Meet The Press: 9 June 2013

With Kathryn Robinson:

Kathyn: [introduction] Pick an Australian drama series, and the chances are, Catherine McClements has starred in it. But Catherine's accomplished career actually began on the stage, alongside fellow NIDA graduate and very good friend Baz Luhrmann. 30 years on, and she's back treading the boards. I sat down with Catherine to talk about her role in the Bell Shakespeare production, Phèdre.

Kathryn: Phèdre is a lesser known tragedy but it is a tragic tale nonetheless. It's about forbidden lust, it's about betrayal and revenge. What appealed to you about the character?

Catherine: Um... [laughs] It's hard to know because it's full of humiliation, it's full of pain. She doesn't win much, Phèdre. But I think it's an exploration of not a victor. It's an exploration of a woman who goes deeper and deeper and deeper into that spiral. And she's sort of governed by her passions. I love the idea of someone whose reason just gets squashed, and whose passions and desires overtake her. I think I was very interested in exploring that world.

Kathryn: How'd you get your head around this forbidden love? You fall in love with your step-son.

Catherine: It's not that hard, have you seen Ed?

[laughs]

Catherine: You know, I think the idea of a bad love... is something that we sort of all understand. Falling in love with someone who you should not, and you can't. And the more bad it is, the more wrong it is, the more exciting it is and more deeper... the more you want it.

Kathryn: Let's talk about your career. You've starred in TV, in film, in theatre. What's been the highlight?

Catherine: Oh yes... sometimes you don't realise they're highlights until they've past. I remember I did Water Rats, which was probably the beginning of a TV time, and I did nothing but complain the whole time! But when I look back, coming back to Sydney, and I see that incredible harbour, I was driven by water taxi to that Goat Island every day and it was an extraordinary way to go to work, working there. And I think in retrospect, I see it as an incredible moment in my time, in my career. So I look back and think that was really great. And in theatre, you know, I've... some really wonderful... working with Neil Armfield, who's probably one of our greatest theatre directors, and Benedict Andrews is another one, has been a great privilege to work on some great classics. You know, I think that's fantastic.

Kathryn: You graduated from NIDA in the '80s alongside Baz Luhrmann. Did you notice there was anything special about him then?

Catherine: He was a very interesting man, and he was already pursuing a lot of interests at the time. It was a year we all, a group of us, got together and created Strictly Ballroom and really lead by him, but um, and then we took that group and we went to Czechoslovakia and we formed a theatre company. It was a time... I mean, it happens a lot after drama school, that you sort of take that energy that you graduated with. But he's a very... yeah, he's someone who dares.

Kathryn: How do you rate the Australian drama scene?

Catherine: Oh it's incredible at the moment, it's so wonderful! I think mainly because television has taken off in such a way, and now that those, it gets unrolled like a tapestry, those long series. I just think it's wonderful.

Kathryn: You've never been loured by the bright lights of Hollywood. Why?

Catherine: Oh look, when I graduated it wasn't such a dynamic for us, new graduates. There was a lot happening in Australia, there was a ten BA thing, you got a big tax break on making films here, so lots and lots of films, mostly dreadful, were made here. And it got a lot of people work, and Judy Davis was an actress we all admired when we graduated, and she was very much... she eventually went, but she was creating an incredible work in theatre here. So I think that that drive was about staying here, and then I just kept working, so there wasn't that pool that there is now.

Kathryn: Do you think Aussie actors feel as though they have to go to Hollywood to say they've made it?

Catherine: Yeah, I think there is a real push now. Most young actors are about getting an American manager and American agent, and the opportunities is quite amazing. It's what makes our industry a little tricky, as far as, we're about that beautiful creative energy that comes from all those people is being drained away from us. And you've got to admire people like Cate Blanchett who came back to run the Sydney Theatre Company, and Baz who's making films here. You know, to harness that and bring it back to us, and to make us part of that stage is a great way to use all that.

Kathryn: Is there anything you haven't done yet?

Catherine: Ahh... I'd like to bungee jump, I must say! [laughs] I think those terrors that you confronting all the time are very good for you... Comedy would be something that I'd really, especially theatre. I've done, sort of, humorous pieces, but those high comedies, I think that's a challenge and it requires such a technique and such honesty and openness. I think that would be a really wonderful thing to work on.