Meet the woman who helped a 15-year-old win two Logies

Nadia Townsend missed the moment when Felix Cameron, the young star of Boy Swallows Universe, thanked her for the first of his two Logie wins on Sunday night.

“I was in a workshop till about 11 o’clock, and then I tried to watch it and I couldn’t get on,” she says. When she did finally catch his speech “it made me cry. I was so proud. He makes everyone cry. It’s ridiculous. He’ll make the grips [the notoriously tough electricians on a film set] cry.”

Nadia Townsend worked with Felix Cameron on Boy Swallows Universe.Credit: Rhett Wyman

In case you missed it, having choked up while acknowledging his parents, his brother and his sister after being named most popular new talent, 15-year-old Cameron, who lives in the Macedon Ranges, north of Melbourne, gave an even tearier shout-out to Townsend for her work in coaching him through the seven-episode series, just his second professional acting role (after Penguin Bloom).

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” he said, referring to his dramaturg by name. “She had a saying, that we were climbing a mountain. Um, well, she never, ever clarified whether it was Everest or the Dandenongs, but I think we got there.”

By the end of the night, Cameron had also won best lead actor, as the series took out a field-leading five awards, including best drama series.

In reporting on the speech, many outlets (including this one) misheard Townsend’s name as Towns, and mislabelled her as Cameron’s drama coach or acting teacher. It’s a distinction she’s keen to emphasise.

“We use that word – not drama teacher or acting teacher – because dramaturg essentially means ‘drama worker’,” says Townsend, who began acting professionally in her teens. “I’ll be brought onto productions to work with ensembles, liaising on behalf of the story, and taking the actors through a process that enables them to embody that story, and all turn up on the same page.”

Felix Cameron accepts the Logie for most popular new talent.Credit: Getty Images

Typically, there’s a very limited rehearsal period for film and television – in the case of Boy Swallows Universe, she had just seven days with the cast, but primarily with Cameron (then 13) and his screen brother Lee Tiger Halley (then 16) – before production began.

“The director is responsible for the outcome, the producers are keeping the ship afloat, and what I’ve done over the last 15-20 years is develop a process but also get productions on board with the idea that you need someone to manage that space. That’s why I don’t use the word ‘drama teacher’, because I’m not really teaching them how to act. We’re just trying to, together, understand what’s going on in this story, and how do they, with the skills they have and maybe some tools that I can offer, tell that story.”

Townsend, who lives on the NSW Central Coast, is the daughter of Simon Townsend, whose afternoon show Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! was a breeding ground for talent in the 1970s and ’80s. Alumni include ABC radio’s Angela Catterns, Oscar-winning cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, and the late radio announcer Jonathan Coleman. The relaunched version (sans Townsend) of the 1990s gave starts to TV presenters Catriona Rowntree and Sonia Kruger.

The biggest influence on Nadia Townsend’s work as a dramaturg, though, is Nico Lathouris, the actor and screenwriter (he co-wrote the Mad Max films Fury Road and Furiosa).

Townsend was 19 when she landed a role on a series called Head Start, produced by Heartbreak High’s Ben Gannon. Though Lathouris does not appear in that show’s credits, he was, she says, critical to helping the young cast get their head around the material.

“He was very influential in television culture at the time, because his process enabled young, new actors from lots of different backgrounds to speak with their own authenticity,” she says. “He created this process whereby he’s going, ‘How do you come to this material? How do you say these words? What is this to you?’

Townsend and Lathouris are still regularly in contact. “We still argue and debate all things drama. He’s, like, 80 now, and he’s been a huge influence on my life.”

While she was employed to work with the kids, she says the more experienced cast came to see the value in being part of it too. “Because often, even if you’re Bryan Brown or whoever, you end up working in isolation,” she says.

“In a field that’s meant to be about human relationship and connection and all that deep stuff, we end up working alone, and so that rehearsal space actually gives us the capacity to make the connection you need to do the work on set.”

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