Nat Bass unrecognisable in 1990s transformation

From Jennifer Aniston to Gwyneth Paltrow and Alanis Morrisette, Natalie Bassingthwaighte plays dress-ups with Stellar for a 90s fashion shoot like no other.

They’re women of the 1990s – trailblazers who burst into our consciousness on a wave of girl power that both challenged and invigorated the last decade of the 20th century.

It can be hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, the Spice Girls’ Geri Halliwell and Alanis Morissette stamped their creative mark on popular culture.

But as our own Natalie Bassingthwaighte reimagines them for this special Stellar photo shoot, we are easily reminded of their enduring power.

“They were women who stood out by standing up for something,” says Bassingthwaighte as she swaps between Aniston’s “Rachel” wig and her own locks styled into Paltrow’s poker-straight blonde hair.

While Bassingthwaighte’s turn as Aniston draws incredulous gasps from the Stellar crew, the singer says she’s loved recreating each of the famed women who were her contemporaries back in the ’90s.

“All that nostalgia – the memories of the songs you listened to, the shows you watched, the movies – they all helped shape who we’ve become.”

“This shoot reminds me how empowered they made us all feel. They were young women on the rise yet they were also able to show their vulnerable side.”

“The make-up, the wigs, the outfits... I’m absolutely living in the ’90s and it’s made me realise that when you’re in your 20s you’re so young and happening,” she says with a laugh.

“All that nostalgia – the memories of the songs you listened to, the shows you watched, the movies – they all helped shape who we’ve become. This shoot reminds me how empowered they made us all feel.

“They were young women on the rise yet they were also able to show their vulnerable side. Now they’ve come full circle in a wonderful and beautiful way. They paved the way for us and it’s been a hoot trying to embody them.”

Bassingthwaighte has no trouble portraying Morrissette’s rock-chick vibe – perhaps a fortuitous omen as she prepares to take to the stage in Jagged Little Pill, the award-winning Broadway musical woven around the singer’s groundbreaking 1995 album of the same name.

For Bassingthwaighte, who got her break in the 1990s stage show Rent, the role marks her own evolution as both a performer and a woman.

She’s been open about her mental-health struggles, has chosen a new life in Byron Bay and is singing Morissette’s legendary anthems from a place of understanding.

“Listening to those songs as a 20-something girl, I was filled with so many emotions – highs and lows, and everything in between,” Bassingthwaighte recalls.

“But I definitely feel I understand them now, and getting the opportunity to sing them is electrifying. I’ve lived a life and I can take pieces of me into the character,” says the singer, actor and TV host, who will play Mary Jane Healy as the production premieres in Sydney then moves to Melbourne.

At 46, Bassingthwaighte is just a year younger than Morissette and despite suffering a breakdown like the singer, she’s now on firmer ground and has the tools to take care of her mental health.

In fact, she recently travelled to New York to meet and rehearse with the creators of the show and found the two-week quarantine on her return immensely challenging. She had to call on mental-health experts and made use of breathing apps and exercise to get her through, she reveals.

“The make-up, the wigs, the outfits... I’m absolutely living in the ’90s”

“They were women who stood out by standing up for something”

Now in rehearsals, she’s re-energised mainstays such as ‘Ironic’ and ‘Hand In My Pocket’, two massive hits from the album that made Morissette the bestselling international debut artist in history – a title she still holds, thanks to Pill’s record-setting sales totalling 33 million copies.

Bassingthwaighte believes the songs resonate today more than ever: “They speak not only to her generation but any generation of women who want to speak up and be heard, and show their vulnerability and their anger and their fierceness.”

The timing could not be better for the former Rogue Traders singer, who moved from Melbourne to northern NSW with her husband Cameron McGlinchey and their children – Harper, 11, and Hendrix, 8 – just two months before the pandemic struck Australia in March 2020.

Despite only having worked just three months in the past 18 months as Covid decimated the arts industry (she starred alongside Tom Hanks and Richard Roxburgh in Baz Luhrmann’s forthcoming movie, Elvis, which was filmed in Australia during global restrictions), Bassingthwaighte says she’s found comfort in nature and the routines of a smaller community.

“I love it so much,” she tells Stellar. “The kids are always on their bikes and we have koalas, peacocks and echidnas in our front garden.”

She says she’s currently in a great place, but adds that one of the greatest lessons to come out of the past few years is learning to reach out for help.

“The people I’ve had in my life – whether that’s family, friends, sisters, brothers – I’ve had so much support,” says the singer. It’s that life and learning she channelled as she travelled back to the ’90s as our fin de siècle heroines.

As she puts it: “They’ve lived, I’ve lived. Bring it on.”

Jagged Little Pill is showing at Theatre Royal Sydney from December 2-19 and Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre from January 2. For more information, visit jaggedmusical.com.

Originally published as Nat Bass unrecognisable in 1990s transformation