There’s an old showbiz adage, ‘Don’t work with children or animals’.
But beloved Aussie actress Bridie Carter has spent a lot of her career working with both.
She’s most famous for her role as plucky Tess in hit television drama McLeod’s Daughters, where she grappled with horses and sheep alongside Kiwi co-star Lisa Chappell.
Now, in 800 Words, her career-driven character Jan is the mother of twins. Luckily, Bridie (47) is comfortable around babies.
“I’m naturally a person who adores children. I am very happy to act with any baby. I remember thanking the mother − it’s quite remarkable that someone hands over a very newborn baby to a film set. I took great, great care, I have to say!”
However, Jan is not quite such a natural. “She’s probably someone that needs a fair bit of help,” Bridie says, laughing.
“The great thing about Jan is she’s a career woman, so motherhood was not really on her radar. It happens by default so to speak. It’s an interesting thing to watch a character walk into uncomfortable territory; for me it was just more great new material.”
Bridie says she is at ease around kids, unlike her 800 Words character Jan.
Bridie has two children, Otis (13) and James (8) as well as stepson James (20), so she’s familiar with the juggle working mums have on their hands.
Although she was happy to fly to New Zealand to film 800 Words, she has strict rules for her work schedule in order to get enough time with her boys.
“I have a certain amount of days that I won’t stay longer away from my children,” she says.
“Once we were doing night shoots on a Friday night and were back in on Monday, I flew home just for 24 hours so I could cuddle my kids. That’s what I choose to do.”
She is quick to point out that she benefits greatly from an “extremely supportive, loving, devoted husband”.
She and Michael live on a farm outside Byron Bay, where they breed cattle and run a firewood business.
As Michael works for himself, he’s able to help with ferrying their kids to school and lessons.
“If he didn’t, if he was a clock- on, clock-off worker, working for somebody else, it would probably be pretty hard for me to do my job, so I’m very lucky.”
Bridie also feels very fortunate to live a rural life. She was brought up “Bohemian-academia-style” in inner-city Melbourne, but Bridie’s parents instilled a love of nature in her.
“My parents had a great love for the countryside. We always went to friends’ farms and then we had a house in the country. So the bush was not foreign to me ever. I think most Australians and New Zealanders have that in them because we have such incredible landscapes.”
Michael previously worked as a fashion designer, but he and Bridie decided on a lifestyle change and are enjoying bringing up their children in the country.
“We have lots of space around us and no neighbours. We’re surrounded by nature, so I think what that does for children is it gives them great freedom and imagination because a lot of their time is spent outside and they tend to make their own fun.”
Bridie has had a blast filming 800 Words in New Zealand.
This week the final episode of 800 Words aired in New Zealand, so she won’t be such a frequent visitor to our shores in the near future, but she is keen to find reasons to return.
“Working in New Zealand is highly appealing to me. For some reason, I keep going back and forward across the ditch – it’s one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been to.”
For the moment, though, Bridie is treading the boards in Melbourne with another New Zealander, Danielle Cormack.
They’re doing a play called Hedda at the Queensland Theatre.
The actress is delighted to be back on stage as that’s where her career started.
“For me, it’s like the ultimate touchstone as an actor to have an audience. In film and television, we say cut and move on to the next scene, so there’s never any direct feedback. The audience isn’t in front of me… it’s only when I bump into people in the street and they say, ‘Oh, God, I loved that.’ There is something truly immediate and wonderful about performing live.”
