ANH: Two of my great passions are people and painting.
In this series, I get to enjoy both.
I meet extraordinary Australians, explore their stories...
I'm putting my hand up and saying,
"I want to do something. I want to be part of the solution."
See, I'm now crying, now talking about crying! What's happened to me?
..and paint their portraits.
It's theirs to keep, so I hope they like it.
(GASPS) Oh! (LAUGHS)
Wow! (GASPS)
Oh, my God! Holy mackerel!
That looks me! It's beautiful.
Mate, that's incredible.
You look gorgeous. That is absolutely amazing.
Welcome to Anh's Brush With Fame.
Sigrid Thornton is an icon of Australian film and TV.
Starting out in her teens,
she has given us some of our most memorable and loved female characters
in a career spanning four decades.
If I needed your help, mate, I would have asked for it.
I want to know what it takes to rise to the challenges
of a long show business career.
I'm feeling really excited.
A little nervous.
Um...
I feel humbled to be working with Anh.
I'm just... I'm a real fan of his work.
And I'm also quite trepidatious
because it's a very... it's a very personal space,
it's a personal... bubble.
So I'm interested to know
what's going to come out of my mouth, actually, in this.
Sigrid is known for the strong and occasionally feisty women
that she has portrayed.
And that's no coincidence.
She projects confidence and independence,
but there's definitely a vulnerability as well.
That's my challenge today - to capture that range,
not to mention the trademark Sigrid Thornton eyes and cheekbones.
Hi! (LAUGHS) Sigrid.
Mwah. Welcome to the show.
Mwah. Thank you so much. Oh...
I've been wanting to have you on... It's a delight.
..for so long. Take a seat.
Thank you.
So good to be here.
Thank you. And look at this!
I want to ask you about this,
because look at all these...
Are they my colours? Have you decided they're my colours?
Yes. I... Already?
I have. (LAUGHS)
And, you know, a lot of artists use, like, a little palette?
Yes. Yeah, of course!
It's my palette!
I find it not quite big enough, you know, so...
Right.
..I've got a couple of big tables here.
But this is beautiful to look at.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Isn't it?
Sigrid, I find your parents fascinating.
Let's start with Mum.
Well, my mum was a... a very strong, radical, uh... feminist.
She's actually quite famous in Brisbane
for chaining herself to the bar of the Regatta Hotel,
and this was a sort of symbolic act
in order to, I suppose, raise consciousness
about the fact that women were locked out of public spaces.
So women... women weren't allowed in in bars.
The only place that women were allowed was in the ladies lounge.
So this was seen by Mum and a few of her close friends
as a... as a way of kind of keeping women out
of the sort of social experience
that can advance all sorts of relationships,
both personal and professional.
And so they went into the pub
and they chained themselves with little padlocks.
And the cops arrived fairly quickly afterwards.
The newspapers were alerted. It was a big story, as a matter of fact.
And the thing I remember most vividly as a child about it
was that I was allowed to stay up and watch Four Corners.
(LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) 'Cause Mum was on it?
Because Mum was on it, you know.
WOMAN: It's illegal discrimination.
Women should have the discretion
to do what they choose in this matter.
No-one's going to force women into bars if they don't want to go.
But they should have the right to go there.
The thing that shocks more people even than the pub story
is that in those days, when a woman joined the public service,
as soon as she got married,
she had to resign,
because she was meant to be at home looking after her husband.
So scores of women used to conceal their marriages.
And usually that was fairly successful
if they didn't wear their ring into work,
But then when they got pregnant,
of course they couldn't hide it any longer.
That was what happened to my mother. And they'd lose their job?
She had to resign when she got pregnant.
So they'd lose their job.
And... and she...
Mum was part of a very strong and very successful movement too
to get rid of this marriage bar in the public service.
She was part of a movement that was really just... was on about,
"Give us equal opportunity for women."
My father was a social activist too
and my father was a male feminist,
so I grew up in that kind of house.
We used to have those kinds of conversations
around the dinner table, you know?
Sigrid's father grew up on a farm,
but at 14, he was working as an errand boy in Sydney,
where developed his passion for books and a thirst for knowledge.
Then, in 1945, he joined the army.
After Dad joined the army,
he served in the Second World War.
Yes, he did. He didn't get active... do active service.
He went to Japan, though, for some months
and he was part of a kind of clean-up
that happened after the bombs dropped -
the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs.
And so he was exposed very... to very heavy radiation.
He was discharged from the army at quite a young age
with something called, um... neurasthenia,
which was kind of nerve pain -
nerve problems, nerve...
