Madeleine West opens up on horror bus accident
After 20 years gracing Aussie’s TV screens Playing For Keeps star Madeleine West says has accepted that her life isn’t what people would consider normal while revealing the real toll a horror bus accident took on her.
Fiona Byrne
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Time is of the essence for Madeleine West. The acclaimed actor, who got her start on Neighbours in 1999 and explores the world of WAGs in the Channel 10 drama Playing For Keeps, has spent two decades crafting strong, intelligent characters on Australian TV on shows such as Underbelly, House Husbands and The Wrong Girl. The author, advocate, writer, director and mum of six, who separated from her partner, Shannon Bennett, last year, is a storyteller constantly searching for the surprising and the unexpected.
“The way I live my life might fall outside of the frame of what people consider normal or acceptable but who decides what is normal and acceptable?,” she says. “We are on this planet for such a short time and I want every moment to count.”
FIONA BYRNE: Madeleine, congratulations on 20 years on Australian TV.
MADELEINE WEST: I started acting when I was very young and continued to act throughout my schooling days, and (while at uni) I finally got off my bottom and got myself an agent. They got me an audition for Neighbours that same week and the rest is history. (She deferred her law degree). It set me up with a fairly false expectation of the acting industry, just rock up, do an audition and “bang”, you get a four-year job. It is not quite like that. I felt very blessed. It (Neighbours) started as a two-week job (in 1999), which grew to 11 weeks, which grew to two years and then I was on the show until I reached a point where I felt I had done everything I could with this character (Dee Bliss). I needed to challenge myself and (in April 2003) it was time for me to step away.
FB: Many Neighbours stars have used the show to launch their music careers. Did that interest you?
MW: I write music and did some writing with various musicians and composers here, in the UK and the US. I was offered a recording deal … but I was not ready to become a stereotype; the next young, blonde thing with the big bust off Neighbours launching into a musical career. That was not my modus operandi musically. I enjoyed the process of writing words and assembling a song but to then go out and represent that song did not really sit with me.
FB: You also spent time on the stand up comedy circuit.
MW: While I was in Neighbours my stand-up comedy was how I reinvigorated myself. I did quite a few years on the stand up circuit and one of my routines was very much about the television industry and the whole notion of going through the cookie cutter machine. It was wonderful and so completely opposite to what I had done before. I would say things that were a bit raunchy and sexy, everything Dee wasn’t, and that shook up the audience’s sensibilities. Watching the shock on their faces and then the eventual laugher was the delight.
FB: In 2002 you were hit by a bus in Sydney, a moment that changed your life.
MW: In all honesty, when I first saw the side of my face after being hit by the bus I wanted to die. I thought that this was it, that everything I fought for to become an actor had been rendered null and void because my face was smashed up. But that was because I had bought into the notion that the way I looked was the most important thing about me and that my appearance defined my ability. It is very easy to slip into that way of thinking when you are in the spotlight because so much focus is on how you look, what you are wearing, your make-up, the shape of your body at any one time. The comeuppance for me was sitting with the way I looked following the accident and realising the reason I became an actor was not so I could look great in a bikini on the cover of a glossy magazine, it was because I wanted to tell stories. That moment has led me to take on characters which have been exceptionally challenging and to seek out interesting stories. Rather than say “poor me” I chose to say “hooray for me”’, I made it through and now I have to make it worthwhile.
FB: What were your injuries?
MW: I fractured my skull in three places. I had an acquired brain injury, I had bleeding on the brain, the bottom shelf of my skull cracked open and I had brain fluid leaking into the back of my throat, I lost my memory. My entire taste palate changed. I had to relearn to read. I had a stutter. I suffered from horrific migraines because my skull plates were reknitting themselves and the agony of that was indescribable. I went back to (work on Neighbours) only two months after the accident, which was much too soon, and would have to lie down between scenes. The brain is a curious organ in that when it is injured you wake up one day going, “I am fine, I am fine”, and you go back to your usual routines, and the next day you wake up and you are barely able to speak. It took a long time to get over that.
FB: There is a link between your accident and the Foxtel series Satisfaction in which you played Mel, a high-class escort.
