‘Misbehaving’: Wentworth stars reveal next move

Real life best friends Nicole da Silva and Danielle Cormack reveal why female characters are leading the charge, how you can still be erotic after 40, and why women behaving badly is ‘delicious’.

Former Wentworth stars and real-life BFFs Nicole da Silva and Danielle Cormack bonded when they auditioned for the Foxtel prison drama 10 years ago – and ended up starring as rival “top dogs” Bea Smith and Franky Doyle. Now, the actors have formed their own production company to fulfil a mission to tell female-led stories that show, as they tell Stellar, why “women are mostly more interesting than men”

“Nicole and I are quite different in terms of the fashion that we like, aren’t we, hon?” a jet-lagged but still impressively perky Danielle Cormack, 51, asks Nicole da Silva, 40, on a Zoom chat with Stellar.

“Very much so,” da Silva says, nodding in enthusiastic agreement. “I’d love for you to take me out and revamp my wardrobe and dress me.”

Shopping, though, will have to wait. A weary Cormack – just home from a whirlwind trip to New Jersey for a Wentworth fan convention – is going straight into rehearsals with da Silva for the pair’s first major stage production.

How did your company Four One One Productions start?

Danielle Cormack: When I first worked with Nicole on Wentworth, I was obsessed with her.

Nicole da Silva: [Laughs] It was my trackie daks!

DC: I was mesmerised by her as a performer and a creative. We got on really well in terms of work, but I don’t think we forged a strong friendship at that point.

When we finished, I had been thinking about starting my own production company to generate work for like-minded folk telling different stories, especially female-led stories. I think that’s happening more now but four or five years ago, not so much.

So I called Nicole and asked, “Would you like to start a production company?” Thankfully she was mad enough to say yes.

NDS: When I met Dan in the Wentworth call-backs, I called my agent and said, “I don’t want to be on the show unless Danielle is leading it!”

It was very clear-cut for me that this was a show I was interested in being on and that Dan was a person I wanted to spar with. I wanted to get creative with Danielle.

So it was wonderful that we both got to do it and, over the years of doing the show and the kind of rigour of what Wentworth required, we built this kind of working shorthand with each other.

Danielle Cormack and Nicole da Silva launched their own production company Four One One Productions. Picture: Daniel Nadel

After so much upheaval for live theatre in the past few years, you must be excited about opening your show Who’s Afraid at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre this week.

NDS: I can’t wait. It has been a long time since I’ve trodden the boards, so I’m really looking forward to that intimacy and that kind of gorgeous relationship that you share with a live audience. I think there’s nothing like it and nothing that can replace it.

More and more creative women are taking control of their own narratives, such as Pink, Lizzo and Billie Eilish with their documentaries, or Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston producing their own film and TV material. What do you think is driving this?

DC: I think there’s been this very necessary push for female characters not to be there just to help a male character self-realise and to be an adjunct to that male hero’s journey.

And – I’m going to get killed for saying this – women are mostly more interesting than men.

NDS: We do have some amazing female actor-producers in this country, like Claudia Karvan, who have forged the way. But there has been building for a long time the need to level the playing field. And finally, opportunities are rising for more marginalised voices.

So not only will we amplify female voices and the female gaze but broaden that out so that representation on screen or on stage actually reflects a lived [experience] a lot like our daily lives. And I think that’s what our audiences want.

Danielle Cormack: “women are mostly more interesting than men” Picture: Daniel Nadel

Nicole da Silva and Danielle Cormack place strong female narratives at the heart of their productions. Picture: Daniel Nadel

Not all that long ago, roles for women over 40 usually involved a dressing gown and a cup of hot cocoa. Shows such as Mare Of Easttown, Big Little Lies and Hacks prove there has been a shift – would you agree?

DC: Yes. I only want to be that woman handing out the cocoa if it has psychotropic drugs in it! I’m super interested in women behaving badly. That’s delicious to me.

When I say that, I mean misbehaving well, being disruptive. I’m so sick of seeing female characters who toe the line.

NDS: I remember having this discussion with an Australian producer a few years ago and I said, “So when are we going to make a show about a woman behaving badly?”

And he said, “No-one wants to see that,” and that’s exactly the reason we’re here [with our own company].

DC: [In the past on our screens], the minute you hit 40, you lost your erotic capital. But all the women I know who are 40 and 50 are so complex and are going through so much.

There’s a fire inside them. And that hasn’t been fully explored on screen or in society until now.

On Wentworth, you were enemies who gradually became friends, and now in Who’s Afraid, you’re a couple flirting with parenthood.

NDS: Actually, I always felt that our characters [on Wentworth] were the core love story of that show. And I say that slightly tongue in cheek. But I do believe that those two women had a real understanding of each other like no-one else.

And our characters in Who’s Afraid are a real departure from that – wouldn’t you agree, Dan?

DC: Oh yes, a huge departure. I do agree that those characters in Wentworth are the greatest unrealised love story. That’s why the fans “shipped” the characters in the end and there was a whole “Branky” movement for Bea and Franky [to get together].

So, all I can say is that after all those years of just staring goggle-eyed at Nicole across the room on Wentworth, finally all my dreams have come true, and she will be playing my partner.

Danielle Cormack and Nicole da Silva feature in this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: Cameron Grayson

Who’s Afraid runs from this Wednesday until September 11 at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre. Visit belvoir.com.au.