Alison Bell &
Sarah Scheller
The writers and co-creators ofThe Letdown,
about the hilarious peaks and troughs of early
parenting, were responsible for creating the ABC’s
first female-led series co-produced by Netflix.Bell:“When my parents brought me home from hospital as
a newborn, they put me down in my bassinet and left me to
sleep. When they came back to check on me, I was gone.
My older sister Emma had taken me out, and they found
her holding me over her shoulder by my feet. Mum says
I was as calm as can be. Emma was two.
My sister and I are very close, but it’s definitely been a sort
of mentor-mentee relationship. She’s the organiser and the
capable one; she saw it as her job to guide me through life.
She told me what music to like, what clothes to wear and
what movies to go see. Emma was part of the cool gang in
high school so of course I wanted to be just like her. She
introduced me to comedy. Growing up, we were massive
fans of Chevy Chase and Steve Martin, and we’d repeatedly
watch their stuff. Because Emma is older, I probably watched
things that were a bit ahead of me, but looking back, it gave
me a grounding in comedy. My sister is also an amazing
storyteller and an excellent embellisher of the truth. I probably
owe her for teaching me how to write a decent story. With
The Letdown, I would often call Em and try out jokes on her,
or she would tell me a funny story and I would ask ‘Can I use
that?’ Lucky for me she’s also very generous.”
Scheller:“Before I went to my first concert – I was about 12
- I came out of my room excited about my outfit. My older
sister Sally took one look at my Levi’s 501s and shook her
head. She pushed me back into my bedroom and redressed
me, head-to-toe. That’s a pretty good metaphor for our
relationship, actually. She moulded me into the
person she wanted me to be from early on. It was
my first experience of micromanagement. Sal
shaped who I am today – she told me what to like
and dislike, what to do, what to wear.
As a kid, Sally was wild. I was wild, too, but not
like Sal. She would take me along on all her teen
adventures, things that I was far too young for.
She’d decide she wanted to drive to Newcastle
to see a band, and we’d go (then we’d wag
school the next day). I was only 13! As a writer, it’s
so important to have that life experience to draw from. If you
haven’tlived, you’ve got nothing to write about.”
Yvonne
Strahovski
The actress has been nominated this year
for an Emmy for her terrifying and tragic
portrayal of Serena Joy Waterford in
The Handmaid’s Tale.“My mum [Bozena] and I went hiking years ago, in a place
called Brown Mountain, south from where we lived in
Sydney. We didn’t really know the ins and outs of camping at
the time, so we hadn’t waterproofed our rucksacks, and we
ended up getting rained on, like, a lot. Like all through the
night. And the next day. We decided to trek back to the car,
but to do that we had to cross a small river. When we’d first
crossed it, the water was ankle-deep. Now, going back, it
was thigh-high, with rushing water. Mum went first, and there
was no real conversation: we just did it. The water was
freezing. But that is my mum; she just gets in and goes.
Mum migrated to Australia when she was 26. It was
a very brave and dangerous decision that she made,
along with my father, coming here from communist Poland.
They knew nothing about Australia; all they had was
a pamphlet to go off of. I really admire that adventurous
spirit. I followed in her footsteps in a way; when I was 24
I left for the US, not knowing that I was moving for good. It
wasn’t as brave as what my mother did, but I thought I was
going there for only two months, and I ended up staying for
11 years. A lot of parents would probably find it hard to see
their kids move to another country, but Mum has been and
still is so supportive of all my adventuring, travelling and
spontaneity. She has this very simple attitude of ‘everything
will fall into place’. I think I’ve inherited that.
I often think about how
difficult mum’s life would have
been in Poland, in a communist
era when the majority of shelves
in stores were empty. You really
had to fend for yourself. That
gave my mum a strong work
ethic; she knew nothing came
without effort. Work ethic is so
important to me, and putting in
100 per cent – that’s the
minimum. That comes from her, and all the efforts that she
made to manifest a better life for herself and her family.”>WE
ARE
WOMEN
2018
“MUM IS SO
SUPPORTIVE
OF ALL MY
ADVENTURING,
TRAVELLING AND
SPONTANEITY”95