SHEER WILL
Robbie Magasiva wants to quit. Sorry, his alter ego, Deputy Governor Will Jackson does – he wants out in the opening episode of Season 7 of Wentworth. What’s happening to Will? “After the trauma of Season 6, with the Freak (Ferguson) being dead, I think, like anyone, he just wants to get away from where that trauma is,” Magasiva, 46, says. The actor, who hails from New Zealand and has been on the show since Season 1, says putting on Will’s costume helps him morph into character. “It’s weird, because when the makeup ladies see me in my uniform they say, ‘Your persona is so much different once you put that uniform on to what you are in real life.’”
Usually the life of the party, Magasiva is the one who is known to organise family get-togethers for cast and crew. He remembers a prank he pulled during a scene between Kate Jenkinson and Martin Sacks. He asked wardrobe for a teal tracksuit and a wig and then proceeded to walk into shot as if he was an extra. “I remember Jenko saying, ‘Who the hell was that?’”
Magasiva is close to his family – he has a partner, actress Natalie Medlock, and two children, Austin and Sophie, from a previous marriage. His brother Pua – also an actor – recently died suddenly, devastating the family. Magasiva will return to Melbourne later in the year to start shooting what will likely be the final episodes of Wentworth.
“I think by the end of that some of us will be ready to move onto other things, but I know I’ll leave here thinking, ‘I’ve made some great mates and I got to do some of the best work I’ve ever done in my career.’”