LEADING LADY RETURNS

Black comedy Class Of ‘07 is the project Caitlin Stasey has been waiting for, writes Siobhan Duck

DURING her time on Neighbours from 2005 to 2009, Caitlin Stasey became a teen sensation playing Rachel Kinski, a student seemingly caught in a constant loop of relationships. But when she left the series, the actor unfolded a bolder narrative of her own, posting about feminism and sexual freedom on social media. Nude selfies weren’t off-limits, either; nor were explicit essays about sex on her pioneering website Herself.com.

Of course, media commentators were quick to lash out, considering her a brash provocateur. “It was particularly rough because the bulk of where I’m known is the UK and Australia, and the UK media is so savage, and toxic, and corrosive,” the 32-year-old reflects from her home in LA. “I felt really brave back then, very convicted, very sure. And what’s so funny is

I still completely believe in the things I said... Well, most of them – sometimes I’d go off the deep end a little.”

Stasey says she still finds it perplexing that people in the entertainment industry had no problem with her filming graphic sex scenes for her mid-2010s drama series Reign but baulked at her talking about her own sexual desires online. “It’s really interesting that dichotomy exists and how little sense it makes,” she says with a shrug.

So Stasey is making her solidarity with like-minded ladies absolutely clear: she has returned home to star in Australian black comedy Class Of ’07. Co-starring Emily Browning (The Affair) and Megan Smart (Home And Away), the eight-part series follows a group of alumnae left marooned by a flood during their 10-year high school reunion.

“The drawcard of ’07 wasn’t just that the people on camera were women but that the people behind the camera were, too,” Stasey says.

In themes and execution, Class Of ’07 is part of a wave of shows placing the social dynamics of women front and centre, like Yellowjackets, Bad Behaviour and 2018’s Picnic At Hanging Rock.

“Things are becoming more varied and diverse,” Stasey says of this rise in inclusive storytelling. “And it’s really exciting.”

Class Of ’07 is just the beginning of the Melbourne-born actor’s homecoming. Fresh from her role in the hit 2022 horror film Smile, she’s shooting thriller Devil Inside with another Aussie export, Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) in Tasmania. “There’s so much of Australia that I still want to see,” Stasey admits. “I’d also love to make my own stuff there, because there’s just such a wealth of talent [in Australia].”

CLASS OF ’07

STREAMING FROM FRIDAY, MARCH 17 ON PRIME VIDEO