All Genevieve Lemon knew about her first kiss was his name

Genevieve Lemon is an actor and singer best known for playing Mrs Lewis in The Power of the Dog. Here, the 64-year-old discusses inheriting her father’s stubbornness, what she remembers of her first kiss and how she met her husband.

“I’d beg to audition for ads featuring children but Dad was old-school and said no child of his was going into show business.”

My paternal grandfather, Pip, was the manager of the Narrabeen branch of the Bank of New South Wales. I never met him as died in World War II, but I remember the respect shown to his widow, Marjory, when we visited the beautiful red-brick bank building.

My maternal grandfather, Jack, left for World War II when my mother, Patty, was nine. He never returned. His wife, Daisy, died giving birth to a baby boy. So my mother was raised by her aunts from the age of 15.

My father, Tony, directed TV commercials. He was single-minded and wedded to his work. I’d go to sets and beg him to audition me for ads that featured children but he was old-school and said no child of his was going into show business. I was equally single-minded about performing, acting and singing, so I guess my stubbornness came from him.

Dad left our home when I was around seven. Eleven years later, he and my stepmum had my little sister, Kim. Dad may have often been absent in my life, but the times we had together were impactful.

I spent 13 years in Catholic schooling during which I never had a male teacher. Nuns taught us, but our sex education came from priests. They came for sessions and we asked questions – we all tried to get a laugh. I don’t think we were so cynical as to think, “What do priests know about sex?”

My first kiss happened at a party when I was 13. Before the party, I asked my friend Joanne what a kiss might be like. She demonstrated on the back of her hand. That night, when the lights were turned off, we all grabbed whoever was closest. The boy I grabbed was called David. That’s all I know about him.

My high school sweetheart was Jeff Truman. We did drama with Barry Hayes, a teacher from my brother Andrew’s school. Barry later took kids from Andrew’s school and mine to audition for an amateur theatre company. Because of Barry, by the time I finished university I was acting professionally.

Jeff became an actor and a prolific screenwriter. We only dated for four months, but we stayed friends until his death ten years ago.

I met James Benson while on a Catholic teaching scholarship at the University of NSW. He was a stratigraphic paleontologist and we lived together on campus at International House. He was a lovely, gentle man. At the end of uni, he went to South Africa to work for a big oil company. I haven’t seen him since.

In the 1980s, I was touring Australia in a production called Steaming. One night in Brisbane, after a show, the theatre manager took us to see bluesman Wiley Reed. My future husband, Colin, played guitar in his band. At that time, Colin was engaged to his first wife, with whom I became close friends. She died in 1998, when their daughters were 14 and eight.

For some time, their mother had been in another relationship and I was with Colin. We raised their two daughters and Colin and I went on to have a daughter of our own. The fact I was a close friend of their mum helped the girls, as they knew I loved her.

In 2006, I played Shirley to Tony Sheldon’s Bernadette in the musical stage version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Tony is the most extraordinary man. He taught me what it’s like to lead a company, which is like the situation I’m in at present, playing Mother Superior in Sister Act.

Tony taught me to be quiet, to make sure the kids are learning good habits and to lead them when they need to be led. Tony’s also a hilarious man. He can make you laugh until you’re weeping on the floor.

I spent a lot of time with Jamie Dornan in 2020 as we drove around South Australia filming The Tourist. I couldn’t believe how good-looking he was, but that was forgotten in the first couple of minutes on set, because he behaved like anyone else. Being Northern Irish, he had a quip for every occasion. I’ve been so lucky throughout my career to work with such great men.

Sister Act is currently playing in Sydney, then in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Get the best of Sunday Life magazine delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. Sign up here for our free newsletter.