In this series, I meet extraordinary Australians...
This is what I do. This is who I am.
It's so exciting to be here.
(BOTH LAUGH)
..who tell me their fascinating stories...
It was like someone had just given me gold.
..while I paint their portrait.
Like, I'd sleep with my bat as a kid.
My challenge is to capture their character...
That's not what you've got the power of the microphone to do.
..and put it on the canvas.
I was born this colour for a reason.
The portrait is theirs to keep, so I want them to like it.
Oh, my God! Heavens above.
Oh, my God! Wow!
Yeah! That's incredible!
Wow! Oh, my God.
She's hot! (LAUGHS)
Welcome to Anh's Brush With Fame.
Georgie Parker is one of Australia's most loved television stars.
She got her big break at 24 on the hit drama, A Country Practice.
Do you think he's good looking?
But it was as Terri Sullivan on All Saints...
It's alright.
..that she firmed her place in Australia's television landscape...
Georgie Parker.
..taking home the Gold Logie twice.
Thank you so much.
What is it about her that has made her such an audience favourite?
I don't know how whatever I share with him
will change the way he paints me.
But I'll be really interested to see if it does.
There's something really special about Georgie.
She's always brought an energy and vibrance to her roles
that gives her a connection with her audience.
I need to capture that warmth and sparkle on the canvas.
Georgie. Hey.
How are you? Welcome to the show!
Thank you so much, I'm so excited to be here.
So great to have you here. Take a seat.
OK. Well, this is a nice chair.
Talking about chairs... Yes?
Your father, your grandfather, responsible for Parker Furniture?
Yes, my grandfather started the company,
and my father was the designer.
I hand-sanded and repainted a Parker sideboard.
Did you? Yes!
Do you know what, I probably was sitting next to him
watching TV while he sketched it up on a piece of paper.
He was a true visionary.
He went overseas, really, to pick up overseas influence,
because Australia was a very... we were so far away, in the '50s,
we were not just separated by oceans but by ideology at the time.
Sure.
And after the war, Dad thought
that instead of just having "the good armchair"
in "the good room,"
or, you know, the couch that you don't sit on,
he really thought that families should be together,
and that there should be a family room.
He would design the whole living room, the whole dining room,
the whole bedroom, and the buffet and the...
And it'd all go together and... And he would display the room.
So, it was like you were walking into a house.
Because that's like every furniture store you walk in today...
Yeah.
..is set up, you know, the whole living room.
Like the room. Like the room.
So that you can imagine it.
And, you might just buy the whole lot.
(LAUGHS)
You grew up St Ives?
Yep, grew up in St Ives.
But back then, it was a lot different.
Yeah, we had a horse in our backyard.
There was a vineyard not far away,
and it was the suburb you drove through
to get to the Northern Beaches.
I mean, I suppose the North Shore has a perception
of being very conservative,
but that certainly was not the house that we grew up in.
Yep? We were not a conservative family.
(BOTH LAUGH)
My mother and father were both very much, you know,
"You've got to follow your passion."
Luckily for me, you know, 'cause if you've got a kid
saying, "I want to be an actor," it's not something that's like yay!
So, I'm very lucky that they encouraged me.
What kind of a student were you?
Really bad.
I didn't understand the notion of passively listening to information.
I'm a mover, I use my body for my work
so, for me, I needed to be moving and learning.
When... when I was about eight, I had trouble remembering my birth date.
I had trouble remembering the order of the months.
What's the point of that?
And reading a big clock.
My mother went to the headmistress of the junior school,
at Abbotsleigh, and Mum said, "Look, I'm really worried.
"Do I force her to do these things?"
And Mrs Edwards said to Mum, "I'm sure you're aware,
"your daughter is a free spirit, and she will find her way in her time."
Three weeks later, school play came up.
I got it.
I learnt everyone's lines in five minutes.
Because it made sense to me. It was a story.
I played that part, and I learnt the whole thing.
And I got up, and then Mum was like, "Ohh, you can do that.
"You can do that! That's great, fabulous."
