Casey Donovan: ‘I know my worth now’
IT’S been a roller-coaster ride for Casey Donovan. But she’s ready to put the drama behind her as she embraces a career that is, once again, on the ascent.
Stellar
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CASEY Donovan doesn’t attract even a sneaky sideways glance as she enjoys a coffee in an inner city Sydney cafe.
She has been adored by millions of Australian television viewers, musical theatre fans and gig-goers for the past 14 years, yet remains that rare celebrity who can chameleon into her surroundings.
So when her anonymity and fame collide, things can get awkward. “I’ve been out on dates where the guy has no f*cking idea who I am and someone comes up and asks for a photo,” she says. “And they’re like ‘Wait, what?’ And then I make it more awkward by going ‘Oh yeah, I sing for a living.’”
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Donovan, 30, has been singing for a living since winning the second season of Australian Idol in 2004 at just 16. Her career fortunes waxed and waned in the wake of that ratings juggernaut, but 14 years later, she is enjoying a renaissance spurred by yet another reality-TV franchise. Being the first female personality to win I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! last year “changed my life forever”, she says.
Australia fell in love with her humour, generosity and unflinching honesty, and also her talent. “In Idol, I was 16 years old, didn’t have many friends and was a bit daunted by all the people around me, people wanting to talk to me,” she says. “In the jungle for I’m A Celebrity, there was no competition, it was just go, be you.” It also led to a healthier lifestyle for Donovan, who lost 17kg living on basic rations on the show, and then cleaned up her diet and started walking every day to continue losing the kilos.
For all the ups and downs of her artistic life, from acclaimed musical-theatre roles in The Sapphires and We Will Rock You to that kitschy post-jungle Down Down campaign for Coles, Donovan has always had the goodwill of the fans and the critics. And she is grateful for it.
Yet none of that love has protected her from the worst of humanity. As she detailed in her 2014 memoir Big, Beautiful & Sexy, which will be updated this year, Donovan was the subject of one of the most bizarre celebrity hoaxes in Australian history. For six years, she was catfished by a female friend who maintained a six-year phone and text romance with the singer, posing as a man called Campbell.
Others have taken advantage of her financially. Ask her why bad things keep happening to a good woman and she emphatically responds, “F*ck knows! I think it has a lot to do with my vulnerability. Don’t get me wrong; I can be a complete bitch, but it’s the openness I have that sometimes the nasty ones spot and think ‘OK, we’re gonna take this chick for all she’s worth.’ I can see a lot more now than I ever could, but I still can’t help thinking there’s got to be good in there somewhere. It is hard to keep getting up after that and keep going and there are times when I ask ‘Why? What have I done to deserve some of the things that have happened to me?’ I don’t want my past judgements to hinder my future experiences.”
Before the jungle put her back on the map, Donovan had taken bold measures to relaunch her music career as an independent artist. She drove for Uber and launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 to record her ambitious Off The Grid And Somewhere In Between EP, which was released last year. She was terrified of asking fans to invest in her own music via Kickstarter and emotionally exhausted when she reached the target in the final minutes of the six-week fundraising push.
But Donovan loved driving people, because it offered her grounding — and songwriting inspiration. “It was very refreshing doing Uber; I was writing for the EP so I could use it all as an experiment in writing,” she says. “On weekends I would think ‘Do I go out and get smashed or do I go out and pick up the smashed?’ On Friday and Saturday nights, people would jump in and be like ‘Holy sh*t, sing us a song!’ and I would usually tell them ‘Guys, let’s get there safely; I won’t sing, but I do like to hum along.’ Some people got super excited, inviting me to parties where I’d be dropping them off. Thanks but gotta make some money; got an EP to make.”
The opportunities have kept flooding in since last year’s I’m A Celebrity win, and Donovan is thankful. She’ll realise her dream of making her TV acting debut in Network Ten’s comedy series Street Smart in the coming months. And she will share the role of Fanny Brice with a sterling cast, including Michala Banas, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Virginia Gay, Dami Im and Megan Washington in Funny Girl — The Musical In Concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in July.
Before those shows, she will reprise her role in the George Michael: Listen To Your Heart orchestral tribute at the same venue.
“I know my worth now. I know what I can do and how to keep learning,” she says. “Starting so young with Idol at 16 has given me the opportunity to be able to stuff up and then find my feet again. It’s allowed me to be a chameleon, to try different things and shape myself. I’m always willing to give something a go — unless it’s snakes in the jungle.”
Top of Donovan’s to-do list is to record another album. So she has shelved a planned European holiday in August, a 30th birthday present to herself, to focus on songwriting. She would love to make a country record — she’s had a passion for the genre since she was achild hearing the records of her stepfather Norm. That might open the door to Nashville, a prospect she says she loves because it would offer yet another fresh start.
“I would love to walk into a Nashville cafe where no-one knows who I am, set up and just play my songs. They could like it or not. But it would be great fun finding out if they did.”
Funny Girl — The Musical In Concert, is on at the Sydney Opera House on July 12, 13 and 14.