It was a kind of...
We had to do a lot of research into this, into what happened to Dad
later in his life
because he developed a very serious chronic pain condition, and...
Sorry.
(VOICE BREAKS) And, um... yeah, it really marred the rest of his life,
his last 10 years, yeah.
Yep. Mmm.
And that was no doubt connected...
Sorry. I've got off. So close to my...
It's still quite raw for me.
Um... Yeah.
So he spent the last 10 years of his life in chronic pain
as a result of this... this, um...
..clearly as a result of early radiation exposure.
Yeah.
And, um...
I mean, this is a young boy who joined the army
so that he could get an education.
Yes. Yeah, yeah, he did. He was a gentle sort of guy, right?
He was extremely kind and gentle.
He was really the kindest person I've known, actually.
He was a real model for me and, um...
..A great... he was a great father.
Yeah. Really delicious, delightful father.
Were you able to say goodbye to Dad?
Yes. It was, um... He had a very good death.
Um...
Uh... and I say that because he... uh, we had some...
Dad had had a very long illness,
so there was a lot of pre-grieving that had gone on for him
because he was very, very sick for a long time.
And, uh...
But, when he finally... died...
He started to die on Christmas Day, as a matter of fact -
he waited till the family was gathered together
and, um... Really?
Yeah. Took Dad two days to actually finally die,
but because it took him two days to die
and because the whole family was a symbol,
we could shower him with love, and... and...
In th... in those final hours.
And it was a... it was a great privilege
to... to have that time with Dad.
So he waited. He waited till everyone was together.
I think he did.
I think he waited until my brother was down from Brisbane.
I've always thought that, you know,
this was more than just strange timing,
more than serendipitous timing.
At the age of seven,
Sigrid moved to London with her parents as they studied.
It was the first of several moves.
My father was attached to the London School of Economics
and they both went to London to do their doctorates,
and we went... we went on the ship.
Wow. Mmm. It took a month to get there.
And of course you could run around the ship as a child
with complete freedom.
Wow.
And so it was a little... that was an adventure holiday.
I think I saw The Sound of Music about 25 times.
(LAUGHS) (LAUGHS)
What was it like to be... to be seven,
and leave Australia and go to quite a different place?
Kind of a wild adventure.
And it was a pretty amazing time to be in London.
That was sort of swinging '60s London.
Yeah.
I went to a sort of semi experimental school,
which was open to children from all walks of life,
and I was quite isolated there.
I was bullied at school.
You know, I was locked in lockers and I was bashed up
and, you know, I had the classic
sort of people in, you know, in a ring around you,
you know, calling you this and that name.
Really? Yeah, yeah.
So why were they picking on you?
Oh, because I was... I was different.
I had a different accent.
Uh... I was doing quite well at school.
I was probably considered a bit of a teacher's pet.
Maybe I was. I don't remember that aspect of it.
Certainly that's what they called me.
One very, um...
..strong experience,
which was a really good sort of self-taught learning experience.
It was a revelation to me as a seven year old.
I remember I must have been quite feeling very angry
about being bullied,
and I walked around trying to find someone that I could hurt, you know?
Because I was so angry.
And I found this little girl
and I found the back of her neck
and I squeezed it very, very hard between my forefinger and my thumb
until she cried.
And I got such a shock.
I sort of sprang back.
It's such a strong memory.
I... actually I think then and there decided I would never do that again.
"I'll never do anything like that again."
And I must have had some kind of really quite early understanding
that that's how it goes, that you can't....
..repattern those kinds of behaviours.
I think I kind of learned that, you know, this was coming from my anger
about what was happening to me
and that I mustn't do it to other people too.
And then after a couple of years in England, um...
..your parents decided to send you to live in New Zealand..
Yes, this sounds terribly kind of Dickensian, doesn't it, really?
Um... I... It was a different time.
It was.
Mum and Dad were finishing off their doctorates in London.
It was getting down to the wire, I think, on the money, probably.
And, uh... so they really needed to finish up,
because it was a kind of a make or break situation.
They had to come back at least with Dad's doctorate intact.
So they stayed in England? They stayed in England.
We lived in New Zealand for about nine month, a year
with this family,
and that I remember as the most marvellous experience.
Fantastic.
Were they relatives? Why did they...? Family friends.
Just family friends? Just family friends.
They were a beautiful family,
um... and they had...
They were in some ways quite similar to our family.
In other ways, incredibly different.
It was a beautiful time.
It was fantastic,
but I didn't realise until way, way, way later
the effect that it had had on my life.