That was... Bang, "That's what I want to do!"
Yeah. It was... it was one of those...
And it was an epiphany, I suppose.
I wouldn't have known what that was at eight,
but I thought, "Oh, that's good."
But I was in love with acting,
and the whole notion of getting up and making a story live for people.
Georgie's passion for acting grew, as did her love of ballet.
But her childhood dream of being on stage
came close to being shattered.
My sister and I were hit by a car crossing a crossing
when we were... I was 9 or 10, and she was 13.
And she got hit by the full brunt of the car,
and she had very lucky... I mean, serious injuries
but not in any way life-threatening.
She fractured her sternum and fractured her jaw.
And I was hit by the side of the car.
It was on this side, and my spine goes like that...
Ahhh.
So it could've... it could've been that,
or it might have just been bad luck.
But it's not really in our family.
When I was 13, I wondered why I...
You know, everyone was getting shape,
and I was wondering why I was straight down on one side
but I had a shape on one side.
So I thought, "Oh, maybe the other side will pop out."
Thirteen-year-old brain.
And then one day, Mum was rubbing cream on my back
and she said, "Sit up straight, sweetheart,"
and I said, "I am."
And then she really had a look at it,
and it was like, "That's not right."
So then we did the X-ray.
I had to walk into the big, you know... the surgeon's room,
and he said, "You have scoliosis,
"and I'm deciding not to do surgery because I...
"You're a very active person,
"and I actually think where your scoliosis is,
"that I can leave this in your hands,
"as long as you keep living the life you live, which is activity and..."
Then he said, "And you cannot be a ballet dancer."
I thought, "OK."
And I realised it was a very serious conversation,
and I said, "Well, that's OK 'cause I actually want to be an actor."
So, fortunately, I didn't have to have the operation,
but I was put in a brace for three years.
You had to wear a brace?
I wore a brace for three years.
It was a Boston brace, so it wasn't visible.
I called him Boris.
I've kept Boris, by the way. Yep.
Yeah, he's my friend. He's upstairs in the... yeah.
So, this brace pretty much... you went everywhere with it?
Yeah, it was with me everywhere. Wow.
But you could only take it off for "an hour" a day.
So, the rest of the time, you're in it.
I learnt how to do most things in it, like tennis.
But it's hard.
Because you don't... you can't... Your torso doesn't move.
And then I learnt how to play softball, but that was hard,
'cause you can't really run in it.
Fortunately for me, my family didn't impose their concern or fear.
They just let me do it, and I just thought,
"Well, I'll just do this for three years, then I'll see how I go."
It was perfect tease and bully territory.
You know, from 13 to 16,
it was pretty clear that I had something on.
It didn't change me, 'cause I could take it off,
but it really changed the way people treated you.
People did start talking to you differently.
They'd talk to you like this.
And it was like, "You're just making yourself look stupid.
"You know, I can take this off," you know?
I was lying down one day, and this girl kind of ambled up
and it was like... I think she had been encouraged by her friends
or maybe she just wanted to ask,
but she said, "Georgie, what's it like to be handicapped?"
And I said, "I don't know, mate, what's it like to be stupid?"
(LAUGHS)
It helped me understand that sometimes bullying and teasing
comes from just not knowing how to handle something.
So, my brand of educating people about it
was to just take them into the bathroom,
take my dress off, and show them.
That's what I used to do, to a lot of friends,
and sometimes they'd go, "You want to come and look at it?"
And they go, "Yeah?"
So I'd just sort of lift my dress up and go, "This is it.
"This is how I put it on, and this is...
"I have to lie on the floor to put it on, and you do this."
So it wasn't like this "weird thing" that they couldn't see,
it was like, "This is what it is. It's fine. I'm the same person."
After three years in the brace, and with high school finished,
Georgie joined the Ross Coleman Performing Arts studio,
and it was here, aged 21, she met her mentor.
Tell me how you met your agent, David Brewster.
I had an agent at the time,
wasn't really taking me where I needed to go.
