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| 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.”
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| 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.
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| 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/