Dev and I “just really like each other”: Inside the world of SA’s hottest rising star
Adelaide’s Tilda Cobham-Hervey loves making films and TV shows. And she loves spending time with partner Dev Patel. But being in the spotlight comes with its own set of challenges.
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It’s unlikely Tilda Cobham-Hervey would have ended up anywhere but in the arts.
In fact the 28-year-old actor jokes her parents – Patch Theatre artistic director Geoff and Restless Dance’s creative producer Roz – would have fully disowned her if she’d chosen a more stable career path such as accounting, medicine or law.
She grew up in the back of theatres and on tours while her mum performed. Her first show at 12 was with her mum, while dad did the set and lighting.
“By that point I was already gone,” Cobham-Hervey says. “It was a pretty beautiful lifestyle. And to witness their excitement for their jobs, I found really inspiring. I was lucky that I grew up with those parents and then also found that to be my hobby and interest as well.”
She was just 19 when her role as Billie in the SA-shot feature film 52 Tuesdays brought her to wider attention and acclaim. Considered one of the breakout performances at the 2014 Sundance Film festival, Variety called her “a thoroughly beguiling newcomer blessed with offbeat beauty and natural charm”.
Further film roles followed from One Eyed Girl, Girl Asleep, and the 2020 Helen Reddy biopic I Am Woman. And 2017’s Hotel Mumbai where Cobham-Hervey met her partner Hollywood star Dev Patel.
That same year she was nominated for Outstanding Newcomer at the Logies. There’s also been TV roles in The Kettering Incident, Barracuda and the just-released The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart on Prime Video.
Despite her early start, and ever-increasing volume of work and awards, Cobham-Hervey – whose first name was inspired by Oscar-winning Brit actor Tilda Swinton, “When I first found out I was pretty furious at my parents, because the only thing I’d seen her in was the Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. And she’s a horrible witch in that” – feels a certain amount of impostor syndrome.
She didn’t formally study her craft, you see.
We’re sitting in the Sofitel Adelaide after Cobham-Hervey’s photo shoot – where she effortlessly and generously posed for a few hours in her designer clothes. On the surface at least, it was completely at odds with her candid admission that she always feels more than a little awkward doing so. She’s changed into a blue woollen jumper, comfy jeans and a pair of RM Williams boots for our chat.
She finishes my question “Do you ever feel …” with a smile and “Like a fraud?”
“All the time, yes, yes – I’m always waiting for someone to be like ‘ahem, excuse me. You’re terrible, you need to leave’,” she says. “I really love being in film and TV, but it completely terrifies me still. So there are times that I go, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’ It makes me so nervous and I feel there’s so much to learn.
“But I think … because it terrifies me, I’m compelled to do it. I’m obsessed with story.
“And meeting people. And being able to be a part of creating something. Once you’ve got a taste of that, it’s pretty hard to think about doing something else.”
The self-confessed “secret introvert” would still much rather not speak to anybody for days and simply read a book in bed.
Bookworm side prepared her for role
And there’s been plenty of opportunity to indulge that introverted, bookworm side as she prepared for her role as Agnes Hart in the small screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Australian author Holly Ringland’s debut.
In fact, she’d been dreaming about a role in it for a long time, since she first read the international bestseller. Although, like most avid readers, she was tentative over how the adaptation would translate a beloved book.
“I always get so scared that it’s going to get ruined – I felt the pressure,” Cobham-Hervey says. “We all felt the pressure of that while making the show, because we all loved the book. Every actor and maker in that space was so into what Holly did. It is a really hard act to follow a book like that.”
Cobham-Hervey and the cast needn’t have worried. The series – of which the first three episodes dropped last week – has already received glowing reviews.
Agnes is the mother of the titular character, Alice, and it’s a complicated and dark part of the story as she struggles to protect herself, her daughter and unborn son from husband Clem’s (Charlie Vickers) violent rages. Producer Jodi Matterson has said the role of Agnes is “genuinely one of the most difficult and pivotal of the show”, a complex character whose love for her daughter is all-encompassing.
Cobham-Hervey explains just how important it was to her to portray the stories of women in those situations. She hopes it will help facilitate difficult conversations about the prevalence of coercive control and violence in our society.
“One woman a week is killed by their domestic partner in Australia, and that’s a horrific statistic that doesn’t get talked about enough,” she says. “But I also hope it opens people up to think about the world we live in a bit more and the beauty of women coming together and that if you reach out and ask for help, there will be people there. I think what they’ve done beautifully is that by the end you feel a sense of redemption and hope.”
While it was tough, at times, to shake off the darkness of Agnes’ situation, there were plenty of beautiful moments with the cast such as Vickers – “who comes across as so terrifying but is the most happy, gorgeous man. He’s so gentle and we really worked hard to create those scenes together”.
The pair also marvelled at the incredible Alyla Browne who played young Alice.