I wasn't ambitious, but I had a very strong work ethic.
So I'd been working since I was 19, and I went in to meet him.
We just got talking, and David took me on.
And that changed my life.
He got me into rooms,
and, really, all they can do is really get you into the right room
at the right time, and you get the job.
And her agent did indeed open a door to the industry,
one that would turn her into a household name.
A Country Practice.
(LAUGHS) Yes! What a great show!
Oh, my God. I was so lucky.
And I'd been going for jobs a lot
and I was always missing out to a blonde.
(LAUGHS)
It was the early, mid '80s,
and people would always ask, "Are you Australian?"
And... and I thought, "That's a really odd thing,"
just 'cause I was... I suppose I looked very Italian
or Spanish at the time,
but it was, like, that's still Australian.
So I was like, "Yes, I am."
"Where do you come from?" "Uh, St Ives."
"OK." So then...
But then, I would always miss out to a blonde.
I'd had two big auditions with A Country Practice,
I finally got another one.
And this part was great.
So I'm there, writing home, and I went, "I have a good feeling,
"I have a good feeling,"
and then about two weeks later, David rang me.
"Hello, darling.
"Just letting you know that that audition was successful,
"so you'll be starting in January.
"I've negotiated this for the first year,
"and this for the second year,"
and I'm like... (PANTING) "Oh, my... Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"
And he went, "I'm going to hang up,
"and you can call me back when you've collected yourself."
(LAUGHS)
It was like someone had just given me gold.
It was one of the biggest shows at the time.
It was the biggest show at the time!
The biggest show. Yeah!
And what a gift, and how lucky I was. So lucky!
OK, I'll pack my bags and by this time tomorrow,
Rhett and I will be no more than a fond memory. Sound OK?
You don't have to do anything drastic, huh?
Lots of rooster scenes. He was with me everywhere!
And then they had my character start talking to her oven.
(LAUGHS) Ivan the oven.
I went, "Really? I understand the chicken, but the oven?"
You had... you had Boris the brace, and now you've got Ivan.
Boris the brace, Rhett the rooster, and Ivan the oven.
So, Rhett the rooster, he'd get a bit of performance anxiety.
He didn't like it when everything went quiet,
and everything always... would always go quiet
after, "And action."
And he'd poo. (LAUGHS)
So what we had to do was do the dummy "Action,"
and then they'd go, "And action!" and he'd go...
..poo.
And then the... the props guy - poor props guy -
would come in, wipe it away,
and then they'd go, "And..."
Morning, Gardner. Morning, Lucy.
Good morning.
Audiences fell in love with Georgie immediately.
Oh, darling.
And in 1990, at the age of 25, that adoration won her a Logie.
The first time I won Best Newcomer
was when I was in A Country Practice,
and it was in the days when you had to go and buy your own dresses
and do your own stuff.
So, I went and bought this fantastic Studibaker Hawk,
you know, maroon taffeta.
It looked like I was going to a Year 10 formal.
But I liked it!
And I had my hippie jewels on.
And my name was called out.
I was pretty excited to be nominated,
'cause, I mean, that's like... that's a win to me.
To be nominated is to be singled out,
that's pretty amazing.
They call my name.
I... "Have they made a mistake?"
And then everyone was like, "Get up!"
And I was like, "Who do I thank?" Couldn't remember anyone's names!
Couldn't remember the people who were in charge of the show.
I was just like, "Aargh, this is just... Whoo!"
Georgie has come from such a strong, creative, and independent family.
They encouraged her strengths, and helped her follow her dreams.
I need to capture a sense of that creative energy and charisma
that has made her such an icon on our screens.
Tell me how you met your husband, Steve.
Steve, funnily enough,
went to the school down the road from me.
He was two years younger.
He saw me in school musicals 'cause I used to go down the road to Knox,
to do all my drama.
I didn't know him, but he saw me do Ado Annie in Oklahoma.
Did he like you back then?
I think he had a bit of a crush on me and he called me a doll.
"Oh, you're a doll."
I was a late bloomer with men.
I was pretty happy on my own.
And when I finally met men, I was... I think I was trying to figure out
who I needed to be in a relationship, and how I should be,
but I very, quite clearly, needed to be my own person,
and I needed the freedom to be my own person,
without someone, you know, in any way holding me back
or controlling, it was just not gonna work.
He was everything that I hadn't dated before, basically.
I think I had avoided someone who was really reliable,
and we just got on like a house on fire.
But we're very yin-yang, like I'm here and he's here,
but when I go home, I'm here and he's here.
So, we kind of balance each other out.
After four much-loved years on A Country Practice...
Isn't he gorgeous?
..Georgie moved on.
But she wasn't off our screens for long.
In 1998, she was offered a leading part in a brand new series.
You then went on to play Terri Sullivan on All Saints.
When I got All Saints, I had been doing a lot of theatre
and a lot of musicals,
and I remember going into the audition,
and just going in there and just doing the role.
And Terri is a long way away from me,
but I understood her intrinsically
and she was a complicated person, and complex,
but kind and curious and damaged,
and all... all the great things.
The audience really loved her and all the characters in the show,
which was so well conceived.
I was an extra. On All Saints?!
I even had one line!
What was your line? Do you remember it?
Can't remember. (LAUGHS)
I think the elevator door opened, and I said, "How you going?"
And it closed. Was I in there?
Yeah, I think so.
Oh, my God, are you kidding me?
Oh, my God!
I was an orderly for a... for a day or two.
I love it! Did you like it? Loved it!
I knew you'd come back. My saviour!
You became quite good friends with Belinda Emmett on All Saints.
Yes. Beautiful Belinda.
I actually, when I was doing A Country Practice,
she was doing Hey Dad.
So, we met then.
And she was always absolutely such a beautiful person,
such a genuine person.
Mum?
Good God, that bodes well, doesn't it?
I need all the help I can get, Von.
We were working on All Saints
and she was dating... dating Rove at the time.
That was after her first scare with breast cancer.
And then she went off to shoot The Nugget, with Eric Bana.
And she left our show,
and then news got back pretty quickly
that she'd been diagnosed during the shooting,
with bone cancer, and it was... it was unfathomable,
that someone who was so full of life
was given that kind of diagnosis.
And she fought it hard, man.
I mean, she really gave it everything she had.
I think the thing that would've made her happiest
is really if she could've been a mum.
And she would've been the best mum.
So, we were robbed with that one.
Yeah. We were robbed.
In the year 2000, you get pregnant. Yeah!
And you're playing a nun on... (LAUGHS) Yeah!
So, they can't just write the character gets pregnant.
No. Unless it's the immaculate conception, again.
How do they deal with that?
I got pretty big. She was a big baby.
And they just had me holding folders,
and walking behind gurneys, and hiding behind desktops.
And then just having to shoot everything here,
which made everything seem intense. Mm.
Yeah I had to disguise it all the time
and the one director did say, "Can you suck it in?"
And I said, "You're a father of children.
"You know how this works, right?" (LAUGHS)
How hard is that to manage career, pregnancy,
having to hide it, you know, acting and...
Look, it was really tough.
Because I knew I only had a certain amount of time off
before I had to go back to All Saints, back to that schedule,
and I was just thinking, you know, you have...
Everything in your life changes,
but you've got to go back to doing what you were doing.
So your hours are, you know, often,
you know, five in the morning until eight at night,
and then the next day, five till eight, five till eight.
'Cause of my scoliosis, I couldn't give birth.
So, I had to have a caesarean.
She was a really good baby. So, that really helped.
And, you know, Steve was there. I mean, Steve was working a lot,
but, you know, he was there as well,
but the hours are pretty unforgiving.
Yeah. Yeah, so it was hard. It was hard for two years.
Did you and Steve ever think about having more children?
Oh, I think I would definitely have had more children.
I found the pregnancy easy, but after, when everything's loose,
it did really affect my back,
and that's where it deteriorated to 59 degrees.
My curve is directly in the middle, so it's like a building that...
..with two floors taken out, so I've shrunk,
so I'm about two inches shorter than I should be.
Before that, it was in the 30s or maybe early 40s.
Yep.
So, I just... I really had to weigh up my capacity
to have another pregnancy.
And then, also, I was working full-time.
So I was thinking, "I've got to get this, I've got to do this well,
"before you can add to it."
And then I was 39.
I think, in many ways, my kind of... my back made up my mind for me.
Not long after becoming a mum, Georgie's ongoing role in All Saints
would result in the ultimate accolade in Australian television -
a Gold Logie.
I've got to tell you,
I was a mother to a seven-month-old baby.
I'd gone away, it was my first night away.
I was in a... it was just, like,
I was so excited to be in the hotel room,
I didn't really want to get dressed up and leave.
I wanted to just lie in the bath
and just hang out and eat food and watch movies.
(LAUGHS)
So, it's like, yeah, get dressed up.
Mm, gonna do all that.
And, um... and then they read your name out.
And the first thought I had -
and I don't mean this to be, you know, lacking in gratitude -
'cause I was so tired, the first thought I had was,
"This is gonna mean a lot of publicity."
It was going to be more time away from my daughter.
And then I thought, "But, hey, you won the Gold Logie.
"That's pretty cool!"
The only reason why I'm getting this
is because of the fabulous show that I'm in.
It was a really mixed blessing, and then winning it the year after,
again, it really consolidated to me
what it meant to the people who voted
and what it meant to the show,
and the fact that the character was resonating so well.
Have you found that about life sometimes,
there's this sort of thing that you go for,
and then you get there,
and it's not quite as... as amazing as you thought.
Careful what you wish for, I think.
But I was never aiming for awards.
I mean, I was never even aiming for fame.
That... that had never come into my head.
I just wanted to be employed.
I just wanted to be able to support myself doing acting.
That was my goal.
So when people started recognising me in the street,
I was like, "What's wrong with you?
"That's really rude, that's really weird."
And then I thought, "Oh, durr, I'm in their house."
So, that took me a while to get my head around,
and it was weird that I'd never thought of it, I think.
(LAUGHS)
In 2001, while riding the wave of success,
TV's golden girl discovered
her agent and dear friend David Brewster was dying.
When he was diagnosed with cancer,
it wasn't so much, "I'm gonna fight it,"
it was like, "Well, I guess we'll ride this out."
He went into hospital and I remember I went to see him and he said...
He was very... he was asleep on the drugs a lot,
but he opened his eyes and looked at me
and he said, "I've decided to discontinue treatment."
And I said, "I think that's a great idea."
And I realised, when you're passing,
it's very important for people to accept that you are
and to not make you fight, and make you hold on,
but to respect that this is my time and I want to go
and it's like, "Well, we're here with you."
And so when he finally did pass,
he was... you know, he was doing that breathing
and... you know, and it was quite confronting.
And finally, his breathing got so slow, I said,
"I think we should all be in there."
And we were just talking to him and saying, you know,
"You've done everything you need to do,"
and he used to always say, "Godspeed,"
when he'd hang up the phone.
So, we were all saying, "Godspeed," and he passed away.
Right there.
And I think the amazing thing was that he showed us how easy it was.
It was like the last gift he gave us,
it was like...
If you're lucky enough, and all the stars align,
it can be peaceful, and it's alright.
When I went back, and I looked in, just to say goodbye before I left,
it wasn't him anymore.
It was just a body.
And it was like whatever had inhabited that body
and made David David wasn't there anymore.
And it was like this perfect life lesson in three hours.
He was just such a wonderful man, and he influenced me greatly.
The next day, my daughter -
who was, oh, probably a year and a half at the time -
the last time she saw David,
he was playing peekaboo with her around the couch.
So, she was looking up at him and doing that.
The next day, she's looking... she's crawling along the ground
and then she looks up.
She starts doing this.
(LAUGHS) And I went, "Oh, right. OK."
In 2010, Georgie returned to our screens,
on the long-running soap Home & Away.
You and I are a team.
You know? Nothing's gonna change that.
I might put these inside, eh, and we'll grab some tea.
However, she endured eight years of physical pain.
So, I went and saw my wonderful surgeon.
He took an X-ray of my pelvis and of my back and he went,
"Well, your back is doing what it's doing,"
he said, "but you've got osteoarthritis in your left hip.
"At 40," he said, "you're really too young to have a hip replacement."
So I put it off for as long as I could,
but then it completely changed the way I walked,
I was kind of rolling, and it played into my back,
but I was sort of determined,
and that determination has served me really well,
but I think I was... it veered into being stubborn.
It's a bit painful?
It was... was stiff, and my hip was painful,
'cause, in the end,
it looked like my thigh bone and my pelvis had become one.
There was no cartilage, it looked like one long bone.
And, in the end, my physio just said,
"You do realise we can't keep doing this,
"and you have to have surgery one day."
It's been the best thing I've ever done.
Wow.
I felt like I could go back and do a can-can.
Wow.
You have a... a hunk of titanium. Titanium!
It's beautiful. I am part terminator.
Wow.
Setting things off everywhere, every airport.
I've got my surgeon's card but they still pat you down,
and I thought, "It's just an excuse, isn't it?" (LAUGHS)
I feel like getting a hip replacement!
(LAUGHS) Yes! Yes, you should!
I tell you, it's fantastic!
What do you think is the key to happiness?
The key for me is really loving the people who are in your life,
and allowing them to love you,
and just living in the present.
I mean, how... how rare is it for someone to go,
"I'm so lucky I'm alive."
And it's not until you see someone else
who's struggling with something or who... someone who's been given,
you know, a shorter time to live than they perhaps would've liked
or... that you realise, "I'm lucky to just be alive."
It's been so much fun talking to you Georgie.
(LAUGHS) I'm nearly done,
but I'm gonna need... 25 years?
..another half hour or a bit more just to finish this off.
OK. And then I'll bring you back
and I'll show you the finished product.
I'm pretty happy with it, actually. OK.
Alright.
He's a really good listener,
so he's someone that you want to talk to.
I could've gone on for another two hours.
Don't know if he wanted to, but I could've!
Georgie Parker is such a delightful person to be around.
Her enthusiasm for life is infectious, and so is her big laugh.
She's handled life's challenges and successes with such positivity.
I've tried to capture all that goodness that is Georgie
in this painting.
I think I'm done.
Let's bring her back in.
I'm all done, Georgie. Ohh!
I would have liked another 10, 20 minutes but...
..but, you know, I'm pretty happy with it.
I'm so glad.
You have such a zest for life.
You walk into the room and there's just this beautiful energy,
so I wanted to capture that... that energy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know?
So, I need you to close your big blue eyes.
(LAUGHS) My God! OK. Close your big blue eyes.
I've got... I've got 'em shut.
Alright, don't open them till I tell you.
Oh, my God.
Alright, Georgie, go for it.
Oh, my God!
Do you like it? Yes.
Yes?
Ohh.
Oh, my gosh, that's amazing.
Thank you for letting me see how you see me.
(LAUGHS) I love it.
I love it!
Thanks for coming on the show, Georgie!
Thank you so much!
I don't know what I expected, but it was breathtaking,
because I not only see me,
but it's such a beautiful amalgamation
of my mother and father's face,
and that's the only time I've seen it.
And with Anh's beautiful ability to talk to you,
to listen to you, and then paint at the same time,
it's mind-blowing.
It's been one of the best experiences of my life,
I can genuinely say that.
I really wanted Georgie to like the painting,
and I'm glad she did.
It's been a fun day.
Next time...
Doctor Gordian Fulde, the inspiring and hard-working man
behind emergency medicine as we know it.
If you have a person dying in front of your eyes,
I defy nearly anything more intense.
His face tells a thousand stories,
and I've got to capture that wisdom on the canvas.
Wow.
That's somebody else who is much younger, good looking!