Truth behind Myf Warhurst’s Bluey role: ‘I’m dying to do something!’
Spicks and Specks star Myf Warhurst reveals what it was really like working on Bluey, as she reflects on being part of the ‘first generation of women who truly had options’.
Despite Myf Warhurst’s decades of media experience, launching her own podcast in September has taken her out of her comfort zone.
As well as going it alone on The Moment With Myf Warhurst, the TV and radio personality is dipping a toe into online spaces such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
“I bow down to content creators who work hard and make it look easy. Because it’s not,” Warhurst tells Stellar. “I feel like an idiot a lot of the time. You’ve got to get past the cringe.”
Warhurst hasn’t felt pressure to nail it on the first try, though, noting that when the ABC quiz show Spicks And Specks debuted 20 years ago, she and her co-stars Adam Hills and Alan Brough weren’t the well-oiled machine they are today.
As such, she has been unlearning old habits. “You do get used to ways of presenting; I had to throw a lot of that radio history out the window for this.”
The podcast space is crowded with celebrities shooting the breeze, but Warhurst doesn’t plan to lure listeners with outrageous commentary or gimmicks.
“I’ve never been that person,” she says.
“I think my niche will be my honesty, rather than anything very outlandish. I want to understand the world better, and I hope I can help other people understand it a bit better, too – or at least enjoy the world a little more with a bit of humour.”
Now 52, Warhurst jokes that she’s at a point where there isn’t a lot to lose. “So I might as well jump in, have a go and enjoy myself.”
She hasn’t always felt this way, though. Hosting the ABC series The Truth About Menopause two years ago led to her confronting ingrained fears about ageing.
“I felt quite ashamed of what was coming,” she admits.
“And that’s in-built shame put on us by society, that whole ageism, misogyny, thinking about my usefulness, my relevance, all of that, and also that focus on the body.”
While perimenopause has been rough at times, she says it’s ultimately been a reckoning: “You think about what you’re here to do and how you want to do it, and that’s the exciting bit”.
“It feels like: ‘What can we do now?’ as opposed to ‘Your life is over.’”
Warhurst is proud to be one of many women in the media who are stepping into their power later in life.
“We’re the first generation of women who truly had options,” she says of Gen X.
“But we also were witness to the struggles of women in previous generations, where they were still very tied to the expectation of how they should behave, and what they should be doing and whether or not they were ‘too much’ or ‘too strong’ or ‘too powerful’.
“We’ve had the privilege of being able to question all of those assumptions about how women should behave.”
Along with millions of fans around the globe, Warhurst is excited for the upcoming Bluey movie – though she’s not sure if the character she voices, Aunt Trixie, will make an appearance.
“I even asked Dan Brumm – who plays my husband on Bluey and is [creator] Joe Brumm’s brother – to put in a good word for me because I’m dying to do something.”
But Warhurst fears she could be waiting a while before getting the call-up, given “it takes years. The stuff I did for Bluey was back during lockdown. I got to go to a studio and do the voiceover. But the others were in Brisbane, so we never actually worked together.”
If she didn’t have the podcast to keep her busy, Warhurst jokes that she’d soon have a house full of cats and dogs.
She’s already the devoted owner of Vyvyan, a foxhound-beagle cross, and two moggies called Merv and Steve (who are now well trained to leave her in peace when she’s at the microphone recording).
“I could easily lean into my crazy animal era,” she tells Stellar.
“Cats get the worst reputation. And cat owners do, too; we’ve been taught to fear any woman who looks like she’s single and enjoys being with her cats.
“Why have we been taught that? Because it wasn’t in our interests to go and live a single life with cats. To survive, in previous generations, we had to go off and get married.”
‘I’M ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE’
To that end, Warhurst is following the lead of self-described “crazy cat lady” Taylor Swift and reclaiming the narrative. As she reasons, “A life with cats looks like absolute joy, as opposed to something sad and scary.”
Warhurst adds that she feels emboldened and excited by her next chapter. “I realised I’ve done 50 years, but now, if I live well, I’ve got another 50,” she adds. “So why don’t we just approach the next 50 in the same way?”
She’s not sure what that future may hold, adding that she may yet throw herself into a late-in-life career as an artist.
Or, perhaps, have a crack at becoming a TikTok dancing icon: “For the moment, I’m doing them in the privacy of my own home – and I’m still not sure anyone needs to see that, but never say never.”
She’s also considering becoming a foster parent again, which she started doing after Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns.
She suspects that her capacity to adapt and embrace the challenges that are thrown her way – including those that come with getting older – is a “by-product of the freelance life. I’m always looking for stuff and thinking about the future. I want to encourage other people to look at the next 50 years with optimism.”
The Moment With Myf Warhurst is available wherever you get your podcasts. Read the full interview and see the shoot with Myf in Stellar tomorrow, inside the Sunday papers.
For more from Stellar and the podcast Something To Talk About, click here.
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Originally published as Truth behind Myf Warhurst’s Bluey role: ‘I’m dying to do something!’
