Asher Keddie explores sexting in gripping new series The Hunting

Asher Keddie’s latest role delves into a disturbing topic which she says even had her feeling frightened when she sat down to watch an early cut of the show.

Asher Keddie watched an early cut of her new SBS drama, The Hunting, with her artist husband Vincent Fantauzzo alongside her on the couch.

By the end of the fourth and final episode, both were completely drained.

The story plunges deep into the sexual quagmire of ‘sexting’ at an Adelaide high school, where teenage boys upload naked pictures of their underage female classmates to a grubby secret porn site.

Almost instantly, the serious repercussions of their actions play out — for the students and their supervising teachers, to their parents and even police.

It’s deliberately close to real life.

“Vincent kept saying ‘Oh my God!’ and ‘how are parents of girls going to watch this show and not feel really frightened?’,” says Keddie.

“I was saying ‘parents of boys are going to watch this and feel frightened! We have two boys and I’m very concerned for them. I feel a huge responsibility to help guide them to be confident but gentle, considerate and thoughtful men.

“I think it works both ways for boys and girls, the fear is as palpable. But as a parent, watching the show completely freaked me out. I started really thinking about how on earth we are going to stay on the front foot to help our kids navigate this stuff?” she says.

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Asher Keddie in a scene from new SBS drama series, The Hunting. Picture: Nat Rogers/SBS

As Keddie explains, her own adolescence was a social media age ago.

“When I was a teenager, we were able to explore sexuality and love and friendship in a really different way because it wasn’t being watched. I have a heavy heart when I lament that loss of freedom for our kids.”

Keddie plays Simone, the mother of one of the teenage boys involved in the sharing of explicit photos on the website.

She is oblivious to her son’s role as a ringleader and blindly defends him.

“She’s self-loathing and confused about her own parenting and womanhood, all those things start to unravel. She has to be accountable for raising a son that is displaying very toxic masculinity and she’s married a misogynist. That was difficult for me to play and understand and not judge. She was trying to find her voice very late in a marriage.”

Her on-screen husband is Richard Roxburgh, the two reuniting for the first time since bringing Bob Hawke and Blanche d’Alpuget to the small screen in acclaimed telemovie, Hawke, back in 2010.

“It had been a long time since drinks. Neither of us had played characters like this before. And although a lot of it was uncomfortable, we thought if we’re going to do it, let’s do it with each other,” she says, adding, “there’s a great ease between Rox and I.”

As well as reflecting multicultural Australia, The Hunting tackles modern themes like sexting, masculinity, gender and online exploitation.

Asher Keddie and Richard Roxburgh reunite for The Hunting. Picture: SBS

For Keddie, who only uses Instagram, learning about the dark side of the internet — and how easily teenagers can access it — was eye-opening.

“Apart from it being a really moving show to watch, it’s really educational. It was for me. I had no idea how deep the internet goes. The way teenagers explore the internet is utterly different to the way I do in my mid 40s. It’s evolved to a way that I don’t understand. The awful thing is that when something is posted on the internet, even if a site is taken down, it’s always there.”

Keddie, whose sons are four and nine, is being more selective with her roles, knowing they’ll take her away from her family.

After her acclaimed work on the BBC/ABC production The Cry last year, Keddie will follow The Hunting with ABC drama Stateless.

The drama, based around the immigration system, also stars Cate Blanchett, Jai Courtney and Dominic West.

“My motivation over the last year has been to work on projects that are meaningful. That is a theme at the moment moving through the industry … people feel compelled to write stories that are timely and exploring pressing issues of our time. The Hunting and now Stateless are both so involving. Stateless explores global issues affecting all of us, rather than it just being a story about detention.”

Keddie says she is being more selective in her roles. Picture: Lisa Tomasetti/SBS

The actor is also developing a new drama, The Sisters Antipodes, with producer Imogen Banks (Offspring), about estranged sisters pushed to opposite sides of the world.

The Cry had been “very helpful” in helping her — and fans — move beyond her role as Nina Proudman in Ten’s beloved series.

“I loved that show and playing Nina, it was a great time in my life, but it feels equally good to be moving through different projects. It feels like I’ve gone full circle and gone back to when I was doing things like playing Ita (Buttrose, in Paper Giants— and Blanche.”

Keddie admits she’s in a sweet spot when it comes to receiving quality scripts.

“I’m getting these really challenging, quite confronting characters coming my way that have an interesting predicament. Certainly the character in Stateless does. I’m feeling very lucky at the moment.”

Speaking of lucky, Keddie caught up with her new mate — Kylie Minogue — during the singer’s Australian tour earlier this year.

“She is beautiful. We made good friends on our crazy madcap movie, Swinging Safari and had such a gorgeous time together. It’s one of those things that happens occasionally, sometimes you have a really easy, wonderful connection and we had that, so we get excited when we can catch up.”

* The Hunting, 8.30pm, Thursday August 01, SBS