the business since the noughties, and watched as female roles transitioned from “the wife”, “the girlfriend” or “the mother” to more complex and nuanced dissections of what womanhood is.
“It’s no longer that you’re washed up at 29, and if you haven’t made it you might as well go and find another career. I think that’s wonderful. I just think it’s obviously women’s time, as well — which is new,” Baird tells Stellar. “I look at briefs sometimes and if the character has nothing more going for her other than that she is a woman, I’m like ‘It’s not enough’.”
Both Baird and Forrest strenuously believe women championing other women within the entertainment industry and beyond is imperative. “There’s a belief that women don’t support each other and have a catty thing going on, but you don’t have to tell that story,” Baird says. “I certainly don’t believe in conducting myself that way.”
Forrest acknowledges having women at the forefront in every industry “pave the way” for younger women like her to follow has been rewarding. “It’s a very exciting time to be coming into the industry and so I consider myself very privileged to be a part of that,” she says.
Always the mentor, Keddie offers one last piece of advice for her fellow women. “We can, and should, speak!” she declares. “Drop any defences, deal head on with self-doubt, and talk to each other. Feminism is good for men, too. If we just continue this conversation, we can start to really elevate each other and thrive together.”