 |
| Daniel Widdowson, co-director and interviewer |
Once again, director, writer, actor and former Daramalan
College student, Daniel Widdowson, has come up with a documentary that turns
the spotlight on a lesser-known aspect of Australian life, this time in the
film, Mental Health & the Actor's Life.
In 2022 his groundbreaking doco, Trafficked to Australia,
found that most Australians had no idea that there was human trafficking, let
alone slavery, in Australia.
Widdowson, who is also artistic director of the company
Salthouse Creative, has now taken a close-up look at a subject to which most
Australians wouldn't have given a moment’s thought, veering as the public view
does between envy of highly-paid superstars and contempt for people they often
advise to “go and get a day job.”
By interviewing performers as varied as former Miss Universe
Australia Daria Varlamova, casting director Tom McSweeney and his old drama
teacher, Joe Woodward, Widdowson found examples of sexual abuse, unpaid gigs, derisive
treatment by producers, depression and anxiety caused by missed roles and long
gaps in employment—“resting,” as they say in showbiz.
The affable Widdowson appears sometimes with a beard and
sometimes not, as the film was cut together out of order from the way segments
were shot.
His approach is to interview individuals one might expect to
be exemplars of success, but in a casual and encouraging atmosphere, drawing
them out with empathy and insight.You sense he's one of them..
Actor Ben Brock for instance, who has worked in corporate
roleplaying, leadership, radio, television and theatre in everything from Home
& Away and Murder in The Outback for Channel 4 in the UK has a degree in
psychology and outlines how an actor’s life can be impeded by mental illness.
Panic attacks, depression and apathy are big problems for
people with a lot of time on their hands. “Reflection can be dangerous,” as he says.
Next, Widdowson turns to Sophie Carter, who after graduating
from WAAPA enjoyed a 20-year career in the music theatre sector, but later opened
a private practice, Centred Stage, centredstage.com, focusing on mental health
and well-being for people in the arts industry where, she tells Widdowson, in
her earlier days there was very little talk of mental health issues, although that’s
changing.
“It's a fact that you are going to be rejected,” Carter
says, “and it's not spoken about enough.”
Actor Todd Keys, who’s played lead roles with Opera
Australia, now works as a speech pathologist, notes that once while working at
Fox Studios he took a look over the fence, as it were.
“There they were filming Moulin Rouge and here we were on
$18 an hour,” Keys says.
On and off, he was still living in and out of his family
home—“so destroying,” he says, “but tenacity is the key.”
 |
| Miss Universe Australia 2021, Daria Varlamova |
Miss Universe Australia 2021, Daria Varlamova, is now a
therapist and mental health advocate and tells Widdowson of her experiences
with ADHD, relating how when she was a young schoolgirl a tactless teacher told
her she was "a bit ditzy,” but there was more to it. Her condition was
eventually diagnosed and successfully medicated.
“The essential thing is to have a good sense of yourself,”
Varlamova says.
Widdowson’s old drama teacher, Joe Woodward, talks of his
life-changing visit to see Lindsey Kemp's production Flowers, based on a book
by Jean Genet, saying, "it shook your paradigms and ways of thinking and
seeing of the world.”
Describing the anxiety around working in the theatre while
supporting a family, he reports, "Sometimes I couldn't breathe, I felt the
ceiling was closing in.”
But, he concludes, art can give people a sense of balance,
especially theatre, where you have to perform in front of others.
Chloe McWilliam, singer/actor/comedian/dancer and well-known
for her role as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde the musical, relates how she had
heard of her brother’s death while in a show but found the strength to go back
on stage, although that might have been pushing herself too far.
Acting coach, Brad McMurray, suggests to Widdowson that many
people in the acting profession don't like themselves, so can be very
vulnerable. He relates how the suicide of a young man he advised had weighed on
him.
McMurray has gradually walked away from the corporate side
of acting and now runs The Actors Club, on the Gold Coast which helps young
actors dealing with early emotional burnout.
American-born casting director Tom McSweeney, who moved with
his family to the Gold Coast, describes periods of massive employment and
periods of drought.
“Every time you finish a project,” he says, “you convince
yourself you'll never work again…time goes by and it tests your resolve.”
Once after he got an Emmy nomination, for eight months he
couldn't get a job because people assumed his fees had gone up, even though he
didn’t get the Emmy in the end.
He cautions that people you meet at auditions are not the
enemy so it’s best not to waste your energy being jealous of them.
Former producer, arts administrator and tour manager, Simone
Parrott, now devotes her time to mentalmatters.com.au
Once, she says, after a big production was canned and she
woke up homeless on her parents’ couch, she was saved by an interviewer from an
unsuccessful application, who got her a place with the Cameron McIntosh
organisation, where she ended up in one of their top jobs.
“We need to put in additional strategies and mental first
aid training for the arts industry. We need to know how to notice signs and
symptoms,” Simone Parrott says.
Widdowson takes a side look at the resilience of an old
friend, Vivien Sale, who spent a lifetime in film and showbiz after her supportive
father helped her settle into digs in Coventry UK when she was hired as a
hoofer in a panto at age 16.
Towards the end of the film, he takes a dive into the world of
younger performers, lining them up as he heads towards his peroration but
pausing to praise the many support networks across the country, including Canberra
Youth Theatre.
Widdowson seems almost breathless in his eagerness to
squeeze in the stories of so many articulate and forthcoming interviewees.
There’s Jamie Rogers from Canberra, only 12-years-old when
playing Billy Elliott in a production that finished early because of covid.
“When we found out it was closing,” Rogers says, “we had
tears running down our faces, but I had a good family and great support through
the post-show blues.”
There’s activist Joshua Maxwell, who co-founded Jopuka
Productions, a youth arts company based in the Central Coast, and
Australian-born Sarah Monahan, the former child actress who was abused by Hey
Dad star Robert Hughes, her on-screen father.
 |
| Annie Rose Buckley with the cast of Saving Mr Banks |
There’s Emma King, who came up through McDonald College, who
signed up for the RISE (riseperform.com.au) program, which teaches the
importance of a resilient mindset in achieving success. The course’s focus on
recognising “what makes you different” was a revelation to her.
Nothing is harder than knowing where to end, and Widdowson almost
doesn’t get there.
He quickly summarises the main possible ways of overcoming
mental health threats — having a supportive family, maintaining a good
temperament, embracing one’s uniqueness, staying connected with people who
inspire you, joining an acting group, standing up for yourself and taking
preventative steps.
Eventually to wind up, he turns to an email he received from
actress Annie Rose Buckley, who as a child, featured in the 2013 film, Saving
Mr. Banks, starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.
Buckley is forthright in her assessment, admitting that she started
her career with a positive experience which nonetheless negatively affected her
mental state, because she was always comparing her childhood success to her
next opportunities.
“I was grateful for the role, but I despises the uncertainty,”
she says.
Nonetheless Banks ends on a positive note as she says of her
acting career, “I still love it and want it. This is my driving force.”
That’s the paradox on which Widdowson’s film rests.
Mental Health & the Actor's Life, by Daniel
Widdowson, viewable at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2l3YBFfYJk&t=10s
Further details of all interviews are available at
https://salthousecreative.com.au/mentalhealth/
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
