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‘She was very much Shane’s anchor’: Marny Kennedy on playing Simone Callahan in Warnie
Before accepting the coveted role in the upcoming miniseries, the 29-year-old-actor says her top priority was ensuring the family’s integrity.
Kennedy says she wanted “to ensure that Simone’s integrity was first and foremost the number one priority in the script and on-screen.”Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford
On a wintry morning, in a funky inner-city Sydney hotel, Marny Kennedy is reeling at an ear-splitting fire evacuation drill.
“I am so sorry about this,” she says via Zoom, steadying a steaming mug of tea and laughing amid the escalating tones. “It’s so incredibly loud.”
The 29-year-old mimes a scream, her long blonde hair swishing across dark blue jacket shoulders as the din jangles on interminably. “I can’t hear a thing,” she says, apologising again. “They really don’t want us to talk!”
Chatting with the actor, her sea-green eyes sparkling above an infectious grin, is an immediately warm and sisterly experience. She is discussing her role in Warnie, the Channel 9 two-part TV biopic dramatising the life of the late, great cricketer Shane Warne. (Nine is the owner of this masthead.)
But all conversation is overwhelmed by loud whoop-whoops. When it finally stops, Kennedy, who plays Simone Callahan, the spin bowler’s former wife and mother of their three children, grabs her tea and carries on. “We will not be stopped,” she says, laughing.
Regularly moving between Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Tasmania, she is today “riding the coat-tails” of partner Rulla Kelly-Mansell, a TV broadcaster, sportsman, musician and cancer survivor who’s speaking at a Sydney Writers’ Festival event marking the lives of late actor Jack Charles and late musician Archie Roach.
“Oh, careful,” Kennedy says, her face lighting up. “This whole interview will become about Rulla. He is the most incredible person I’ve ever met.”
It’s a relationship that almost didn’t happen. Kennedy first saw Kelly-Mansell, a Tulampanga Kooparoona Niara Pakana man from Lutruwita (Tasmania), when his First Nations acoustic soul and rap music duo, Marlon x Rulla, was supporting her friend, musician Xavier Rudd, in Melbourne at the Palais Theatre in July last year.
But her love of footy almost got in the way. Kennedy, sitting in her car outside the venue, decided to miss the support act so she could tune in to the AFL. “But I had a bit of a gut-punch moment,” she says. “I went, ‘What are you doing? Go inside.’ ”
So she did. And then, alongside his music collaborator Marlon Motlop, Kelly-Mansell walked on stage. Kennedy’s reaction was immediate. “It was, ‘Oh, I am going to know you,’ ” she says. “That’s the only way I can describe it. It was like a recognition.”
Max Mara dress, $3140. Essen “The Mary Jane” shoes, $353.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford
The pair didn’t talk that night but their conversations via calls and online afterwards led to Kelly-Mansell inviting Kennedy to the Northern Territory to attend the last show on Rudd’s tour.
“I remember asking Dad about it,” she says. “I said, ‘Come on, give me your honest opinion.’ And Dad said, ‘You’ve already made up your mind. We know you well enough.’
“So I went and, from them on, Rulla has been my partner. He’s a bit of a rock in my life. He’s the real deal. I’m in awe of him constantly.”
The pair’s relationship was blossoming just as the development of Warnie was picking up pace. Kennedy begins to talk about the challenges of portraying a real-life person on screen when – whoop, whoop – we are interrupted by another drill.
“Oh, this is right on brand,” she shouts above the din, cheerfully. “Shall we give it a few minutes?”
For anyone glued to Australian kids’ TV in the mid-2000s, Kennedy’s easygoing charm and quick-witted nature may be most familiar from playing Taylor Fry in the hit ABC TV series Mortified, her first screen role.
“After years of being at the ballet bar and pulling my leotard up my ass to make the girls laugh, [I realised] it was the performing element that I wanted to do.”
MARNY KENNEDY
She was keen to perform from an early age and Kennedy’s mother, who ran a dance school near their home in Melton, west of Melbourne, helped her make her stage debut, still in nappies. But the penny dropped when she moved from dance to drama classes, aged eight.
“After years of being at the ballet bar and pulling my leotard up my ass to make the girls laugh, [I realised] it was the performing element that I wanted to do,” she says, after the alarm has finally fallen silent. “Straight away I loved the storytelling. I loved that camaraderie of bringing something together with other people, even from that really young age.”
Kennedy’s screen debut at age 11 in Mortified turned her into a child star. The Australian Film Institute gave her a 2006 Young Actor Award for playing Fry, and lead roles in Australian-Canadian tween series The Saddle Club and teen series A Gurls Wurld followed.
