Chin up Actor Virginia Gay sits down for a chat about embracing unconventionality, second chances and the impressive art of living out of a suitcase Photography DAMIEN PLEMING Interview SIOBHAN DUCK

irginia Gay can thank very tall. I have this booming voice. so that you could be like everyone else, her chin for where I thought, ‘I am never going to be are also the things that make you she is today. “The onscreen, especially not mainstream unique and valuable.” thing that I have television.’ I honestly thought it was so Gay, 36, acknowledges that she breaks always hated and unlikely I would ever get a job on TV. the mould for television stars, standing

wished was smaller, “But when I read for All Saints, they at 1.8 metres with the self-described GUCCIONE. SHOT TANYA HAIR & MAKE-UP: c RAE, SEVEN NETWORK. that when I was a stopped my audition tape because I had “broad shoulders of a Viking”. teenager I just wished would be less this chin like John Howard’s chin. They “What is mind-blowing is that my pronounced,”V she tells Stellar, of the stopped the tape, closed in on it and looks have never really been an issue. asset that would kickstart her career. were like, ‘She could be a long-lost Admittedly, I haven’t been up for ingénue Fresh out of drama school, she was relative of John Howard!’ Then they roles [or] the beautiful young thing. I’ve cast in one of the most popular shows watched the rest of the tape and saw gone for the strong character roles, on Australian TV, All Saints, due to her I could act, too, and decided to bring which is exactly what has paid my way.” resemblance to its star, John Howard. me in. It’s funny that it was my chin. Gay’s success is not purely a result “I thought I had a face made for “If you’re going to make a life lesson of that chin, her luck or even her skills. theatre,” Gay says, laughing at the out of it, I guess it’s that the things It was her attitude that also guaranteed OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF BUSBY, JOHN M BUSBY, JEFF PHOTOGRAPHY: OTHER memory. “I have a big head. I am you sometimes wish you could change, she would be somebody people would AND JEWELLERY CLOTHING WEARS HER OWN MELBOURNE. GAY THEATRE, SOUTHBANK AT ON LOCATION

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STR03DEC17N020 20 11/27/17 10:02 AM want to hire for their productions. Her very tall woman. She also remains keen enthusiasm for the profession is to explore opportunities in Hollywood. infectious. She works hard and without “It’s a place I like more and more, which complaint. And she wants to be a team is lucky,” Gay says, “because it has the player. Before posing for Stellar in her potential to rub people the wrong way. gown and towering heels at Melbourne’s It’s a crazy town. It’s a transient town but Southbank Theatre, where she is starring it’s also filled with artists – people who in the play Vivid White, Gay mucks in, believe in the things I believe in, too.” lugging heavy camera equipment across Between annual trips to America a busy road and through a construction and her theatre commitments (she also site. “What else was I supposed to do?” appears in the musical Calamity Jane, she asks. “The poor photographer’s which returns to next winter), hands were full and he needed help. Gay has been on the road for two years. In the theatre, everyone pitches in.” “I live in a suitcase. For the first nine Vivid White follows two couples months it was fun. Now I am rounding vying for the same house against the backdrop of a collapsed civilisation. It allows Gay to showcase the singing and “The things you comedy skills she honed as a regular cabaret performer. “I spend part of the want to change show in an eight-metre puppet with a Madonna mic,” Gay says with a laugh. are the ones that “I really loved puppets in high school. I remember thinking how great it was make you unique that I could make this thing live. I know that makes me sound super creepy.” and valuable” Offspring star Eddie Perfect, who created the play, is effusive about his star. “Virginia is the most courageous actor I’ve ever worked with, and probably the funniest,” Perfect tells Stellar. “She leads from the front, never runs short of energy or ideas, and has that special combination of vulnerability and brass. Gin is a force. Any room with her in it is instantly better.” Gay is equally impressed by her boss, saying she adores Perfect’s championing of women’s rights given she has long strived to build the sisterhood up rather HOLDING CENTRESTAGE than tear it down. This refusal to be a (clockwise from top) Virginia Gay stars in Vivid White at Melbourne’s Southbank victim also extends offscreen. Gay Theatre; with “long-lost relative” John prefers not to discuss in detail the 2008 Howard in All Saints; playing Calamity attempted robbery and assault on her in Jane; in Vivid White with Christina inner west Sydney, where she grew up. O’Neill and Ben Mingay; (opposite) Gay That same night, chef Daniel Owen was is known for playing strong roles. murdered by the 16-year-old perpetrator who repeatedly punched and kicked 24 months and all I want is to put down Vallejo raising a one-year-old son has Gay before she flagged down help. “That roots. I hate packing. I’ve had to get good been like receiving a free masterclass in

RAE, SEVEN NETWORK. HAIR & MAKE-UP: TANYA GUCCIONE. SHOT GUCCIONE. SHOT TANYA HAIR & MAKE-UP: c RAE, SEVEN NETWORK. is something I don’t talk about out of at it because I am naturally very messy.” motherhood. “I generally do like being respect for Daniel Owen, who died,” she This constant uprooting has made able to hand the baby back,” she says. says. “I want to give that space. I did a lot dating, let alone settling down or having “But having just spent a month with my of therapy; I look out for a lot of people. a family, seem like a hard prospect. “I just sister’s kids on top of that week with That’s the connection: knowing that it broke up with my partner,” she says. “He Mel, it made me think: ‘If babies are as could have been a lot worse, and it was.” was incredibly supportive of all the travel, great as these guys, then I could do it.’” which was amazing. He is a writer, so he But first, she wants to unpack that GAY TELLS STELLAR she is about to was able to work anywhere. I just think suitcase and put it in storage for a while. direct a short film, but the stage always we were mismatched. But there’s still a lot “Wouldn’t that be heaven?” she says. seems to be calling. She has her eye on of love between us, which is great.” “I could get a plant. Or even a cat.” adapting a novel for the theatre – and it Gay says watching her best friend and Vivid White plays at Southbank Theatre in OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF BUSBY, JOHN M BUSBY, JEFF PHOTOGRAPHY: OTHER ON LOCATION AT SOUTHBANK THEATRE, MELBOURNE. GAY WEARS HER OWN CLOTHING AND JEWELLERY CLOTHING WEARS HER OWN MELBOURNE. GAY THEATRE, SOUTHBANK AT ON LOCATION just happens to have a starring role for a former Winners & Losers co-star Melanie Melbourne until December 23; mtc.com.au.

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