And I was launching a book of stories from Somalian refugees,
and I came along and I thought, "I'm going to speak from the heart,
"and I'm not going to prepare a speech.
"I'm just going to see what comes out of my mouth."
But I started to talk about, um... about leaving your homeland,
and what an incredibly brave and profound thing
that is and was to do.
And I just... I just... I just completely went to water.
I just absolutely lost it in the middle of this book launch,
you know?
Was it a realisation right in the...? Yes, yes.
That I'd had this - nothing like what they'd had.
But nonetheless, it was your experience too.
Nonetheless, it was my experience of separation.
It was quite visceral and it was very valuable.
It gave me an incredibly important, little, slim understanding
of the kind of experience
that someone who actually has to go away has,
has to leave forever has.
So I left Vietnam when I was three. Yeah.
And at 20, we all went back to Vietnam.
It was the first time my mum went back there.
Yeah. In, you know, 18 years.
Oh...
And... What was it like?
She was just so happy. Oh!
And she just gave money to all the beggars.
Oh...
And... my mum's so emotional and trying to hide it from us.
And it wasn't sadness.
It was... just too much love... Yes.
..that she couldn't... Sort of overwhelmed.
..contain herself. Overwhelmed. Yeah.
You know, her heart was just a little bit too big that day.
Too full. And, uh...
You know, me, my brother, my sister,
we just realised that...
..what it must have been like
for her to leave this place that she loved so much, you know?
Yes.
I wrote a kids' book. It's called The Little Refugee.
And my wife and I,
we said, "We're going to give a 100% of the profits of that book
"to this orphanage in Vietnam."
Oh...
And when I told my mum...
it's probably... the happiest she's ever been.
Oh, that's so wonderful, Anh.
Sigrid's family had a strong social conscience,
and not shy of taking a stand for what they believed in,
they joined the front line of protests against the Vietnam War.
In Brisbane, which is where we were living at the time.
It was a sit down demonstration.
And the police moved in
and started to arrest people sort of from the front row back,
our whole family included.
And it was... to me, at the age of 13,
it was a bit of an adventure more than anything else.
But they put us in a paddy wagon
and they separated Mum and I
'cause they were being, you know, sort of, "Keep the women separate."
And that was very... I mean, it was good for us.
So you're in the back of the paddy wagon.
So we're in the back of the paddy wagon.
With Mum! (LAUGHS) With Mum.
And they took us to the watch house,
which was the city watch house,
and we were... you know, put in a cell.
It was a blood on the walls, you know
and 'Kev was here' kind of scrawled in blood kind of cell.
It was actually a pretty gritty thing.
And I... but I remember thinking,
"I must remember this. I must remember this. I must look.
Wow! So you were fascinated by it?
Oh, incredibly fascinated by it.
And it was a... it was a... you know,
I should have taken it a little bit more...
I took it seriously, but I knew we were going to get bailed out.
For me it was a bit of an adventure. Yep.
Sigrid has always been surrounded by love and unconditional support,
but independence and strength
are recurring themes throughout her life and career.
She's very warm and engaging.
I want to capture that twinkle in her eye.
You've got really lovely delicate features, Sigrid,
so I'm actually using my hands.
(LAUGHS) Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's great!
To get the... the palette knives, slap it on,
but to get the really nice sort of look that I'm going for,
I'm using a lot of my hands.
Mmm. And how delicious that must be,
to just feel that... Rub it in...
Yes, lovely. Beautiful. Beautiful.
I'm enjoying it. Lovely.
You were into acting from a very young age.
Yes, I was.
Um... probably about the age of...
..maybe age of seven or eight.
And I joined a theatre club in London.
It was called the Unicorn Theatre Club.
And when I got back to Australia, finally, nine going on 10,
and I said...
The first thing I wanted to do
was to join a theatre club, was to be involved in drama classes.
I got my first professional job at 13.
But for a long time, I didn't, um...
..I didn't have an agent,
'cause I wanted to finish school
and I wanted to go to university, actually.
But I got a job in the first semester of university,
and I thought,
"Oh, I'm never going to want to do this full time.
"I want to do the acting full time, actually."
So that was...
It made... it forced me to decide and to prioritise,
and that's when I got an agent.
Do you know how to sew?
I hate sewing. I love sewing.
Perhaps I could make you something.
If you do, I'll stuff it down your throat.
What's wrong with you?
Nothing!
Nothing's wrong with ME.
Sigrid didn't just have an early start in acting.
Her relationship with her husband, film producer Tom Burstall,
also began at a tender age.
