Danielle Cormack: ‘There seemed to be a lot of titillation’
Actor Danielle Cormack has opened up about the backlash she endured when she first began dating a man 18 years her junior, and was labelled a “bad woman” who liked “toy boys”.
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Acting? Not family friendly? Nobody told Danielle Cormack.
“I was so beautifully naïve,” says Cormack, who was midway through shooting her second feature film at home in New Zealand when she gave birth to her first son Ethan, who is now a strapping 22-year-old.
“I never really thought about it. Of course, I have nothing to compare it to because this is the only business I have ever worked in as an adult.”
When Cormack told the film’s director she was pregnant, he simply wrote that into the screenplay, and a week after giving birth she was back on set — re-enacting her labour onscreen.
Fourteen years later, Cormack was pregnant with her second son, Te Ahi Ka, when she auditioned for a role on the ABC TV series Rake.
“There was a little bit of concern, naturally, from the producers,” she tells Stellar. “But we had a very frank conversation. Once again, I felt completely comfortable.’’
Ahi would be a mere 11 days old when Cormack relocated to Sydney and cameras started rolling.
“I would bring him on set,” she recalls. “They had a trailer for me. And I had help. I guess I just felt that work is such a massive part of my life, it wouldn’t really work for me to separate it too much from my family.’’
Cormack also has an extensive list of theatre credits in both Australia and New Zealand — recent productions include Hedda for Queensland Theatre and Bell Shakespeare’s The Misanthrope.
When he was young Ahi, who will turn nine later this month, often accompanied his mother to the theatre, and would sleep backstage.
“Looking back now, it can seem like a rather cavalier approach,” she says. “But sometimes the more you know, the more difficult things become.”
In light of Cormack’s own experiences as a mother, it’s tempting to think her latest character may be semi-autobiographical.
In Foxtel’s Secret City: Under The Eagle, she plays maverick MP Karen Koutoufides, a spunky, working-class independent and single mother still breastfeeding her youngest son.
But the character, who has obvious shades of former Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, was already fleshed out and on the page when the script landed in Cormack’s hands.
In what feels like a meaningful departure, the series’ creators chose not to address the lack of a significant other in Koutoufides’s life; in fact, her marital status is almost incidental to the story.
“Of course, I questioned them about it,” says Cormack. “They said, ‘Do we need to know?’ and I thought... ‘Do we?’ There are plenty of other things going on in terms of storyline and intrigue. We’re not concerned about that part of her life because there is so much else worth investigating. It was a genius move on the writers’ part.”
One might argue this article should follow the same progressive, gender-neutral approach — focusing on Four One One, the production company she has formed with her former Wentworth co-star Nicole da Silva; her links to various charities including SHINE for Kids, an organisation that assists young people with a relative in the criminal justice system, ChildFund and Bridge the Gap; or even her blossoming relationship with a handsome Harley-Davidson Sportster Iron 1200, which we will return to later.
But Cormack’s private life has been a matter of public conversation ever since her breakthrough role in the long-running Kiwi soap Shortland Street and a key part as Ephiny in Xena: Warrior Princess, which followed soon after.
“I have two children to two different fathers,” says Cormack, who has in the past also spoken of relationships with women. “And it is a matter of curiosity and bewilderment to some people.”
Today, she tells Stellar, “I am in a wonderful relationship with a man who I’ve been with since Ahi was really young. We are a modern, blended family. I’ve finally arrived at a place where I absolutely refuse to carry anyone else’s baggage or judgement about that, because there certainly has been.”
Ahi’s father, Kiwi actor Pana Hema Taylor (Boy, Spartacus), was 20 when he and Cormack met while working together on a theatre project. She was 38.
“Naturally people are going to ask me about this relationship because it was so public, especially in New Zealand,” says Cormack.
“And the reason why it was so public is because people were really curious about our age gap. There seemed to be a lot of titillation around it.”
The implication for Cormack is that she was somehow a “bad woman”. Looking back, she explains, “People only seemed to be interested in my part of the relationship. No matter how often I tried to employ that mantra, that what everyone else thinks of you is not your business, it was just impossible, because it was everywhere.
“And it wasn’t my own paranoia — it was actually happening! The way people would write about the relationship, the turns of phrases they would use, like ‘toy boy’; when you have that judgement all around you, it’s really hard not to question your motives and yourself.
