June Again star Claudia Karvan on mortality, Bump and why her mum wanted her to be a lawyer

Veteran Aussie actor Claudia Karvan opens up on her unconventional childhood and why her mother wanted her to be a lawyer.

Claudia Karvan has a theory as to why Australia – and Western society in general – makes so few movies for older generations: we’re scared of dying.

“I don’t think we like to reflect on our own mortality,” the versatile multiple Logie and ACTAA-winning actor, writer and producer says.

“I think we are very interested in our individual power and agency and we are very uncomfortable with the fact that we are going to die. And not only are we going to die, we are going to age and we don’t know how we are going to age or what’s going to take us out. It’s a difficult conversation because it can be so confronting and so bleak.”

Karvan is pondering the thorny subject ahead of the release of a new Australian film, June Again, which stars Noni Hazlehurst as the title character, an elderly, nursing-home bound woman with dementia who has a sudden burst of clarity that restores her faculties, lust for life and headstrong, meddling personality.

Claudia Karvan and Noni Hazlehurst in a scene from the movie June Again.

The Secret Life Of Us star Karvan plays Hazlehurst’s daughter Ginny, who has long lived in her mother’s shadow and now must face the disapproval that her life hasn’t turned out the way it was expected to, as well as the knowledge that June’s recovery is only likely to be temporary.

The script came Karvan’s way through her friend and neighbour, casting director Kirsty McGregor, who invited her over for a glass of wine to read it. And while Karvan is thankful that she hasn’t any experience of dementia within her immediate family, she says that a cast-reading with writer-director JJ Winlove left her and her fellow actors in tears.

“We got to a point where a lot of us found it difficult to say our lines,” she says. “It was very impactful, emotive, and I think it’s because the story sort of creeps up on you.

“There’s this really beautiful, whimsical, high-concept idea and it’s humorous so the tone of it creeps up on you, and then you are left with the poignant reality that the situation is not going away and it’s very powerful.”

MUM’S THE WORD

Karvan was not only taken with the script and Winlove’s vision, but as an actor who often co-writes and produces her own projects, from Love My Way to the recent streaming hit Bump, she relished the opportunity to just turn up and act opposite the veteran Hazlehurst (for the first time) and Stephen Curry (“one of the funniest and loveliest actors around”), who plays her brother.

“I never underestimate the work that the producers do and how lovely it is to come to a job with all the work having been done and I am riding on other people’s coat-tails,” she says. “It’s all care and no responsibility. I am very grateful for those jobs.”

Claudia Karvan, Noni Hazlehurst and Stephen Curry filming Aussie film, June Again, in Sydney

She was also keen to explore the strong, complicated mother-daughter bond in the film, and she says it made her reflect on her own relationships and just how precious time is with ageing parents.

“I have a very significant relationship with her,” Karvan says of her mother Gabrielle, a punk-loving bohemian who owned the Kings Cross nightclub Arthur’s with Greek immigrant husband George in the ‘70s and ‘80s. “It can be volatile, it can be triggering and it can be transcendent and I am absolutely very grateful for it. And you do have to remember all the time how quickly your parents can be taken away from you and you don’t want to be living with any regret. The time is now.”

LAYING DOWN THE LAW

Karvan, who describes her childhood among the writers, musicians and drag artists in Kings Cross as “unconventional” says that her mother taught her the importance of reading and good conversation as well as being “physically affectionate and speaking your mind”. But she also reveals that Gabrielle was worried about the potential pitfalls for a child actor. Karvan was just 14 when she stunned audiences opposite the great Judy Davis in the 1987 drama High Tide, but if her mother had her way, her daughter would have pursued the bar rather than the stage and screen.

Judy Davis and Claudia Karvan in a scene from the film High Tide.

“I understand that,” says Karvan, herself a mother to daughter Audrey and son Albee, and stepmother to pop star Holiday Sidewinder. “I think it must be terrifying for a mother to see her daughter go off into this industry. There are a lot of traps and I don’t know if she believed I was going to be able to navigate them or avoid them.

“And I presume she saw something in my character when I was young that might have been a good lawyer. If I hadn’t had that opportunity to be an actor I think she probably saw that I have idealism and a sense of justice, I love learning and reading. I can sometimes be a bit black and white – so maybe she saw things in me that I maybe wouldn’t have been able to see in myself. Anyway, I am not a lawyer – but I have acted that role.”

Karvan says she’s determined to let her own children go their own way and is mindful she and long-term partner Jeremy Sparks don’t “inhibit or interfere or restrict them in any way”.

“I think that has been at the front of my mind from a very young age,” she says. “From their early childhood it was always an important part of being a parent to me, not overstepping but rather supporting.”

BUMP IN THE ROAD

After a year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Karvan is champing at the bit to get back to work on the second season of Bump, in which the 48-year-old plays a grandmother for the first time, a progression that doesn’t faze her one bit (“I didn’t give it a second thought – it’s just another part of the role”).

“We’re having a wonderful time,” she says. “It’s a great team of writers and they have been working together for about two years now and we all know each other very well and that really lubricates the creativity and the honesty of the storytelling and hopefully season two will be as good as season one.”

Director JJ Winlove, Claudia Karvan and Noni Hazlehurst discuss a scene from the movie June Again.

As a board member of Screen Australia, she’s also bullish about the immediate future of the local TV and film industry, particularly in the light of recent homegrown box office successes including The Dry, Penguin Bloom and Higher Ground, and the spate of overseas projects currently being made here.

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“There are a lot of positive stories,” she says. “That could also be put down to another COVID silver lining. I think Australians are feeling very proud of how we are getting through this pandemic and there is a lot of patriotism and pride in our stories and curiosity about our storytelling. I think Bump is also potentially another COVID response, the way we were embraced. So, things are looking good and we are also providing a very safe place for internationals to come.”

June Again opens in cinemas on May 6.