You met your husband at 18. (LAUGHS)
Yes, I did! Tom.
Ah! Tell me about meeting Tom.
I met Tom through a mutual friend at a party,
and we... we, um... we moved in together a week later.
A week later? (LAUGHS) Yes! (LAUGHS)
I rushed in where angels fear to tread.
(LAUGHS)
That's all I can say about it, really. (LAUGHS)
But... Tom was about seven years older.
He was a bit more settled.
I had had a lot of experience for someone... young, so young...
..because of my childhood and my background.
And I'd been a young hippie
and I'd done all sorts of things, very naughty things...
(LAUGHS) ..by that age, you know, and...
(LAUGHS)
So I was kind of... I was... I wasn't at all ready to settle down.
My God.
I mean, I can't imagine what possessed me, really,
but I just went with... I went with the flow.
This is what happened. I fell in love, and... and that was it.
And then, so many years later...
We got married after about 13 years.
But that was sort of because we were living in the States by then
and it was a way of bringing our families together
and have a good party.
How old were you when you filmed The Man From Snowy River?
Oh. Um...
It's so funny - I never remember how old I was when I did things.
But I was probably about 22 - early twenties.
It was a breakout thing for me... a role.
It was massive. Massive.
Massive role. Yeah, it was.
I mean, no-one expected it
to be this explosive sort of juggernaut it became.
Iconic Australian film, really. Yeah, yeah.
There was something about the way it captured Australia pictorially
that really hadn't been done in quite that way before.
Certainly people hadn't seen the mountains pictured in that way.
Yes.
Oh, Jim. It's... it's beautiful.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
Wait till that gets here.
Snowy came along
at a particular time in the film and television industry too -
where we were having this romance with period drama.
We decided that we had to explore our... our past.
Now, the extent to which we explored our past in a genuine way
is debatable
because they were white stories, you know what I mean?
Like, for the most part.
And that was when my career was taking off.
So I was rarely out of a corset or a crinoline
because that's what... that's the jobs that were going.
Yes. And that was... that...
They were all the roles.
I played a lot of, um... strong, you know, feisty young women
who were sort of railing against the patriarchal society of the day
and things like that.
And it was great fun! (LAUGHS)
Wow. Mum and Dad would have been so proud.
Yes, exactly! Yes.
So at the height of your career, you give birth to your son, Ben.
Mmm.
Was that hard, to... to be a mother, and...?
I think it's pretty... difficult to be a working mother
without any guilt.
In fact, I think it's impossible.
Women have to go through all sorts of hoops
to feel OK about having careers that are important to them.
And my career has always been a very important aspect of my life.
You know, my working life
is attached to my personal life inextricably in some sort of way.
It is the same with all actors.
You, um... you felt some guilt as well.
Yes, most definitely.
On the other hand,
I think it's important for women to pursue, um...
..you know, to pursue career when it's important to them,
if it's important to them.
We have had periods where...
..Tom has really put things, his own career, very much to one side
to be... to be at home with the kids,
and we've juggled it.
That's a period of my life which was quite difficult,
and a huge adventure in all sorts of ways,
but I was working really long hours.
We did have a young child.
And I look back on that
and think, "Oh, God, if only I hadn't worked such long hours,"
but I don't know whether...
You know, you can't have it...
Well, one thing is you can't have it back.
And the second thing is
if you had it back, would you do it the same again?
Probably. Mmm. Mmm.
In 1990, Sigrid and Tom had daughter Jaz,
and Sigrid was able to devote much of the '90s
to being a full-time mum.
Then along came SeaChange, one of Australia's most loved dramas,
and the role of Laura.
It was a role Sigrid fought hard for.
Trudi, I don't think you understand what's at stake here.
This man could go to jail.
I did four auditions for SeaChange,
and I think I might have just worn them down.
They must have just thought, "Oh, just get this person out of here
"and just give her the bloody job, for God's sake."
(LAUGHS) So, you know, something like that must have happened.
Um... but I love the material so much.
I loved the tone and I loved the character very much.
And what ensued
was a very joyful part of life, actually... part of my life.
It was a really great time.
So I can't believe I'm going to tell you this,
'cause I was very bad in it,
but my first acting role ever in my whole life... SeaChange.
Was SeaChange! Oh, my God, it was too!
I can explain everything. I'm not a criminal.
This other guy is, this Van Nguyen guy.
I can't believe it!
I was some sort of dodgy boyfriend for about two minutes.
(LAUGHS) How lovely! First ever, ever - I was so nervous.