As an adult, Kennedy has cemented her acting reputation in TV series ranging from Conspiracy 365 to Top of the Lake, Wentworth, Home and Away and Janet King.
Blanca dress, $420. Senso boots, $475. Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford
Her parents, brother and sister have been there for every high and low.
“I think regular parents are navigating heartbreak within relationships [for their children] but it was always my job that was breaking my heart,” she says. “Or making me fall blindly in love. But they know I am my full, true self when I am working, when I’m able to do the thing that I love.
“And Rulla. It’s quite foreign for me to share these experiences with a partner, so he’s learning alongside me. I told him early on, ‘You’re gonna have to buckle in because it can get bumpy.’ I’ve been very lucky with support.”
Headlining Warnie, which was filmed in Victoria in late 2022, reinforced her love for collaborative screen work, a passion she traces back to her time working in Mortified’s close-knit team.
“[Warnie] ended up being, quite honestly, one of my favourite shoots ever,” she says.
“We had respect and a full understanding of Warne’s impact on the game of cricket. I approached it as very much about the family unit, a story of love within the family. [The series] really does try to prioritise the humanity behind the man.”
Lucy Folk “Eos” dress, $2200. Essen “Foundation Flat”, $320.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford
But in September last year, Warne’s elder daughter, Brooke, responded to news of the biopic. “Do any of you have any respect for Dad?” she wrote on Instagram. “Or his family? Who did so much for Channel 9, and now you want to dramatise his life and our family’s life six months after he has passed away? You are beyond disrespectful.”
Warne’s manager, James Erskine, who had also expressed doubts about the biopic, met Nine’s director of television Michael Healy and its head of drama Andy Ryan.
“They both guaranteed me that this was going to be a celebration of Shane Warne,” Erskine said, after the meeting. “I trust them.”
Nine released a statement, saying that the Warne family had offered their support for the series during pre-production, and that the network was looking forward to collaborating with them during filming. Brooke and Callahan were contacted for comment.
Kennedy, aware of the controversy surrounding the dramatisation, understood the responsibilities of playing a real-life person. “Before I even accepted the role, that was my top priority,” she says. “To ensure that Simone’s integrity was first and foremost the number one priority in the script and on-screen.
“Obviously Simone is still very much living her life. Whether she watches the series or not, I wanted to make sure, if it ever came back to her, she would know I handled the role with as much delicacy and humanity as I possibly could.
“You can see Simone was very much Shane’s anchor. She was an incredibly strong partner to someone who was thrown completely into the public eye.”
MARNY KENNEDY
“On reading the script, what stood out to me the most is Simone’s humanity. She was a powerhouse. When viewers do watch it, you can see Simone was very much Shane’s anchor. She was an incredibly strong partner to someone who was thrown completely into the public eye.
“I think for anyone, that would be immensely challenging. Personally, I would find that immensely challenging, and I drew upon that.”
She also drew upon her decade-long friendship with actor Alex Williams, who plays Shane Warne.
“Alex is one of my dearest friends,” Kennedy says. “We’re both devout [AFL team] Greater Western Sydney fans, we go to the footy together and we already had that camaraderie, that familiarity. We had a shorthand with each other.
“And that really helped us in getting cast and then transferring that onto the screen and replicating the dynamic between Warnie and Simone. Her kinship with Williams, who is best known for roles in Underground: The Julian Assange Story and The Heights meant the pair checked in with each other as filming progressed.
“Because of our long friendship and trust, we could call each other out,” she says. “We could say, ‘No, I’m not buying that’ or ‘Let’s learn a little bit more here.’ ”
Her tea almost finished, Kennedy takes a moment to reflect on her acting career of almost 20 years. You can’t help but sense that the world is about to open up for the former child star who made classmates laugh by hoiking her leotard skywards.
“Whatever job I’m on, I always come back to that little 11-year-old girl working on Mortified and make sure I’m doing her proud. That show changed my life forever.”
Heading into her 30s, she is excited by new opportunities. A hush-hush TV project is waiting in the US, delayed by the writers’ strike, and she has co-written the first draft of a film.
“So, we’ll see,” Kennedy says.
“We never know what’s around the corner in this old industry and all I can do is keep coming back to myself, staying grounded. And checking in with that little girl.”
Warnie will air over two nights on Sunday, June 25 and Monday, June 26, on Channel 9 and 9Now.
Fashion editor: Penny McCarthy; Hair: Keiren Street for Wella Professional; Make-up Aimie Fiebig for Sisley Paris; Styling assistant: Emmerson Conrad.
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