‘It wasn’t self-deprecating — it was self sabotage’: How Rebecca Gibney defied her use-by date

THE Gold Logie winner has opened up about how she ditched the “self sabotage” to become the driver of her own career.

Rebecca Gibney and Joel Jackson for Boy From Oz. Picture Chris Pavlich

REBECCA Gibney always said she’d set her own show business use-by date.

The difference now is, she really believes it.

Even if it does mean being pistol whipped, thrown into a car boot to prove it, as happens in her new show.

In the strongest reminder yet of her belief “50 is the new 30”, Gibney has backed up her “I’m an older woman in TV, bugger it” approach to show business, with Wanted — the series she conceived, developed, co-produced and stars in.

She has negated her own deep-buried, niggling doubts to remind her that being aged 51 is an asset, not a liability.

“If I had been 20, I couldn’t have done this,” the Golden Logie winner said of the show she conceived in 2014, and developed for 18 months with her production designer husband, Richard Bell, before Matchbox Pictures agreed to make it and Seven to screen it.

“I used to joke in my 20s and 30s that I’d have a use-by date and that was probably going to be around 40.

“And I used to think that was being self-deprecating but it actually wasn’t.

“It wasn’t self-deprecating, it was a form of self-sabotage — and also because I thought ‘I don’t want to disappoint myself if the jobs stop coming’.

“And you know what? I’m still really vital and I’m still interesting and I’ve got better stories to tell now than I did in my 20s.

“And I’m going to keep creating them well into my 60s and 70s because there’s a generation of people my age and older who don’t want to just be portrayed as mothers and fathers and grandparents.”

Now 51, Rebecca Gibney plans to keep working into her 60s and 70s. Picture Chris Pavlich

In 2013 when her role as Julie Rafter in Packed to the Rafters ended, Gibney spoke at length about finding longevity in the industry, and viewed if she didn’t find roles, she’s create her own.

She wasn’t kidding.

Creating Wanted and her character, Lola, is something a younger Gibney could not possibly have conceived.

“I didn’t have the experience — in life, or the business — and I didn’t have the belief in myself,” Gibney said.

“There’s something great about getting to 50 and going: ‘I do know what I want and I do have a good knowledge of it. And I am creative and I do have a talent and I know I’m good at it’.

“I’m a great believer in you manifest it. You put it out there and you say ‘this is what I am going to make’. And then I’ve been lucky enough to have people come on board and support that journey, and take a risk.

“I just want to keep working and keep producing and keep creating roles for older people and let Australia know that we don’t dry up at 50, we are still incredibly vital because I know a lot of people my age and older who feel invisible, and we’re not.

“If I can stay visible for the next 10, 20, 30 years then the people around me who are my age can also stay visible. And that’s what it’s all about.”

Wanted starts Tuesday night on Channel Seven.