Actor Lisa McCune reveals she was embarrassed by her Logies success and is still looking for love

Beloved soapie and stage star Lisa McCune was once so worried people would think she had “a big head”, she played down her Logies success. Now, at 51, she’s owning it.

Lisa McCune says she’s in “a happy place”, has a lot to be thankful for and is grateful for her past success. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Twenty-two years after winning her fourth Gold Logie, Lisa McCune gave the most meaningful acceptance speech of her career.

But it wasn’t made at the victory podium. Instead, it was a quiet word of acknowledgment to herself.

“I’m renovating my house at the moment, so the trophies are tucked away in a box, and they’ve lived in various places,” McCune said. “But they’re really important to me now.

“At the time, when I won them, I was embarrassed by it all, thinking, ‘I’m not deserving of this.’

“Now I go, ‘no, you got those girl, good on you’. I’ve been having a talk to my younger self lately, like ‘you worked really hard. You deserve it’.’”

McCune adds quietly: “I’ll find something amazing to do with them when the renovations are done”.

McCune, who turned 51 in February, is a star on the theatre stage and small screen, and one of Australia’s most-beloved actors.

Her status as a perennial favourite and girl next door is arguably reflected in her haul of Gold Logies, the television industry’s top prize for most popular personality, which McCune won four straight years in a row from 1997-2000.

Lisa McCune winning the Gold Logie in 1997.

Her role as Maggie Doyle in the cherished police drama Blue Heelers ensured all the glitter. And then another character, Kate McGregor, in Sea Patrol, kept McCune’s approval ratings high.

“I was going to work every day, so you don’t really notice the headlines. When you’re filming five-days-a-week, you’re not really aware of it,” she said.

“I mean, Blue Heelers had a bumpy first year when it started, and then went gangbusters. So we experienced that feeling of, ‘will we, or won’t we, keep going?’ You were never sure if your contract, or the show, would be renewed.

“You live on a knife’s edge as a performer,” McCune said. “You’re so used to disappointment; that’s the kind of life it is.”

She left Blue Heelers in 2001 and said the show, and the spotlight it gave her, were all blessings.

“There were no curses,” McCune said. “People still talk to me about Blue Heelers and how much they loved it. They’re adults now, so they were kids at the time.

“I think that their sense of love for the show was because the family actually sat down and watched Blue Heelers together. What families do that around TV drama today? It’s rare.

“So, no. No curses,” she said.

“You just go along for the ride, you do the work, and try not to let the colour and movement, and shining imprint on you in a way that changes who you are.”

McCune says her past modesty about being the Gold Logie queen is linked to that same resolve to keep it real.

A young Lisa McCune with John Wood and William McInnes in Blue Heelers.

“I didn’t want people to think I was getting too big for my boots. I’m so aware of the tall poppy syndrome in this country,” McCune said. “I appreciated (the awards) – genuinely – but I didn’t want anyone to think I was getting a big head.

“I think it was a really lovely reaction to have back then. But now, I own it.”

Age, experience and a landmark birthday last year has seen McCune take the reins of her career like never before.

She’s dabbled in comedy, playing working mum Em Butler, alongside Peter Helliar for three seasons on Channel 10’s How To Stay Married.

“I want to do different characters, and try new things, so hopefully I don’t get boxed in with expectations. I want to shake it up a little bit,” McCune said.

Her latest role is Elizabeth Laine, the wife of a Great Depression-era boarding house owner, and a woman with early onset dementia, in the soulful musical Girl From The North Country.

The musical, written by Conor McPherson and anchored by the songs of Bob Dylan, showcases the wonderfully versatile McCune as fragile, fiery, and sometimes, bloody funny.

“Every night, I feel like Elizabeth might change, and I go with it,” McCune said.

“The (show’s producers) said to keep playing with her, and I do. Dementia is such a huge umbrella of different conditions and I’ve zeroed in on a condition that I think she has.

“I try to make her playful and human. There’s so much there, so many layers, I keep exploring it. She speaks so many truths, and there’s a danger in that, too.

“I got a laugh last night where I shouldn’t have,” McCune said.

“I have to be careful.”

McCune’s theatre resume is wide and varied and includes Urinetown, A Little Night Music, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific and The King And I.

McCune started her arts degree in music theatre at Perth’s prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at age 17.

Lisa McCune is now a star of the stage and proud of her past TV Gold Logies success. Picture: Brad Fleet

“I watched (the 1980s TV drama) Fame as a kid. I felt like I was going to the same high school,” she said, laughing.

“It was remarkable to find your pack. I turn up, and there are people in a room working as an ensemble, and dancers warming up at 7am. I felt like I was on the right path.”

After graduating, McCune signed with celebrity agent Robyn Gardiner, whose roster also includes Barry Humphries and Cate Blanchett.

“Robyn told me, ‘you’re going to work in television,’ and I was like, ‘I just want to do Les Mis.’ She had a keen sense of where you should be.”

Last year, McCune’s 50th birthday inspired a stocktake on her life and where she wanted go next.

McCune and her ex-husband, actor Tim Disney, co-parent their children, Archer, 20, Oliver, 18, and daughter Remy, 16. The former couple live in separate homes within a kilometre of each other.

McCune recently told Samantha Armytage’s podcast, Something To Talk About, that she is still open to finding love.

“I’m such a believer (of) that romantic notion that I might just bump into someone on the street one day,” McCune said. “I still believe that can happen and if it does that’s really wonderful, and if that doesn’t happen, that’s OK too.

“But the person (you date) does carry a small burden (being in the public eye) … it does affect them.”

Lisa McCune and Peter Kowitz, who plays her husband, in Girl From The North Country.

McCune said she and Disney were “doing really well”, adding “time is a great healer.”

“It is what it is, and who doesn’t want a complete life? But I’m in a really happy place, and I have so much to be thankful for.”

McCune said her 50s would be “the decade of doing what I want”.

“I’ve actually never done anything that I didn’t want to,” she said.

“I’ve been very fortunate. I really chased Girl From The North Country. (The play) felt so hopeful, and I really wanted to feel that, especially after the last few years.

“I’ve had an incredible run. There’s so much more I could’ve done, and there’s so much more I can do. I’ve managed to squeeze a family in, which is the most important thing in my life, and I feel like I’m in a great place.

“I also feel very humble about the degree of luck and opportunity that I’ve been given. I’ll never take that for granted. Never.

“But I’m really hungry to use the knowledge that I’ve got, and work with other people. It’s like there’s a fire going in my brain ... I want to kick some big goals.”

Girl From The North Country is opened at the Comedy Theatre from April 29.