Heart of the matter

Binge’s new family drama Love Me isn’t afraid to bare its soul to audiences, writes Siobhan Duck

IT’S a love story for the ages. Based on popular Swedish series Älska Mig, Binge’s new six-part Australian TV show Love Me is a modern, interwoven drama about three members of one family at very different stages of life navigating romantic relationships. It’s also a love letter to Melbourne – and let’s face it, the Australian city (which holds the unenviable world record for the most Covid-prompted lockdowns) could certainly do with a little love after the past two years.

Love Me was filmed just as Melburnians were once again sent back inside their homes, which proved to be both a blessing and a curse for its cast and crew.

For veteran actor Hugo Weaving, who plays the family patriarch Glen and spent a large part of his transient childhood in the Victorian seaside suburb of Brighton, it was disappointing that the pandemic prevented him from catching up with friends and enjoying his old stomping ground. But in a happy twist of fate, the new series saw Weaving working with his friend Heather Mitchell. The pair met at NIDA in 1979, and across four decades since, have worked together on stage and screen.

“We became a couple on screen and on stage quite regularly,” Weaving says with a laugh. “I went to her wedding. And she played my mother in flashbacks in the [1991] movie Proof, funnily enough, so we’ve known each other for years and are very good friends.”

Mitchell, who plays Weaving’s love interest in Love Me, says she jumped at the opportunity to work with her old friend. “I received an email with an attachment to the [Swedish] series and couldn’t stop watching it,” she says. “There was no question I had to be part of this and I’d have done anything to be part of it. It’s about love, loss and the renewal of the human heart.”

Bojana Novakovic, who plays Glen’s complicated daughter Clara in the series, says that shooting during the pandemic inadvertently opened doors for filming opportunities that would have otherwise been impossible.

“The pandemic was a blessing and a curse,” she says.

“We got to shoot at Flinders Street Station, we got to shoot at the National Gallery of Victoria. This is stuff you don’t get permits for when it’s life as usual because it’s too busy and unsafe. So there was a blessing in that. Every shot is an artwork.”

William Lodder, who plays Glen’s son Aaron, agrees. “I love that for once we don’t just have to see something happen from only one character’s perspective,” he says.

Weaving thinks the universality of the story will resonate with everyone. “It’s a story about family, love and grief,” he says. “I’ve never played a character like Glen before. He’s such a timid man… It was a real joy to play someone who wasn’t superhuman; to just celebrate all the human frailties.”

Love Me

Streaming, Binge