‘If I didn’t have the love for (acting) there is no way I’d be doing it because it’s such a hard industry‘

CONFESSIONAL: Total Control star Deborah Mailman on why she’d never go into politics in real life, the power of the breath and her hatred for burpees.

Deborah Mailman at the 2022 TV Week Logie Awards. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Life at five was … the smell of rodeo and idyllic open spaces riding my horse. I grew up outside Mount Isa at the rodeo grounds. My Dad was a cowboy so that was my childhood, it was pretty idyllic. But it’s funny, because I always used to look at the city kids and I always wondered what that was like.

Not on my CV is … that office job I did in Mount Isa when Centrelink used to be CES. It was a temporary office job where I did typing and stuff. I didn’t last very long. In the end it was a very polite “thank you for your time Deb” and something along the lines of my typing wasn’t fast enough. That was the last office job I ever had, the one and only office job I did actually. I was happy to go, happy to leave.

The last time I had to say no was … at the gym when I was told to do burpees. I did a couple, but in my head I was saying “I’m not doing this”. I was staring at the gym mat for a good minute going, “how am I going to do this?” And I was like “You’re a grown woman, you can say no to this!” Whoever concocted burpees is an evil person.

My greatest dream is … to be as fit as I can be for my age. I’m in that age bracket where I have to keep an eye on things. I’ve got high blood pressure, so I’m trying to move every day and I’m actually loving it. I’d like to get to a point where my health is in great shape whatever age I’m at. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be a triathlete. I just want to feel fit and healthy.

Life at 51 is … actually the coolest. I feel far more relaxed in who I am and I’m making the choices I want to make. These days I wake up in the morning, I go for a walk and take in the morning sun. Then I come back home, I do some housework – all the boring things in life that have to be done. After that, I sit on the couch and surf through the channels on TV. That’s my day, every day.

My advice when you’re feeling angry is … breathe. It’s so simple, it’s the simplest most effective thing you can do – just take some deep breaths. Or go to a boxing class. Maybe do some burpees.

My first big break was … my first feature film, Radiance, because it really widened my world. I wasn’t really concentrating on film and TV at that point, I was a bit of a theatre kid and I was happy just doing that. It was one of those first significant moments that made me go “hang on, there’s a whole other world out here!”

Australian politics … I wouldn’t want to be there, I wouldn’t want to do it, but I admire it from afar. I think people who go into politics must want or need to create something better. I think they want to be representative of a community, they feel like change needs to happen. They’re coming in with the idea that “this is the most powerful office in the land. This is where you can make serious changes and serious reforms”. I also think there’s those people who have grown up in the world of politics. Whether it’s in their family or they have always been surrounded by it, it becomes second nature to them.

Playing independent MP Alex Irving in Total Control is making me … feel alive. I’m never going to be in the situations that Alex is in, but playing those raw emotions, those extremes, they are moments of catharsis for me. It is quite freeing to be able to be that vulnerable or angry. It is my favourite role to date and I’m going to miss her. I love that she is so unapologetic about who she is and what she stands for. The fact that she gets knocked down and gets back up pretty much straight away.

I get my sense of momentum from … the enjoyment of my work, and putting my head down and arse up, to be honest. If I didn’t have the love for it there is no way I’d be doing it because it’s such a hard industry. More and more that enjoyment comes from the people I get to work with, which creates such excitement around the job itself.

Season 3 of Total Control premieres on ABC iview and ABC TV on Sunday January 14 at 8.30pm.