MW: When I was hit by the bus it was actually two street workers who held me and called the ambulance, the police told me. Then they disappeared into the night. When I was offered the role on Satisfaction it scared the bejesus out of me playing a sex worker, but I decided this was my way of honouring those women who helped me. My way of saying thank you was to create a complex, amazing, beautiful character and tell another side of the story (of sex workers). It is the one show I am approached about more than any other, including Neighbours, and it is always women who want to talk about it. You think with a show about sex the target audience must be men; no it was women.
FB: You have created another strong, complicated, memorable character in Kath Rickards on Playing For Keeps. What does Kath mean to you?
MW: Her time is now. She is the president (of the footy club). She is the boss and for me it is a wonderful manifestation of what it is to be a strong female in this day and age. In order to take on that power she does not have to lose her autonomy, she does not have to be apologetic about the strength of her convictions, she can still dress in a beautiful, provocative manner, she can still wear a killer heel and a full face of make-up. She does not suddenly have to become masculine to take on a role which has traditionally been aligned with masculinity. Kath is a wonderful character to play.
FB: Advocacy is part of your life. What drew you to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre?
MW: Material possessions, you can’t take them with you but the legacy you leave will linger. For me when you have a profile you have an obligation to lend a voice to those who do not have one.
FB: Mother, actor, writer, author, director and activist. How do you juggle the roles?
MW: I don’t sleep very much and probably should sleep more. I am refusing to give any gravity to other people’s perceptions about who I am or what I should be doing. The way I live my life might fall outside of the frame of what people consider normal or acceptable but, really, who decides what is normal and acceptable? We are on this planet for such a short time and I want every moment to count. I want to have gratitude for the little things in life and to accept that you are not going to be happy all the time. To this very day I am faced with challenges that are very, very difficult, that are heartbreaking at times, but to accept that is just part of life and that when you face those hurdles and you find a way to overcome them, then the happiness that you receive in turn is so much richer.
FB: Show business and motherhood, have there been times when you have questioned what you are doing?
MW: One of the first photo shoots I did after having kids, we had finished and I was about to leave and realised there was baby puke all the way down the back of my dress. I asked why no one told me and they said they thought it was a pattern on the dress.
The last time I went to the Logies was 2014 and I did not realise it, but I was pregnant with my twins. I had been sewn into this beautiful dress and half way through the night I went to the bathroom and realised I could not lift the dress above my knee so I could not relieve myself. I went straight home and had to be cut out of the dress and remember thinking, ‘what is going on here?’ I went to the doctor the next day and sure enough I was pregnant. Then there was the time I was breastfeeding my son Hendrix and I thought he had an infection on his lips. He had these strange brown marks. I took him to the doctor and the doctor examined both of us and quickly realised the fake tan around my breast had gone. My son was basically wearing fake tan lipstick. The glamour, that’s all I can say.
FB: What advice would you give someone starting out?
MW: First and foremost believe in yourself. Accept at times things are going to go wrong, that they are going to be pear-shaped, that your world will be turned upside down and given a good shake, and accept that is part of the journey. Be brave. Bravery is being able to own your dreams and ambitions and not apologise for them and to strive every day to be the very best that you can be. Be prepared to give back. See that your flaws are what make you special. Ultimately, you have got to be prepared to work hard and be open to criticism and if you can accept all those things you will succeed.
FB: How would you describe the past 12 months?
MW: This year has been about cracking open doors in every way, challenging myself, stepping into a new life, stepping into a new frame and that has required some massive sacrifices along the way. I no longer live the materialistic life that I was blessed to live before. I have given it all away, understanding that your possessions end up possessing you. If you have some really big dreams and you want to fight for other people’s causes and you want to be the very best you can be you need to be able to channel all of your energies into a very specific direction. My energy needs to be for my children and creating a blueprint for them of how to live with integrity, autonomy and fearlessness and for them to be fulfilled and enriched.
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FB: What are your hopes for 2020?
MW: Next year, it is a lot about me being prepared to make mistakes and not being scared of that, pushing my boundaries and approaching new challenges without fear, investing my time in my children, and to continue telling strong stories about strong women.
Playing For Keeps season finale, Channel 10, Wednesday, 8.30pm