‘He was sacked’: Australian actor Tammin Sursok opens up about sexual harassment in Hollywood
Ex-Home And Away star Tammin Sursok opens up about her experiences in Hollywood, including the ‘many micro-sexual things that went on that were so hidden’.
Stellar
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For Tammin Sursok, honesty is always the best policy. Whether discussing her personal struggles with body image, divulging intimate musings in her upcoming autobiography,
or encouraging fellow celebrities such as Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Amy Shark and Jessica Rowe to open up about their own challenges on her podcast, Sursok is never shy about laying bare the messiness of life.
“If I sit with myself subconsciously in therapy and ask: ‘Does it give me some kind of lift to know I’m not alone?’ [the answer is:] Sure!” the Australian actor tells Stellar.
“But I think the motivation is to build the kind of community I never had.”
Sursok gave up chasing the pretend perfection she saw on social media after welcoming her two daughters, Phoenix, 11, and Lennon, 5. The pressure of trying to live up to other people’s expectations, she admits, “didn’t feel authentic”.
It was only in 2020, after posting about the miscarriages she had experienced, that Sursok realised genuine vulnerability was
an approach more impactful than the glossy content she found online.
That raw candour saw her inundated with messages of solidarity she could have benefited from when she was first in the throes of early motherhood.
“I went through post-partum depression after having my first baby,” she reveals.
“I had no community; no-one talked about it. I think if I had a baby now, at least there would be some content creators or influencers that I could actually look at their content and go, ‘Oh, thank God, they’re going through that’.”
Listen to the new epsiode of the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About below:
While Sursok’s openness has not as yet made her a target for online trolls, she is always mindful that today’s culture often leaves people like her more open to scrutiny.
“Where’s the space for questions or clarification gone?” she asks. “We go straight to: ‘You’re an arsehole. You suck. You need to be cancelled’.”
As the former Home And Away star continues working on her memoir, which is slated for release next year, she says the writing process has given her pause to reflect on moving to Hollywood 19 years ago.
“I’ve always said ‘I’m so lucky I came out unscathed’ – but I don’t think I did,” she admits. “There were so many micro-sexual things that went on that were so hidden.”
She recounts the time a studio driver made her uncomfortable as she was being ferried to and from work. He was “saying really dirty things to me – when I was only 16 or 17,” she recalls.
“But I had such a good sense of self because of my parents, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, if I don’t say anything something bad could happen’. And I did, and he was fired. I’m really lucky that the production believed me, because I know a lot of women, especially back then, were not believed.”
While the actor says she has observed positive changes since, she maintains there needs to be more women in “gatekeeper positions”. And she is practising what she preaches through her own production company, Charlie Baby Productions.
“Women still don’t have equality. In 2024, we still get paid less than a man for the same job, and my daughters don’t understand that,” Sursok says.
“I’m excited that by having a production company we can put women’s stories in the limelight.”
For Sursok, who suffers from anxiety, performance has always provided a safe space for new challenges. Whether playing the reviled Jenna Marshall on Pretty Little Liars or sweet Colleen Carlton on The Young And The Restless, she has happily immersed herself in a character.
Her latest role is in Trivia At St Nick’s, a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie – a now-beloved holiday institution in the US – and Sursok says her American friends are even more enthusiastic for its release than she is.
“It doesn’t matter what I’ve done for the last 20 years,” she says with a smile.
“People think this is the biggest thing I’ve done.”
Listen to The Sh!t Show with Tammin Sursok wherever you get your podcasts.
For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here. See the full shoot with Tammin Sursok in the latest issue of Stellar, out via the Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), Sunday Telegraph (NSW), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).
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