Swift Street star Tanzyn Crawford has Hollywood at her feet
Tanzyn Crawford, 23, is back in Australia to discuss her first local role in the gritty new SBS series Swift Street and her hopes for a more diverse screen industry.
It can be a bewildering thing to stand in the middle of a crowded photo shoot alone, every set of eyes on you. But Tanzyn Crawford is cool and calm. Collected? Absolutely. Except for the odd cheeky twirl. The actor can’t help but occasionally sway to Sault’s soulful R&B track “Wildfires” pumping softly from the speakers.
An hour later, Crawford is sitting on a bar stool at a nearby cafe in inner Sydney. A coffee and a huge almond croissant later – the size of it makes her laugh – Crawford recounts the process of reading for Swift Street, her gritty, super-cool new SBS series.
The show marks the first local role for the 23-year-old, who studied at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) before making her name starring in American productions including AppleTV+’s Servant and the Disney+ series Tiny Beautiful Things, starring Kathryn Hahn. After those roles, her agent insisted she go for Swift Street. “They texted me, saying, ‘This is literally you. You have to get this.’” Crawford was intrigued. “I wondered, ‘Who is this character? Why is she like this?’ I know we all go through a range of emotions, but I was thinking, damn, this girl is really going through it!”
The girl in question is Elsie, a streetsmart Melbournian who has to help her hapless hustler father, played by the brilliant Cliff Curtis, repay a large debt to a merciless crime boss. It’s clever, offbeat Australian TV at its finest, and Crawford’s portrayal of the headstrong Elsie is what makes it sing.
After reading the scripts by series creator Tig Terera, Crawford’s interest resulted in not just audition tapes but 10 pages of in-depth notes, including a personality quiz and
a star sign reveal. “I read it all to [the producers], apologising for talking too much, but they were impressed!”
She got the job a week later.
Key to Crawford’s investment in the character was the fact that she would be portraying a young, queer, mixed-race Australian woman – someone just like her. “This is all
I dreamed of seeing when I was 10 – I mean, these characters,” she explains. “I rarely saw people on TV that were my specific mix [of African American/Australian]. I truly think that every single person, every race, every sexuality, ability or gender, deserves to have a place on screen, because that’s real people with real stories.”
She’s proud to be part of a show that’s pushing forward a new era of television that doesn’t just tick the diversity box, but genuinely encapsulates it. “When you write a script, you should write the person of colour into it,” she says, alluding to the frequent tokenism in the industry – something this series flies in the face of. “Their personality and character is written in there already. I’m so proud to be part of that.”
Crawford notes the recent success of truly diverse shows such as Heartbreak High, but the actor isn’t satisfied settling for one series a year. “I think Australia looks so different from 10, even five, years ago, while our film industry hasn’t been evolving with it. So I applaud the push for diversity now. I think it needs to be fun. And it needs to match what we see. In real life.”
Swift Street’s inimitable vibe is courtesy of stylist Ntombi Moyo, on board as lead costume designer. The Australian talent has worked with the likes of Beyoncé and Sampa the Great and is, Crawford confirms, “so cool”. “Every day on set, she’d rock up in the best outfit and it’d be like, 5am.” While Crawford’s character has a lot more to worry about in the series – from criminal debt collectors to the maelstrom that is young love and fractured family ties – clothes are a powerful current that runs behind all the drama and grief. “The fashion is incredible,” Crawford shares. “Elsie doesn’t have a lot of money, but I think fashion is the one area where she expresses herself with her cool op-shop finds. In an uncontrollable life, this one portion is controlled. It’s something that she can plan and take pride in every day.”
The thrill of a perfect op-shop find is something Crawford knows well. She catalogues with ease a list of her favourite second-hand stores both in Perth (Second Life Markets) and Los Angeles (Melrose Trading Post and Silverlake Flea). “I love something about the history of a piece,” she enthuses, “knowing someone else owned it, and asking, ‘What
happened here?’ I just love knowing that I have unique pieces.”
Halfway through the interview and half the croissant later, the subject of Tiny Beautiful Things comes up. Crawford starred as Rae, teen daughter to Hahn’s character Clare.
It was a role invented for the Disney+ series based on the best-selling collection of essays by Cheryl Strayed. (“She’s the wisest person I’ve ever met,” Crawford enthuses. “Just speaking to her, I’m like, ‘Oh I’m so safe. I need to follow all the advice that she gives me.’”) Healing Rae and Clare’s broken relationship was key to
the tender story of the show. “It was so amazing. I learned so much from [Hahn],” says Crawford. “She made me feel so comfortable to ask her anything.” Such as when
Crawford was set to have her first ever onscreen kiss. “I texted Kathryn and she sent me three paragraphs of advice: ‘Just talk to the intimacy coordinator, feel comfortable. You can always say no, you can stop.’ It was incredibly nice and helpful. And she was like that from the beginning.”
Just for fun, the pair curated a shared Spotify playlist, and Crawford grins as she whips out her phone to scroll through it: The Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel, Chance the Rapper, Perfume Genius, The Pixies. “Right away, there was a motherly vibe. Since I was away from my own mum, I could pretend to have one for the four months we were filming … She’s wonderful.”
When she’s not on set, Crawford keeps busy rock climbing or playing basketball, taking film photos and scrapbooking. Before acting, she began a degree in wildlife biology and conservation; if acting hadn’t worked out, she would probably be a zoologist. Her passions appear to be endless. It turns out she even makes her own clothes. As she says goodbye, she mentions the T-shirt she’s wearing is one such piece. Across its middle, boldly and playfully, is a single embroidered word: Tanzyn. A name to remember.
Swift Street will be available on SBS and SBS On Demand from April 24.
This article appeared in the April issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.