“There were a few days where me and Charlie were watching her and she’s producing a single tear on cue, over and over,” Cobham Hervey says. “We’re looking at each other going ‘We’ve really got to quit’. Like ‘this is outrageous – she’s upstaging us’. But she was incredible and just a real joy to be around. She’s got a brilliant brain. She’ll be directing everyone one day.”
Working alongside Holywood superstars
Young Tilda also never envisaged working alongside Hollywood superstars such as Sigourney Weaver, who plays the formidable matriarch June Hart.
“It was so beautiful to see and I learned so much from watching her as an actor, but also just how she took on a set,” Cobham-Hervey says. “She was so gracious and so kind to everyone and so connected in to check in with everyone. “It really is a cliche, but so true that it really comes from the top on sets. And she really set the precedent for how that shoot ran.”
Weaver and Cobham-Hervey are part of a strong female cast which also includes Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Frankie Adams.
“I remember the first table read and we were all sitting there, looking around and going, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never seen this many women around a table for a project and that they’re not all wives, girlfriends, like they are really excellent, really complicated, tricky, beautiful characters,” Cobham-Hervey says.
“I hope there’s more stories we get to tell like that where there’s lots of roles for women. I think you do sometimes get that thing where there’s one female role that’s interesting and everyone has to go for that.”
Life with partner Dev Patel
While Cobham-Hervey’s star has well and truly risen, she still enjoys a level of anonymity, unlike her partner Patel The 33-year-old – who will next be seen in Wes Anderson’s take on Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar – is often a target of the paparazzi.
“I have completely avoided that problem and I’m very grateful for that,” she says.
“I would not do well with that. I think that it is such a gift to be anonymous. (He deals with so much) but always with so much grace and I’m always in complete awe of that.”
These days she and Patel are largely based in Los Angeles, but he loves Adelaide and they both enjoy spending time in her hometown. The pair relocated here for much of the pandemic. And it’s important for Cobham-Hervey to regularly reconnect with her close-knit family.
The couple takes great joy in sharing the complexities of their profession – reading scripts and dissecting films for work and for pleasure. However, quite beyond that she says “we just really like each other”. And the chaotic nature of their careers works well too.
“In terms of (hectic) schedules – if we had a 9-5 job, it would be so hard to ever see each other so it’s really helpful to have the freedom to have a job that has that flexibility,” she says.
It’s also been tremendous for them to explore creating their own projects.
“He’s started making things and I’m starting to do that too – so being able to help each other and be creative together is so much fun.”
Cobham-Hervey’s always been interested in the other side of the camera, creating her own opportunities.
“I’m certainly not in a position where I get offered everything under the sun that I dream of being in,” she says. “I was never very right for those sort of teenage high school dramas. I was just, you know, born an 80-year-old woman.
“In terms of roles, I’m now interested in, I’ve got to the point of realising they’re not just going to come to your door, the ones you really want to play. I have been writing and that’s been a really exciting thing.”
She’s bursting with excitement at her latest collaboration with Closer Productions’ Sophie Hyde. Hyde first directed her in 52 Tuesdays and will direct Cobham-Hervey’s adaptation of author Miriam Toews’ novel Irma Voth. She’s been obsessed with the book for years.
“I first read that book when I was 19 and the character – she’s a 19-year-old Mennonite girl in Mexico – is so different to me,” she says.
“I read that being an Adelaide girl who grew up as an atheist with artist parents. And yet, I’ve never felt more similar to a character. I thought that was just so amazing how you can have such different worlds and still connect.”
Book adaptations are certainly woven through Cobham-Hervey’s life at the moment. She’s soon to head into rehearsals for the State Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company’s co-production of Australian author Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words. She’s the lead Esme Nicoll. “I have been watching State Theatre shows since about age five, so to be stepping on that stage means a huge amount to me,” she says. “Growing up in Adelaide, I’ve had the pleasure of being so transformed by so many works produced by this company and have had some of the most meaningful moments in my artistic career working with them.”
But Cobham-Hervey’s also a little terrified, given the last time she trod the boards was six years ago. “It’s such a different form and style of performance,” she says.
“I’m also really excited to try and get back into that, where you get to do so much learning.”
While for years, Aussie actors have had tohead to distant lands to further their prospects, Cobham-Hervey feels the tide is very much turning.
“Closer Productions have shown me since I was 16, that you can go and have a life in other parts of the world, but continue to base yourself here,” she says.
And she feels a certain peace coming home – which starts the moment she hears the announcement “G’day and welcome to Australia”.
“I think in those big cities you have to have a different kind of hustle with the cost of living, the busyness, the everything,” she says.
“While here, there is the space to really be creative in a different way. It’s just a really kind and beautiful artistic community that builds each other up too. It really does make a difference than being in the crazy other parts of the world, which are also amazing.
“I feel so lucky and love being able to go out and experience parts of that, but I think it’d be pretty hard to not have some solid grounding back in Adelaide.”
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, streaming, Prime Video
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