Q&A: Leah Purcell, actor, writer and director, 49

Leah Purcell on her family of storytellers, playing an undercover cop in Wentworth — and her film version of The Drover’s Wife.

New film: Leah Purcell. Picture: Ben King

Your award-winning version of The Drover’s Wife has been a play, a novel and will soon be a film. What did you do with Henry Lawson’s story? The play was a different insight, a woman’s perspective; I think people liked the shake-up. People who follow my work know I’ll always spin something – I like to make people sit up. Writing the play was kind of easy; the novel I was most scared of. But when I found the groove, it really came and away I went.

How have people responded to the novel? I’ve been humbled and amazed at the reaction. People say they loved the indigenous component: it’s loosely based on my great-grandfather’s life. Molly Johnson (the Drover’s Wife) was [inspired by] my mother, my grandmother... the women who raised me.

At school in Queensland, you weren’t a great English student. Where did you learn to write stories? I was a C average. I excelled in sport and maths and a bit of science. But I had a wild imagination and could tell a yarn. I come from a family of storytellers – it might have been around a carton of beer, and there’d be a big mob, they’d be great nights. When I was five, I sang a blues version of Humpty Dumpty, demanding people’s attention. Performance has always been in my blood.

How did you get your start in theatre? At Murgon High School you’d work on a musical for three months, and then you’d put on a performance at the Town Hall. In Year 10 it was Bye Bye Birdie, and I was the first junior to get lines. That’s when I pulled my first laughs, and I was hooked. The last one was Annie Get Your Gun. I thought I was going to be Annie because I was a massive Doris Day fan but they gave the lead to another girl. Then she got laryngitis, so the art teacher became Annie, and I had to sing all the songs.

Since 2018 you’ve played undercover cop Rita Connors in the TV series Wentworth. What attracted you to the prison drama? I was big fan of Prisoner. I shouldn’t have been watching but I’d sneak out and watch it with my mum. I was going to semi-retire from acting so I could focus on my writing, but the producers approached me. They wanted to collaborate with me on my role and bring in my indigenous heritage.

How does that collaboration work? Me and Rarriwuy Hick, who plays Rita’s sister Ruby, have a big influence on those characters; we’re consulted when it comes to cultural stuff. I have family members who have been in prison, and I spoke to them about their experiences. If you look at the numbers of indigenous women who are incarcerated, and what’s shown on the TV, two women is not a true depiction. But they are trying to show that they have strength as individuals. At the end of the day, it’s a drama.

You directed and star in the film version of The Drover’s Wife. What was it like shooting in the Snowy Mountains? The town of Adaminaby hosted us, and we were working in this wonderful little location in the Yaouk Valley, on a property there. We were very fortunate to get the filming done before terrible fires came through that area. We were ringing people to ask if there was anything we could do. They were all fine, no one lost livestock or property. The only thing left to do is the visual effects. I locked off the picture edit on Friday, March 13, and that weekend we were all in lockdown. We just made it.

Wentworth Season 8 starts on Tuesday, July 28 at 8.30pm, on Fox Showcase and Foxtel Now.