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Jess Sayer is a sought-after actor and a talented scriptwriter who has won numerous accolades for her writing. Including the prestigious Bruce Mason Award. In addition to playing Maeve Mullens on Shortland Street, the dynamic 35-year-old has also starred in Auckward Love and Runaway Millionaires. Jess’ writing is gaining attention both here and abroad, with her latest play Mary: The Birth of Frankenstein soon to be staged by Auckland Theatre Company.
When I was five, my family moved to Brunei and my parents taught at Jerudong International School. Which is the Sultan’s brother’s school. It was massive, from kindy to Year 13, and there was a cool blend of ex-pats and local kids. The school was on the edge of a jungle, with big fences topped with barbed wire and guards with guns at the gate. The high security was largely for the children of the royals who went there. But also partly for the monkeys who would sometimes take over the playground and go through the bins, or wrestle a kid for their lunchbox.
As Kiwi kids, we didn’t understand why we couldn’t run around barefoot, but it was partly because of the snakes.
The pythons were so huge, their heads would be in one end of the grass. Their bodies right across the road and the tails still coming! We lost a rabbit to a snake once and another python
lay on the slide at school.
We moved home to Whangārei when I was 11 because our parents wanted us to have more time with our grandparents.
But there was an adjustment period and we got bullied for some things. Like pointing with our thumbs and not knowing any swear words. We were also surprised kids could just leave the classroom when they felt like it because in Brunei, teachers got way more respect.
The Sultan was really into polo, and my first riding experience was in his huge complex of arenas and stables.
Because I was horse-obsessed, Mum and Dad promised that when we moved home, I’d get a horse. As a result, riding became my sport and my parents were so supportive. At one point, we had five horses and a truck. I was really into show hunting and we’d compete most weekends, or go to Horse of the Year. I still played other sports, like cricket and soccer, but riding really suited my personality.
I went vegetarian when I was 11 because I couldn’t differentiate between the animals I hung out with and the animals people ate.
I don’t think I have the right to eat something I could not kill either. That’s where I sit morally. I went full vegan 10 years ago, but because Dad is a big meat eater. I’m always trying to make something where he’ll say he can’t tell there’s no meat in it. That’s the biggest win.
I was an introverted child. I read a lot and I was always writing, but at Kamo High, the only writer job I knew was journalism, so I did the communications degree at AUT.
In my first year, the legendary Jennifer Ward-Lealand spoke to us about a play she was in and when I saw it. I was like, ‘What is this world? Why has no one told me about it?’ Then I called Mum and said, ‘I want to be a playwright,’ but she insisted I finish my degree first.
Seeing that play made me realise I already was a creative writer.
I’d been writing dialogue my whole life and in 2011. I wrote my first play, or what I thought a play looked like. I entered it in Playmarket’s Playwrights b4 25 competition and when it won. That set me on
a whole new path.
After graduating from AUT, I applied to be in the first intake of The Actors’ Programme and I was accepted.
It was a one- year drama course and at one point, one of the teachers. Jennifer Ward-Lealand again, gave menthe best advice: ‘The worst thing anyone can say to you is no.’ The tutors also told us to find our people and make our own stuff. Which I did. It was the best gift I could have been given. It’s also how I got into TV writing, because Rachel Lang and Gavin Strawn [creators of Outrageous Fortune] spoke to our class. I loved their work and each time I put on a play, I’d invite them. Eventually they gave me a job and held my hand as I learned to write TV.
I didn’t watch Shortland Street growing up because I was so busy with sport, horses and school, but it was my nana’s favourite show.
First I started doing stints on the story table, then writing scripts. When Maeve came up, I auditioned because I wanted to do some acting and I was ready for some stability. I’ve been there five years now.
I’m so grateful to play Maeve, who is an out queer woman who’s just living her life.
She does mundane things like wash the dishes and do the laundry, which helps normalise queer relationships. I can’t recall a single queer representation in media when I was growing up.
I just thought girls dated boys, which I did, but I definitely wasn’t feeling the things other girls were.
I met my first girlfriend after drama school.
I didn’t understand what was happening at first, but I didn’t worry about it. Kudos to my parents for not instilling homophobia in me – so it wasn’t so much a coming out as a ‘Hey, meet my girlfriend.’ Everyone was so chill, but it wasn’t until after that first relationship ended that I realised I was gay.
The industry I’m in is such a safe space for queer people, and I’m so grateful my realisation and exploration of who I am happened when I was being held by this community.
That also means I live in an echo chamber and if I experience any homophobia. It feels really shocking, as it’s so archaic. Like when I had social media and I was new on Shorty, people posted some horrible ignorant things.
There was a definite correlation between social media and my growing anxiety, so I got off it at the end of my first year on Shorty.
As soon as I stopped scrolling, I felt better. My productivity improved. I read more. I learned more songs on the guitar and I wrote more. Another thing I love about not being online, when I see someone I haven’t seen in ages. I literally have no idea what they’ve been up to, so they can tell me all their stories face to face. Because I don’t keep up with every intricate detail of everyone’s lives. I really recommend people give it a go.
I didn’t have my heart set on a pug, but 10 years ago, I was living in Rotorua with my first girlfriend and we really wanted a dog.
We knew nothing about having a dog, but when we saw these cute little pug puppies online, it was love at first sight. We called him Bruce because I’d just won the Bruce Mason and everyone loves him because he has a big personality. Bruce is my best friend.
All my writing stems from some kind of obsession and after I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, I did a deep, deep dive.
Mary’s mother was like this proto-feminist, but she died when Mary was just 10 days old, so Mary grew up thinking she’d killed her mother. Mary’s father taught her how to read and write her name from her mother’s tombstone, which is so gothic. By the time she was 18, she’d already had two babies and lost one of them.
The play is set in Geneva in 1816, the summer after the eruption of Mt Tambora, when the Earth’s temperature dropped by three degrees.
That caused a global famine. The Napoleonic Wars had just ended and against this backdrop, Mary Shelley is traipsing through Europe with Percy Shelley. Once they get to Lord Byron’s in Switzerland, they’re trapped inside with nothing to do but read poetry and German ghost stories. When Byron suggests they all write a horror story, Mary came up with Frankenstein.
This play is so full-on.
The cast is exquisite, so brilliant and brave. It starts like a freight train and hurtles along, and I can’t wait for people to see it!
The world premiere of MARY: The Birth of Frankenstein by Jess Sayer is on at The ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland from August 21 – September 7. Starring Olivia Tennet and Dominic Ona-Ariki, it’s directed by Oliver Driver.