I bet you were good. No, I... (LAUGHS)
I want to see it now. I'm going to have to look at the old episodes.
It's gonna be bad!
You can't go to jail!
You've got a baby.
I've got a baby?
(SOFTLY) Yeah...
Our baby.
(CHILD COOS)
I've got a baby.
What's... what's life about, Sigrid?
It's a very good question. Um...
You know, there are so many layers of what life's about.
Life is definitely....
I'm sorry to use the cliche,
but it is what you make it.
For me, more and more I understand
that I'm only as happy as my happy child or my happiest loved one.
I want the people around me to be... to be... to feel contentment
and to have... to have their... their lives fulfilled,
and that's very much a part of what makes me...
..tick and makes me happy.
Yeah. Yeah.
I am nearly done. Are you?!
I... But... the way I'm doing this. Oh, my God. I'm excited.
I'm using, um...
To finish this to the degree I want,
it's going to take a little longer than usual.
Yes.
So just take a little break. OK. Great.
And then... and then come back. Yep.
And I'll spin around and, uh...
I just want to do it justice, you know?
(LAUGHS) OK. Lovely. Alright.
Yeah, beautiful. Take a break, Sigrid.
Thank you. (LAUGHS)
I am...
..kind of exhausted, extremely exhilarated.
I suppose I was probably more exposed
than I've been in all sorts of ways... in some respects, ever.
And I think that's due to the safe space that Anh creates.
It's his space.
And, uh...
And he comes to that space with an open heart.
So I imagine that he'll bring,
just as any painter does,
what he's observed
and what he's learned afresh about me that he didn't know before.
And I hope that that informs this work.
I've got no idea what it's gonna be like
in the finished... in the finished product.
And I'm very excited to see it.
Sigrid has had a stellar career
and a face that we're very familiar with,
so likeness is important here.
She also has an elegance about her that is kind of timeless.
So I've gone for that.
And of course there's the Sigrid Thornton eyes.
Hope she likes it.
Let's bring her in.
OK, Sigrid. I'm done.
(LAUGHS)
Thank you so much for giving me the extra time. It's really helped.
Oh, thank you, Anh.
I'm... so delighted.
Very excited and nervous.
So... You're nervous? (LAUGHS) Yes.
I've... I've enjoyed watching you on screen, you know, for so many years,
and you always bring a light and dark to your characters.
So I've gone for a bit of drama
and it's totally different to how I usually paint.
But, you know, I thought, "Well, I want to take the risk."
I'm honoured that you took a risk on me. Thank you.
Close your eyes. Yes, OK.
OK. Don't open them till I tell you.
No, I love surprises. I would never do that.
Alright, Sigrid. Go for it.
(GASPS) Oh!
(LAUGHS)
Oh! It's great!
Is it? It's great!
Wow! Cool! That's the best...
It's green! The eyes are so green, aren't they?
Yeah, why not? Drama!
Oh, it's great!
It's beautiful, Anh.
Thank you so much.
Mwah.
Oh, I just thought... Bless your heart.
..I'd play around with some drama... Oh, it's great!
It's really fantastic. Look at your green eyes.
(LAUGHS) Beautiful green eyes.
Oh... thank you.
What an amazing gift that is.
And what a gift you give.
You've given me... not this painting,
not the least of which is this painting,
but, you know, yourself!
You've just... you've given me an extraordinary experience today.
Thank you. It really is not like anything...
I can honestly say it's not like anything else I've ever done.
And I really thank you for that.
Thank you, Sigrid. Thank you.
(LAUGHS)
Oh, my God!
It's got a timeless...
I wanted you to look like... you know, like a princess or something.
You know, there's a timeless quality about it.
Thank you so much.
I just love it. It's beautiful.
It is a kind of extraordinary experience
to have this opening up conversation
and then than be presented
with such a... such a... you know, this second gift.
So you've enjoyed yourself? I have. Very much.
Thank you... I've so loved talking to you.
Very much. Thank you, Sigrid.
You've created a very beautiful space.
(LAUGHS)
It's really... it's really been great. It's been amazing. Thank you.
I'm still reeling, actually, from... (LAUGHS) ..you know?
I was....
..kind of blown away,
um... and I didn't expect to be so surprised.
I think I really like the fact
that Anh's given me very deep green eyes,
because I have the same colour eyes as my father.
So that's, um... that's a nice little present. (LAUGHS)
Sigrid has left her mark on our film and TV landscape,
and on top of all that, she's just really fun to hang out with.
I enjoyed that.
Captions by Red Bee Media
Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation