If there’s one thing Deborah Mailman has learnt playing MP Alex Irving in three seasons of Total Control, it’s that she could not follow the same career path as her character.
“I will never be a politician!” she says. “I could not do it in my wildest dreams. I do take my hat off – it’s an incredible sacrifice and responsibility politicians sign up for.”
While the 51-year-old actress isn’t about to hit the campaign trail, she says the drama about Australia’s political system has been her most rewarding work.
“Total Control has probably been the highlight for me in terms of the character and the production and what we’re saying,” Mailman tells WHO.
Following Mabo and Redfern Now, it is Mailman’s latest collaboration with production company Blackfella Films, whose focus on telling impactful Indigenous stories ensures it “feels like my home professionally”.
“I really believe in the kind of work they’re trying to create,” she says, adding that audiences have been incredibly receptive.
“There’s been a real education and embracing of our First Nations stories and cultures. I think people are more wanting to make that a part of our national narrative. It’s being celebrated more than it’s ever been celebrated, despite the result of the referendum.”
As viewers have followed Alex’s journey from inexperienced senator to political power player, Mailman says she is “so incredibly proud” of her visibility as an Indigenous performer.
“I’m one of many actors that can say, ‘Hey, I’ve done it, you can do it, too,’” she says. “It’s not just me – there’s a whole generation of us actors: Leah Purcell, Aaron Pedersen, Wayne Blair. Prior to that there was Justine Saunders, Rhoda Roberts. It’s just about passing on that baton, I guess.”
To that end, Mailman is excited by the opportunities she now sees for Indigenous creatives. “The landscape has changed so dramatically – we’re looking at online content and voices coming through that way, so it’s almost limitless in terms of the possibilities out there for our mob to come into the industry,” she continues.
Although those opportunities weren’t so prevalent when Mailman was starting out, she says she’s been “very lucky to carve out the career that I have”.
“It’s been amazing, to be honest,” she continues. “As an actor, you’re often at the mercy of the industry and that phone ringing. I’m very thankful I’ve been given the opportunities I’ve been given and I’m glad I’m still going.”
Despite that fact she doesn’t share Alex’s desire to be part of the political class, there is one part of Mailman’s character that is close to home. The actress has two boys with husband Matthew Coonan, Oliver, 13, and 16-year-old Henry, who is a similar age to Alex’s son, Eddie (Wesley Patten).
“I can relate,” Mailman says. “My eldest boy has now moved into Year 12, so almost the exact age that Eddie is in the show.”
While Eddie finds himself in the spotlight this season as he channels his mother’s quest for justice, Mailman says her own children haven’t expressed any desire to follow in her footsteps.
“No, they’re very sporty boys,” she says. “They haven’t shown any interest. I always say, ‘If you want to come to work and come to set, you’re most welcome.’”
“Actually, some of the films and TV shows I’ve been in they actually study at school. Bran Nue Dae, The Sapphires, Mabo … I think there’s a pride there in a way that they get from them,” she adds. “I hope so, anyway.”
Mailman on The Secret Life of Us
In 1998, Mailman received the Best Actress AFI (aka AACTA) Award for her role in indie film Radiance. But it was her move to the small screen three years later in The Secret Life of Us that changed everything.
“It certainly threw us into the limelight – I wasn’t prepared for it,” she says. “I love the training it gave me – and the confidence as well.”
Mailman has fond memories of the popular series, for which she received two TV Week Logie Awards for Most Outstanding Actress.
“It was intense, but it was such great fun,” she recalls. “We got on so great as an ensemble of actors. The stories were reflecting exactly where I was at that time as a twenty-something-year-old.”
Since the series ended, Mailman says she sees former castmates like Claudia Karvan and Samuel Johnson “every so often at industry events”.
“Any production, you become a really tight-knit family and then you disappear from each other’s lives and onto the next thing,” the actress explains. “When I do see them, it’s a lovely feeling because I’m very fond of The Secret Life of Us.”
In this age of reboots, however, she laughs at the idea of a revival of the show. “Would you want to see that?” she asks. “In terms of the cost of living, maybe we would all have to share a house. The Secret Midlife Crisis. No, it was of its time and I think it needs to be left there.”
Total Control S3 premieres on Sun., Jan. 14 at 8.30pm on ABC
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