In my 20s, I dated my polar opposite. It was a year of torment

Sheridan Harbridge is currently playing singer Chrissy Amphlett in a theatre production about the Divinyls singer’s life. Harbridge, 40, has experienced her own pleasure and pain, including a short marriage to actor Michael Whalley (the two remain friends). Now single, she discusses the influential men in her life, including the theatre teachers who spotted her “fire”.

Sheridan Harbridge is single, but says she’d definitely marry again.

My paternal grandfather, Roy Harbridge, lived in Tyers, Gippsland [in Victoria]. He had a shed that was like a mad-man’s junkyard. He had an obsession with tinkering. It wasn’t a woman’s place, but that never stopped me from going.

My maternal grandfather, Laurie Waite, died when I was six months old. He was very handsome and looked like Fred Astaire. He ran a dairy farm and apparently had a really heavy stutter and was ticklish.

My dad, Bill, is like farmer Arthur Hoggett from the movie Babe. He has an incredible, complex and nuanced relationship with animals and humans. He worked as an earthmoving contractor and still lives in the same house that we grew up in. When he retired, he started singing in several choirs.

I am the sixth child of seven – with three sisters and three brothers. Dad was always inventing strange ways for us to do tasks, instead of just going to the shop himself to buy the part he needed to fix things. He is a wanderer and travels the country in his caravan.

I am closest to my brother Nigel, who’s 46 and works in IT. We all have a wicked sense of humour in our family, but he is very mischievous. My mum, Joy, would always buy wooden spoons in bulk to rap across his backside.

My youngest brother Joshua, 36, lives in Toowoomba in Queensland. I was off to drama school when he was still in high school, so we didn’t grow up as close.

When I got into NIDA in 2003, Dad couldn’t financially support me, but he helped in other ways. He put all my belongings in the back of a horse float and drove them to Sydney. All my brothers helped that day.

I remember in the early days of performing, if Dad saw me on stage, he would wave when I was in the middle of a show.

I experienced my first love at 13. He was definitely going to be a queer man, but at that age he was my best friend, and we loved the same things and each other. Our first kiss happened while watching The Wizard of Oz. For two years we were ravishingly in love, but I had to tell him, I thought he was queer.

I had a celebrity crush on Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was such a sexual
being and I didn’t understand any of it, but was so drawn to how complicated he was.

I would marry in a heartbeat again. When you fall in love it really does feel like you are both against the world.

My drama teacher at Traralgon College, Christopher Fosdick, believed in me and asked if I wanted to write the school play. He still comes to my shows.

My NIDA acting teacher, Kevin Jackson, was a huge inspiration as was NIDA’s head of acting, Tony Knight, who was running the course when I auditioned. They both weren’t that sure about me as I was untrained and hadn’t seen much theatre growing up. But Tony saw the rough diamond that I was and acknowledged my fire to act.

I dated a dirt-bike rider when I was 22. He couldn’t be any further from where I was at drama school. I remember thinking this would be a mistake and only mean trouble, but we were obsessed with each other and burned hard and fast for a year. We had nothing in common. It was a year of torment because we couldn’t make conversation.

I got married [to actor Michael Whalley] in my 30s. We were married for four years and together for 10. I never imagined I would get married, but when someone proposes, it seems like an adventure to go on. He is still a friend, and we have a dog together.

I would marry in a heartbeat again. When you fall in love it really does feel like you are both against the world.

The late Chrissy Amphlett’s husband Charley Drayton, and long-time friend Simon Morley, have been trying to get a show made to honour her legacy for 15 years. I’m currently appearing as Chrissy in a show, which has been a great way to honour them and her.

Sheridan Harbridge performs in Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett at the Brisbane Powerhouse, September 19-21.

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