Heart to heart
Courtney Act talks the talk in a new season of One Plus One
Courtney Act is used to being asked the questions. The talented drag artist and singer has so much to talk about: she won Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, was a runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race, performed at massive events incuding the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and even had her own TV holiday special.
But for the latest season of One Plus One, Act has taken on the role of interviewer.
“It’s such a different process and I really appreciate being interviewed now,”
Act said.
It’s a real reversal of roles for the entertainer who relished being on the other side of the process.
When she was asked to host the one-on-one interview series, Act drew up a dream list of guests. She chose people who all have something to say, artists who dare to speak out and young people who are trying to make a difference in the world around them. “You write that long list of people and you slowly whittle it down to who you want to talk to and I was really glad about everyone we got to speak to,” Act said.
The series features interviews with South Sudanese Australian model Aweng Chuol, singer/songwriter Mitch Tambo, comedian Nat’s What I Reckon and Food Frontier founder Thomas King.
“We went for young changemakers – it was a really interesting list of people,” Act said.
“I loved talking to them all. Mitch Tambo was the one I think I knew the least out of everybody, because I follow Awang on Instagram and Nat’s What I Reckon and I had done a video together because I saw him during quarantine.
“So I really appreciated talking to Mitch because we had less of a personal relationship. We were strangers to each other so we had to establish that trust and connection – he had to trust me enough to share his story and talk about very personal things about, not just his art and him as a performer, but also himself as a First Nations man and the struggles and the challenges that come with that, and also the resilience and the celebration of that.”
The list also included an old friend of Act’s, Lisa Origliasso from the pop group The Veronicas. They’ve known each other for such a long time that Act says they’re almost like family.
“Lisa and I grew up together so that was interesting because we’ve known each other since we were probably about four. I call her mum ‘Mother Two’ so there was a moment of adjustment where I was talking to my friend but asking her questions a friend wouldn’t ask,” she said.
Act and Lisa went to the same theatre company together as children, alongside Lisa’s sister Jessica – the other half of The Veronicas.
But this was one of the first times Lisa has been interviewed without her twin.
“She (Lisa) said that she was terrified of doing an interview because she’d never done an interview without Jessica before,” Act said.
“The only reason she said yes was because I asked and we’re friends and she trusts me. It was just something she never wanted to do before.”
The show, as the title suggests, calls for just one person to be interviewed and luckily Act didn’t have to choose which twin to interview – the decision was taken out of her hands.
“Jessica was in quarantine when we were doing the interview,” Act said.
“And Jess is also the more public sister who tends to do more of the talking, so it was really beautiful talking to Lisa, and she was really grateful and really thankful that she has Jess to do the talking and be public. You could see how much she loved and cared for her sister and recognised the different skills that they brought to their relationship.”
Act watched previous episodes of One Plus One hosted by Stan Grant and
Kurt Fearnley to help prepare her for the role and then became immersed in her own research. But she also realised there were other skills she needed to employ for her new role as interviewer.
“I read all about my guests, listened to podcasts, watched interviews, and I just
love having conversations and talking to people and I worked out the bullet points of what I wanted to cover and what I wanted to talk about, but really you ask the first question and then you just follow the journey that it goes on,” Act said.
“On One Plus One there’s going to be a lot of stories the guests have told before in other interviews but I realised, as the interviewer, that it was just my job to go with it. There were obviously certain things and angles I wanted to ask about, but really just from that opening question onwards it was just about me
following the story that they were laying down.”
And while Act wasn’t the one in the hot seat, she was given the chance to be a bit more forthcoming in her role as interviewer, considering her extensive life experiences.
“One of the angles of this is that I’m not a journalist and I can interject my own personal experience,” she said.
“So there certainly were times when it was encouraged that I bring in some of my own experiences but obviously I was aware that it was about the person I was talking to and not me – but the interviewee was also encouraged that if they wanted to, they could ask questions about me and my experience as well.”
Courtney Act: Lisa and I grew up together so that was interesting… I was talking to my friend but asking her questions a friend wouldn’t ask.
■ Courtney Act’s One Plus One, Monday, 8pm, ABC TV and ABC iview