Emily Chalk
In both her real life and acting roles, Amelia Reid-Meredith is someone who likes to model the whole story of being a human with both hope and heartache, joy and grief, and everything in between.
Touchingly honest, the Kiwi actor, who played Shortland Street’s lovable receptionist Bella Durville, isn’t the type to shy away from things, including topics like grief that others may find uncomfortable.
It’s been nine years since Amelia lost her cousin, aged 37, in a tragic accident three months before her beloved mum Robyn died of bowel cancer aged 57. Amelia had been caring for her in Nelson.
“I have developed such empathy for others going through loss,” Amelia says. “Most of us are walking around with these big, broken hearts.
“This façade on social media of ‘living your best life’… No, most of us really aren’t. I lost four really close people in a short period of time, so I have this pull to play more dramatic, broken women.
“It doesn’t feel a stretch for me. I understand them and don’t judge. I think it’s because I’ve always been around death. “We were raised in a farming community and my parents worked in aviation, so there were a lot of accidents. It’s really shaped who I am and I don’t mind talking about the dark side of life.”
Her new role
Over a long black coffee at an Auckland café, Amelia shares she’s been enjoying digging deep for her most recent role, playing gang daughter Kat in the new TVNZ series Blue Murder Motel.
Filmed in Ōrewa, north of Auckland, the series follows detectives Vanessa and Peter Coleman, who retire from the Australian police to run a motel in New Zealand, but their plans change when a body is found in unit three.
“Kat is a very complicated woman from the Gold Coast, who reacts on impulse,” explains the 39-year-old, who is married to fellow actor/writer Shadon Meredith, 40.
“She has a connection to the Colemans’ past and s coming back to claim what’s hers.
“The role reignited hope in my career. Often at the beginning of each year, Sha and I look at each other and ask, ‘Is it time to go and get normal jobs?’”
Contemplating a career change
The answer has always been no. But Amelia made a conscious decision not to put as much energy seeking out roles while focusing on being a mum to the couple’s two sons, Arlo, 10 and Rudi, three.
“I did Shorty straight after drama school and acted every day for seven years,” she reflects. “So it was a wake-up call that booking two or three jobs a year is actually quite good as well as doing a lot of acting coaching.”
Amelia and Shadon are also currently making a short film they’ve written together, based on a complicated New Zealand love story.
“We’re working with Frankie Adams as the lead – she’s always been like my younger sister since we shared a dressing room at Shorty.”
There’s been another project that Amelia has been quietly sitting on – a book that she describes as her most vulnerable piece of work.
“A real blow to my ego”
In 2020, the popular actor – who went on to star in Friends Like Her – was working with a publisher to bravely write about her grief journey. When Covid hit, the book was shelved due to costs.
It was a real blow to my ego more than anything,” Amelia admits. “Because I’m dyslexic, it was a big effort. But I also joke to friends that at least people who read it will know that AI didn’t write it!
“The book has been sitting in my computer haunting me like a ghost. I recently had this intuition that I need to release it on Substack [an online platform] for no monetary compensation. And whoever needs to read it, reads it.
“It’s really honest but it’s also the truth,” tells Amelia. “Grief journeys don’t have to have a happy ending. Nine years on and some days it still hurts just as much as when Mum first died.”
Now navigating life without her, but still with the loving support of her father Bill, Amelia is excited to celebrate her 40th birthday in April, while exploring more complex acting roles.
“In those early years of motherhood, it’s quite consuming,” she reflects. “But with my youngest son being at preschool, it’s nice to focus on the artistic space a bit more. I see turning 40 as a creative reset and as such a privilege. Every year I get is precious.”
Quick fire questions
What’s your party trick? I can name all of the makes of helicopters or planes in the sky. My parents owned a helicopter business and I was named after aviatrix Amelia Earhart.
How do you look after yourself physically and mentally? Working on my mental health is my biggest work, especially keeping my self-worth high, because there is so much rejection as an actor. I started meditation one year after Mum passed. I now meditate every day and if I don’t, I can feel the wheels falling off – I also like yoga and spending time on my own walking.
What’s a goal you have this year? To find creativity in the mundane. We spent time over summer at my brother’s place in Pelorus Sound, doing nature walks every day, being unplugged from phones, collecting seafood and cooking. I want to try and continue some of that “slow living”.
Blue Murder Motel screens Sundays at 8.45pm on TVNZ 1 and streams on TVNZ+.
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