Doris Younane completely at home on the set of Five Bedrooms
It’s been a dream role for the former McLeod’s Daughters star on Five Bedrooms
When work on Five Bedrooms second series shut up shop in the first wave of Covid, Doris Younane moved into the gorgeous house from which the delightful show takes its name.
Production needed a caretaker, Doris and her husband Billy Papakostantis needed a home. Their lease was up on their Sydney apartment and they wanted to stay in Melbourne, Younane crossing her fingers, legs, arms, eyes, all of the things that work on the popular Ten series would be able to restart.
It was a little bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Younane testing out each one of the five bedrooms. She didn’t like her character Heather’s bed – it was too hard, Harry’s (Roy Joseph’s) was too cold and too manly. But Ainslie’s (Katie Robertson) was just right. With its ensuite and massive wardrobe space, it was just “brilliant, brilliant”.
“It’s gorgeous – it’s a house I could never afford, you know, a rich person’s house,” Younane confides. “We had a gardener that came every two weeks and I got very attached to them so I used to get a little bit annoyed when they didn’t during Covid. You know the gardens looking a bit rough compared to others on the street.
“I turned into one of those privileged people who just expect things to be done.”
She also did a lot of eating and drinking – everything was fitting a little tighter. “Even when we knew filming was going to be starting in two weeks, I didn’t think ‘I should drop a bit (of weight)’ – I just had more wine and cheese,” Younane laughs.
According to the 58-year-old, audiences won’t be able to pick the difference between the pre and post-Covid scenes in this second series of the show, which also stars Kat Stewart and Stephen Peacocke, about a motley clan of five who pitch in together to buy a house. This new eight-episode season will finally make its debut on Paramount+ this month, spearheading the local launch of the streaming service.
“It’s so exciting – it’s such a big platform for this little Aussie show,” Younane says. “But it has universal themes, it’s just set in Australia. So I think we’re good for another 10 seasons – at least.”
Heather and her existential crisis has really resonated with Younane. The kids and husband issues aside – “I’m married to a drop-dead gorgeous man (Billy Papakostantis) who looks like Jason Momoa so I’m doing OK on that front.”
She does wish, however, she was more like the acerbic, quick-witted mother-of-two.
“I tend to slip into her when I’m playing her – I become much more aggressive and vocal,” Younane confesses. “Although it’s quite exhausting. when I’m done I go ‘oh I might have some quiet time and read a book’.
“There’s an honesty to her that we don’t often see so she really resonates with women in that age group. We are all tumbling through life trying work out where we fit. We are all going ‘is this it? Is this all there is?’.”
She laughs as I confess I don’t feel I’m an adult-adult myself, and counsels me to not ever let it happen.
“Don’t give into the majority – I don’t want to conform,” Younane shares. “I think that’s the worry that you get to a certain age and you are supposed to behave in a certain way and f--- that. It’s not what I want and I refuse to give in.”
Heather does give into her feelings for the much younger Ben (Peacocke) and they negotiate the stares and questions their relationship brings.
“I think Heather’s always questioning the age difference,” Younane says.
“I think it’s always in the back of her mind that he’s going to meet a 20-year-old woman with huge lips who’s had a boob job and go ‘whoa, she’s amazing'.
“She doesn’t feel worthy, as much as she adores him and the chemistry is great.
“Again that’s a very common thing with women of that age. They doubt their worth.
“In this Instagram age, it’s hard for women in that age group to be seen, They feel invisible.
“But she’s not changing who she is. She has a sense of humour and just says it how it is.
“That’s what’s refreshing for Ben. And maybe that’s what most men should be looking for rather than 18 year olds, you know what I mean.”
Heather hits every spot for Younane. And she just does not want it to stop.
“I think audiences are going to absolutely adore it – I feel a bit silly like I’m blowing my own trumpet when I go on about it,” she says. “But when you’ve been in the industry for 35 years and you start reading scripts and you go ‘Dear God it’s finally all happening’.
“I’m emotional, I’m laughing and I’m honoured. And I’m also just very grateful to (writers) Michael (Lucas) and Christine (Bartlett) for giving me this opportunity at my age.”
Five Bedrooms, streaming, August 11, Paramount Plus
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