“I was in a state of analysis paralysis. But I work in an industry where my life is going to be put on show whether I like it or not. And in some respects [the experience] was really great for me.
“It unearthed a vulnerability that I hadn’t explored before, but it also gave me the opportunity to find a way to buffer myself from those moments by not paying too much attention to them.
“And that takes practice. It really does. I don’t need to guard the story anymore — or not the story, more so this part of my experience as a woman — because thankfully things are changing.”
Someone once described Cormack as a “Mini going down a motorway at 100 miles per hour in first gear”. In response, she laughs.
“Just the thought of the sound of that makes me go argghh! I wanted to get somewhere fast, but I didn’t really know the gear changes. I have matured really late in life and I am only just starting to be OK about that.”
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At 48, Cormack’s preferred mode of transport is the aforementioned Harley-Davidson. “People are very quick to point out the dangers. What can I say? Life is a risk. Life is also an adventure.”
She says a motorbike’s increased exposure brings with it a sharper focus. “It’s very different to driving a car. I could be applying mascara, illegally texting under the seat while trying to do up my child’s seatbelt in the back... then I have arrived — and I can’t remember how I got there. On a bike it’s not the same. Today could be the day, so keep your eyes on the road.”
If Cormack’s energy appears to have no limits, it is a good fit for a moment like International Women’s Day (IWD) and initiatives such as 50/50 by 2020, which aim to raise awareness of gender equity in Hollywood and beyond.
As she considers these, along with #MeToo and #TimesUp, she exudes optimism to match. “The velocity with which the movement is travelling means it just cannot be stopped.”
The theme for this year’s IWD, which is celebrated annually on March 8, is Balance for Better, which marks women’s achievements but agitates for a more gender-balanced world.
Cormack says it is important women be reminded they don’t all have access to the same resources.
“IWD is an opportunity for us to rally in those areas where we still don’t have gender equality — pay, safety in the workplace, education,” she says.
“But it’s also important for us to remember those incredible pioneers — the women and the men. This day has persevered for more than 100 years. She ain’t going nowhere.”
If the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns have struggled to gain a foothold in this country — Tracey Spicer’s NOW Australia, which Cormack supported, never achieved the same level of traction — she cites the treatment afforded to those who did speak up.
“I only know about the women who have come forward, bravely so and risking so much,” she says. “I imagine as well there are women who are privately having to reconcile within themselves what they have or haven’t done to get where they are. And that is not for me to judge. It’s what you can handle.”
She says she has not personally experienced any serious incidents of harassment or abuse. “But the world is not telling us at the moment that it’s a safe place to come out.”
Cormack says she fails to understand the knee-jerk response of those men who have been called out.
“It’s absolutely baffling that all they have done is step up to the plate and adamantly defend themselves, as opposed to looking at the other person’s trauma or distress and thinking, ‘Maybe my behaviour has done that, maybe I need to shift where I am at.’ Rather than go, ‘Oh, that’s just the way we do things, it’s never hurt anyone before,’ they need to shut up and listen and adapt.
“We all have to. It screams volumes how defensive they are! And I’m not just talking about the men in this country.”
Cormack has played her fair share of memorable characters across her TV career, from real-life crime queen Kate Leigh in Underbelly: Razor to Guy Pearce’s complicated psychiatrist love interest in Jack Irish.
In 2015, she won a Logie for her take on Bea Smith in Foxtel’s gritty Australian TV prison classic Wentworth.
It inspired a series of international adaptations and became a hit at home (and a cult favourite abroad) with audiences who have responded to the almost entirely female cast at its centre.
Cormack remains proud of the show’s ongoing legacy, and points to the palpable changes taking place at a grassroots level within the filmmaking industry.
“If you go to any of the funding bodies, it’s all about diversity, inclusivity,” she says.
“I say to female practitioners: write your stories, be part of telling your stories, look for the most beautiful, complex, cracked characters. The wholeness of the female experience is only just beginning to be explored onscreen. Never be apologetic about that.
“In regard to male practitioners, I say: sit back, watch and listen... don’t contradict it, and don’t try to argue.”
Secret City: Under The Eagle premieres 8.30pm tomorrow on Foxtel’s Fox Showcase.
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Originally published as Danielle Cormack: ‘There seemed to be a lot of titillation’
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