AUGUST 26, 2018 Lance Franklin “As a dad I will be a total pushover” The year of Elyse Knowles Kelly O’Dwyer “I’m happy to be called a feminist” Miranda Tapsell celebrates our second anniversary A SUNBURNT COUNTRY ONE-PAN DISH RECIPES BY MATT MORAN WHEN FOOD IS A DESTINATION MATT PRESTON’S TIPS FOR PERFECT GRAVY STR26AUp001 1 17/8/18 4:31 pm “I might not be tall. I might not be blonde. But I feel beautiful” MIRANDA WEARS Dries Van Noten top, poepke.com; Kenneth Jay Lane earrings, pierre winterfinejewels.com 8 stellar STR26AUG18N008 8 17/8/18 4:57 pm cover To celebrate Stellar’s second anniversary, actor Miranda Tapsell travelled home to the Northern Territory for a photo shoot in Kakadu National Park Photography DAVID MANDELBERG Styling KELLY HUME Interview SIOBHAN DUCK fter years of playing the bridesmaid had planned it all, so I was growing more and more frustrated,” and never the bride, Miranda Tapsell she says. “I was like, ‘What is happening?’ Because I felt has decided it is time to simply knuckle like I was being taken around the mulberry bush. And then down and write her own happily ever when he proposed I felt so terrible.” after. The Logie-winning actor is not Colley was raised in New South Wales and Tapsell is only planning her own real-life from Darwin. Each comes from a tight-knit family but, wedding later this year, but she is due to the nature of their work, they have made a life in about to take the plunge into leading- Melbourne, far from where they respectively grew up. lady territory for the first time in her But the Northern Territory has always remained close to career. And the subject matter won’t be much different. Tapsell’s heart – and it is there, in the vast expanse of the ANext year, Tapsell, 31, will appear as a bride in the romantic stunning Kakadu National Park, that Tapsell joins Stellar for a comedy Top End Wedding. It is a project that is particularly special photo shoot that celebrates not only her roots but also close to her heart, and also a significant achievement – Tapsell our second anniversary. And it is what she had front of mind wrote and produced the movie. When she found the time to as she wrote her movie, which shot there earlier this year and do so is a good question, since it’s become almost impossible is set to showcase what makes the region so special. “We are to switch on a TV in recent months and not see Tapsell as you flip channels. She won accolades for her poignant portrayal of single mother Martha on Love Child. She has been looking “It’s not like I always through the square window with a new generation of youngsters on Play School. And tomorrow night, she will make dreamed of myself in her debut on another hit Nine Network drama, Doctor Doctor. It has been a while since Tapsell dipped her toe into the the big white dress. world of film –Top End Wedding marks her first since she made her big-screen debut in 2012’s The Sapphires. “I have been But I always believed working fairly consistently,” Tapsell tells Stellar. “And they’ve been great roles. But I want to show that I can carry a story.” in spending the rest of What she did not want was to sit around waiting for casting agents to come knocking. So Tapsell followed the lead my life with someone” of her friend and mentor, actor-director Leah Purcell, creating her own opportunity by sitting down and starting to write the going to really celebrate the best things about the Territory… film with her friend Josh Tyler. That was four years ago. By the People think it’s this backwater, that it’s our deep south,” she time they had finished their script, things had changed. says. “It will be nice for people to see something different.” “I was just happily single and independent but Showcasing that diversity in cinema has been a key writing this super-romantic story,” she says. Then, through objective of Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department, which mutual friends, she met comedy writer James Colley. recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and helped mount “Writing about love continued my belief in it. That’s why the production of Top End Wedding. I love romantic comedies. I just went, ‘Wow!’ “Australia’s First Nations peoples are some of the world’s “I enjoy his company. He’s kind to me. I am his equal. oldest storytellers,” department head Penny Smallacombe So far, he’s only ever treated me with love and respect. And tells Stellar. “We’ve been telling stories for thousands of he always likes to hear what I have to say. He never dismisses years through art, song, dance – and now film. These stories it. What could I possibly lose? are a vital part of our history as a nation.” “It’s not like I always dreamed of myself in the big white And, as Tapsell points out, “The romantic comedy genre dress. But I always believed in spending the rest of my life with isn’t well known for its protagonists not being Caucasian. It’s someone – where even the hardest parts can be smoothed out. really important. I want girls from different backgrounds to My parents have been married for 42 years. And all they’ve ever see this. You should see the statistics on just how often women taught me is to be brave and to be kind. Because they treat each of colour get swiped left – rejected – on Tinder. other with such respect despite how they can occasionally get “Going through high school and then university, the boys frustrated with each other, as you do in a marriage.” and men around me were only ever exposed to one idea of Colley popped the question during a visit to a park what beauty is. If [blue-eyed blondes] are all they’re exposed where Tapsell used to play as a child. “I didn’t know that he to, then that’s what’s going to inform their taste in women.” 9 STR26AUG18N009 9 20/8/18 10:10 am “I really hope that, as I move through this industry, I can open doors for more Aboriginal writers, directors and actors” Making the film, Tapsell says, was an enormous confidence She was eager to launch a career in her early teens, and boost. “I might not be Elle Macpherson. I might not be tall. wanted to drop out of school to do so. But her mother Barbara, a I might not be blonde. But I did feel beautiful. So it was teacher at Darwin High School, urged her to finish her education really nice to have that. And I had to back myself because first, and instead supported her passion by taking her to the I had written it and it was going into production.” theatre and ferrying her between dance and drama classes. “My mum would show me Deadly Vibe [a publication that showcases rom the start, plenty of people questioned the achievements of Indigenous people in many fields], and her childhood dream of becoming an I would read about people like Deb Mailman and Aaron Pedersen.” actor. “People would constantly comment Years later, Tapsell would star with Mailman in The on my height or my being brown,” says Sapphires. “I was proud of how I managed to keep it together Tapsell, who stands at a diminutive five when I first saw her,” she recalls with a laugh. “Deb was foot. “That hasn’t scarred me. It really incredible. She treated all of us as her equal. She constantly did make me feel satisfied when I could made sure that we were supported in the scene and that we surprise people by being someone else – felt comfortable doing it. It was my first film, too; to have her someone they never imagined me being.” ground me like that was a really wonderful thing.” HAIR: MODE, JOHN PLATT. MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHY: OTHER HAIR COUTURE. PARIS USING BALMAIN BALCKE TRAVIS MAKE-UP USING DIOR BACKSTAGE CHARLIE KIELTY MAKE-UP: F10 stellar STR26AUG18N010 10 20/8/18 10:10 am cover entertainment industry. If we want a viable, productive Indigenous arts sector, we must do this.” The tables were turned at this year’s Logies ceremony, when Tapsell took to the stage to accept a gong on behalf of her Love Child co-star Jessica Marais. “It was a lovely honour,” Tapsell says. “We were such a tight unit; we all believed in that show – and it was nice to put that bow tie on it and send it off.” Marais, who met Tapsell when the two were students at NIDA, tells Stellar, “It was evident back then that she not only had incredible talent, but true strength and intelligence – combined with an infectious smile. She has the gift of being able to convey true vulnerability as well as veracity. I am always learning watching her perform.” For her part, Tapsell is eager to pay it forward. “I have been given a lot of wonderful opportunities, without bragging too much. But for someone to be able to work consistently as an actor, to be able to go from one job to another, especially in such a small industry… I couldn’t ask for anything more. RAY OF LIGHT (from top) “But I know lots of talented Aboriginal writers, directors Miranda Tapsell (top centre) in and actors that could certainly be given more opportunity,” 2012’s The Sapphires with (from she says.