Louise Wallace and the legacy of Real Housewives
L
ouise Wallace has tears in her eyes – and she’s not acting. The Real Housewives Of
Auckland star has just finished filming an emotionally fraught scene as a bereaved mother for this week’s Brokenwood
Mysteries, but in reality it is long-time family pet Mickey she is mourning.
“He was in at the vet for grooming and they found him dead in his basket this morning. He was 14 and had had a great life,” she says, adding holding back the tears was hard. “It was the wrong day. I needed to cry yesterday.”
Putting her sadness to one
side, Wallace admits she’s relishing the resurgence of her television career since taking part in the controversial reality show.
“It’s done everything for me that I wanted it to do,” she says, admitting she fought hard to ensure she came out of the show with her dignity intact.
“It wasn’t easy but at the end of the day, you’ve got to take responsibility for what comes out of your mouth as it’s very difficult to say afterwards, ‘I didn’t mean to say that’ or ‘I didn’t mean it like that’.”
“Quite frankly, if I’d come out like a couple of the others, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now. I’d be ostracised. Actually, I’d go and live in Australia or Siberia. I’d just be horrified.”
Instead, she’s spent the morning doing what she set out to do more than 30 years ago – acting. After attending drama school in London, Wallace turned to journalism here and in Australia, winning awards for her work and hosting the respected 60 Minutes. She dipped in and out of acting (most notably Street Legal, Shortland
Street and Agent Anna), set up a theatre company and worked as a field director on a number of reality shows.
However, her love of acting has never waned and she doesn’t really mind what the role is. “God, I’d be perfect for Filthy
Rich. There’s roles meant for me in that,” she says.
“I do get typecast a little, but normally it’s as a pill-popping, drunken cougar. The only thing that’s missing from this role
(Brokenwood Mysteries) is that I’m not a cougar but I am a pillpopping drunkard and I am affluent.
“You do what you’re good at. Casting directors probably aren’t going to cast me as a homeless person. Or even let me read as a homeless person – although I’d be happy to.”
Wallace hopes to work for several more decades in television which is, she admits, not an easy field for older women.
“I probably couldn’t do the jobs I used to do on TV. You don’t see many women on TV doing journalism or presenting over the age of 50, not in this country anyway, but I don’t want to do that job anyway,” she says.
“I really enjoy some of the roles I’ve done on The AM Show or The
Project. I like social commentary. I like talking about politics and social issues. I like ad-libbing. I like just being me on screen.
“I don’t care really what anybody thinks of me or my career. All I care about is that I’m contributing something, that I’m still driven, that I’m still enjoying myself, and that I’m still ticking boxes. That’s what drives me.”