FILM
Her own woman Tilda Cobham-Hervey has an unconventional upbringing and a storied background in circus performing to thank for her foray into film at just 16 years of age. Now she is taking on the role of feminist icon Helen Reddy in a new Australian biopi
an actor and had the opportunity to meet the individual you were set to portray, would you take it? It’s a question Tilda Cobham-Hervey was confronted with when she was cast to play Grammy-winning Australian musician Helen Reddy in I Am Woman, set to be one of the biggest Australian films of this year.
In an effort to tell Reddy’s story as genuinely as possible, CobhamHervey decided not to meet the famed musician until after she had finished filming. “We felt that it was best for me to meet her after the process so we could live authentically within the script and within the part of the story we were telling,” she says. “Then getting to meet her at the end was such a gift. She is my hero, so it was a huge moment.”
At the time of her casting, 25-year-old Cobham-Hervey, who is based in Los Angeles, was directing the award-winning short film she wrote about pre-teen girls called A Field Guide To Being A 12 Year Old Girl. “I read this script late at night and remember thinking that I’d just read half, then go to bed. [But] I was so obsessed with it,” she says. “[At the time] I was working with these beautiful girls and thinking it’s a story I would feel really proud to make for them. And I felt it would be great to represent women like that for the next generation.”
I Am Woman, which is directed by Unjoo Moon and also stars Danielle Macdonald, serves to showcase the impact Reddy’s music made on the women’s liberation movement. It takes its name from her 1971 hit, which became an anthem for secondwave feminism and is emblematic of the period. Five decades on, the powerful and poignant track, which Reddy returned to the stage to perform at the 2017 LA Women’s March, remains a rallying cry for female empowerment.
“She wrote I Am Woman because she didn’t feel like there was a song out there that represented her change in consciousness as a woman, or how she really felt as a woman,” explains Cobham-Hervey. “I think that’s a great message to put out – that it’s important for women to go out and tell their own stories and feel confident enough to be the hero of their own story. Helen was very much that … I felt a real pressure and responsibility to protect her and her story.”
As the daughter of a mother who was a dancer and a father who worked as a lighting designer, production manager and director, Cobham-Hervey grew up by the stage in Adelaide. When she was nine, her parents enrolled her in the local circus, which led to a star turn in a performing troupe. At 14, she and her friends choreographed an award-winning show called Freeform, which went on tour for six years. “It wasn’t the most conventional route to being an actress,” Cobham-Hervey says with a laugh, “but I loved it.”
IF YOU WERE
Cobham-Hervey made her debut in the 2013 coming-of-age feature 52 Tuesdays, which allowed her to quit the circus for good after it appeared at Sundance and garnered the attention of casting agents.
With a number of critically acclaimed projects now to her name, including the 2018 historical drama Hotel Mumbai and hit TV shows Barracuda and The Kettering Incident, Cobham-Hervey says she’s finally beginning to come to terms with the idea acting is a legitimate profession. “When you enter the country and they ask you what your job is, I’ve only recently been brave enough to write ‘actor’. I love order, I love to know what I’m doing the next day, and I’ve chosen to be in an industry where that’s impossible. It takes me outside of my comfort zone. [But] I’m still very interested in doing lots of different things,” she adds quickly. “I’ve just started writing a script, adapting a book, and I’ve been loving that. I think growing up the way I did and getting to learn about all sides of production has been so great … I think it’s so important to engage in learning every aspect of the job and the creative process.”
But even with all her experience, she admits taking on someone as revered as Helen Reddy for her first major lead role was a challenge. “I started by reading her book, and that was really helpful until a point where it wasn’t,” she explains. “There are amazing interviews online, so I did a lot of copying her physicality and every ‘um’ and ‘ah’. I worked with dialect and movement coaches and did hours of singing.”
Reddy, who retired from show business in 2002, before returning to the stage a decade later in 2012, saw the film with her family, and their reviews were positive. “That was the scariest moment, I think, for all of us. But as soon as they gave it their blessing, we were all so glad,” says Cobham-Hervey.
“I think it’s crazy that a film hasn’t been made about her already, and that we’re not telling stories of great women,” she says. “It did feel very personal by the end of it. I am a young woman who is an artist and has come over to America for more opportunities. I grew up in the circus and she grew up with a show-biz family, so we had a very similar beginning to our lives that I could really relate to.”
Cobham-Hervey hopes this cinematic telling of Helen’s story will unite both women and men, and spark conversation about gender equality. “When I first got the role I had to learn about Helen and all the women who came before us to give us the opportunities we have now,” she says. “They fought so many battles for things we all take for granted. I think a huge part of it is to celebrate the lives of these extraordinary women who paved the way for women everywhere.” I Am Woman is out later this year.
“I think it’s so important to engage in learning every aspect of the job”