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| Article: SIMPLE PLEASURES (THE WEST AUSTRALIAN) | |
Her business card is very simple. A name, email, phone number and address at a movie lot. While it's a little too dramatic to suggest Brooke Satchwell has gone beyond needing to state her profession on the card, it's certainly an indication of where the 29-year-old Melbourne actress is at. Her world is about no limits. it's about learning new skills, pushing the boundaries, using everything she has learnt to date and no longer being hesitant about her abilities. After a flurry of appearing on screen in recent years which has included parts in White Collar Blue, Water Rats, Canal Road, BeastMaster, Small Claims and Dangerous, Satchwell says she has been "taking a breath". She's spent the last 18 months behind the camera - and experience she describes as fantastic. Genuinely surprised at the generosity of people she approached to give her work experience in production, Satchwell feels her experience in front of the camera has certainly helped her perspective from the other side. "People have let me sit in on writing sessions and script rewrites, letting me see the process," says Satchwell. "It has been great for my confidence that, when I have asked to be involved, they have taken me seriously." Call it fate or karma, the Logie-winning actress wonders whether it all has something to do with a number of people who were in her life 10 years ago who have reappeared in her world. That's also included returning to the stage for the first time in many years. Satchwell was the replacement for Pia Miranda in The Black Swan State Theatre Company's coming play The Clean House after Miranda withdrew from the role because of the conflicting demands of caring for her new baby girl, who was born in March. She joins Carol Burns, Sarah McNeill, Vivienne Garrett and Hugh Parker in a co-production with the Queensland Theatre Company which will be staged in Perth before moving to Brisbane for a season. It's strange how things happen, muses Satchwell, because he also has Miranda to thank for another big opportunity in her life - getting an audition for Neighbours, the job which kick-started her career. A picture of Miranda was used in a magazine story to announce auditions for Neighbours. Satchwell stepped up and ended up appearing in 161 episodes from 1996-2000. Like many things in her life, Satchwell tends to do things a little backwards. Do it first and learn later, she says. While it plays havoc with her confidence, it has certainly sent her in many different directions. "It's a matter of getting out of my own way," she says. "That's my biggest challenge. When I was presented with all-encompassing responsibility at a young age, I stepped up. I've always had an itch to be able to make a choice for what I wanted to be responsible for rather than just taking on what's in front of me." Satchwell hasn't performed on stage for more than a decade. Unlike the first time on stage, she isn't fretting over her lack of training and experience but, instead, funnelling everything she's learnt into her part in The Clean House, a play described as "a comedy about clean homes and messy lives". She plays Matilde, a young woman who moves to the US after her parents - the funniest couple in Brazil - literally die laughing. Hired as a live-in maid by Lane, a doctor who values order, Matilde finds cleaning depressing and at odds with her jokester nature. Luckily Lane's sister Virginia thrives on cleaning and Matilde hands over the job in favour of trying to create the worlds funniest joke. A series of upsets throw carefully ordered lives into disarray and it's Matilde who comes to the rescue as the characters find a bond filled with comedy and tragedy and discover that shared laughter can heal so much. Satchwell calls her a Marry Poppins-like character where mayhem and fun can tend to follow. "The play is a beautiful dichotomy of chaos and control," she says. "So the more you try and control thing, the more they turn into chaos, which encourages you to embrace a little of the chaos". Satchwell auditioned for the Clean House part while she was in Los Vegas for a convention, arrived home to Melbourne and packed up her house in three days before coming to Perth to start rehearsals. After The Clean House she and partner - film and television post production engineer David Gross - are moving to Sydney. The pair met 10 years ago but he has recently come back into her life, adding another returning and anchoring person from Satchwell's past. That deep exhale over the past few years has no doubt also come after Satchwell's ex-boyfriend Matthew Newton pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2007 for assaulting her, though the conviction was later quashed. Last month, he checked into a hospital specialising in addiction recovery. The actress was again thrust into the media spotlight when the Mumbai hotel where she was staying was the target of a terrorist attack in November 2008. She and Gross where there working on a travel documentary - Trouble in paradise - which she co-narrated. While Satchwell hasn't shied away from travelling overseas, it's probably opportune that accepting the part in The Clean House has meant saying no to a wedding in Greece. Satchwell will continue working behind the camera in between her on-screen and stage work. She doesn't feel she's fully explored her acting side yet and has also once again found the time to return to writing for the screen. "Part of having the opportunity to take a different perspective has given me the freedom to see it more fully," she says. "Particularly as an actor, I don;t have a lot of control over what story you are in compared to creating your own work. When you can't stop peddling, it's hard to take in the scenery and make a plan when you are constantly on the move." To date she's most proud of her involvement in the four-part SBS sailing documentary, disABLED Bodied Sailors as part of a Secret and Lives anthology. Among other things, she took the still aerial photography for the show which are being used on the DVD. "By having other interests I can flow in and out of acting," she says. I started working at 15 and until I was 24 very much lead a life which was only about work. I missed a lot of milestones with my friends and family because I was working an 80-hour week. now it is about a little more balance." | |
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ADDED BY USER:  MARTINS1472 ADMINISTRATOR |
Article Source: THE WEST AUSTRALIAN Published: 22/05/2010 Member Rating:  5 STARS |
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| Comments: Navigation | |
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SHOWING 1 COMMENTS | |||
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| -dyni- (09/06/2010 12:48:35) |
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 -DYNI- |
Nice article! Long! I like how she used the word "dichotomy" & how she doesn't feel like she's fully explored her acting side yet. Oh and the news that Newton checked into an addiction recovery clinic last month lal what a douche See I'm gonna stick with Brooke a little longer you know check on news and try and update her webby I just get the feeling things will happen with her, always have had! ;oF | ||
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