SARA WISEMAN: ‘I’m fortunate to find someone who accepts me’
In her craft, the beloved Kiwi actress delivers raw and deeply honest performances, and now, Sara talks about challenging boundaries & loving big.
Do you ever feel as though your world is shrinking? Incrementally, it just sneaks up on you and before you know it, you’re living a safe, slightly narrow, even just a tiny bit blinkered existence? Do you ever feel the need to cut loose, branch out, challenge yourself and, as they say, “feel the fear and do it anyway”? Multi award-winning actress Sara Wiseman knows that feeling better than most.
The star of long-running television favourites like Mercy Peak and more recently dramas One Lane Bridge and The Gulf, currently screening on Three, Sara is a familiar face on Kiwi screens. She has also made a name for herself across the Ditch as a lead in the critically acclaimed Australian series
A Place to Call Home. With such success to her name, you would think her world was wide open and she had courage to burn.
But, like so many of us, Sara has felt, from time to time, the “shrinking of the balloon”, as she calls it. But here is the thing – she has the courage to do something about it. Her husband of 14 years, fellow Kiwi actor Craig Hall, reckons she’s a bit of an impulsive cowboy. “I’m always going, ‘Hey, let’s do this, let’s do that!’ He’s probably a lot more considered and practical,” she grins.
Her spur-of-the-moment decision a few years ago to walk Spain’s legendary 800-kilometre Camino de Santiago trail solo, a case in point.
“I needed to push myself into a new environment,” she explains. “I suddenly had seven or eight weeks with nothing on the horizon. It was the right time.” Just a week later, she left for Spain.
“It was overwhelming, just getting on the plane on my own [Craig was working], with my brand-new hiking boots, no time to break them in, no French, no Spanish and knowing I would have to be 100% responsible for my own actions.
“It was liberating. It taught me that I’m more capable of things than I thought. That I can step up for myself. It taught me about the value of simplicity and gratitude, and the joy of being in the moment.”
The love of being outdoors, in nature, stems from her childhood growing up on Auckland’s eastern beaches. An avid sailor, her dad Bruce built his own boat in the backyard and spent the summers sailing his young family around the Hauraki Gulf.
“I feel so fortunate looking back remembering all those endless days of sun and salt,” she enthuses.
Then there were winters skiing.
The family belonged to Ruapehu’s Rangatira Ski Club and Sara would go on to race there – Bruce and her mother Kay putting in the hours driving her backwards and forwards to the mountain for years.
“Dad is a provider, a hard-working DIY man with a bit of a soft caramel centre underneath,” Sara smiles. “He gives good, solid hugs. You really feel like you’ve been hugged, in the best possible way. Mum’s always been
“I am so fortunate to find someone who accepts all of me.”
about putting others first.”
Kay nursed at Middlemore’s accident and emergency department as Sara was growing up.
“They were both deeply loving and dedicated to us three kids. They were firm too – there was no swearing allowed, otherwise you had your mouth washed out with soap and water. Once was enough!”
Sara began as a focused student at Pakuranga College. And then, by her own admission, she realised that she was losing her way.
“I wanted to be part of the ‘in group’ and found myself trying to change who I was to fit into what seemed natural to them. It did my head in until I found myself drawn towards my fellow art students. Every lunchtime, we would paint and play music. It fely easy. It felt right.”
Sara became obsessed with dance early on – ballet from five and then modern dance. She tells, “I convinced my parents to drive me the 40-odd kilometres from Howick to Ponsonby to classes at Limbs studio twice a week. They’d have to sit in the car and wait, then drive me home.”
But the joy went out of it once there was pressure to achieve, so she gave it away. It was while she was still at school that she first felt the thrill of television.
On a work experience day, she went to visit the TVNZ studios. Ray Columbus was there, shooting a music show, and she was entranced. “I was mesmerised by the cameras, the environment and the performers.”
But a life on screen would have to wait because Sara went straight from school to university “because I thought that’s what you did”.
She would be the first in her family to attend uni, but her architecture degree was shortlived. It gave way to a one-year course in Recreation Management, then the classic Kiwi
OE. Returning to New Zealand for her sister’s wedding, Sara found herself consulting with a clairvoyant.
“I see you in film and television,” the medium told her, confirming what Sara already knew in her heart.
She enrolled in Christchurch’s film and television school, and would go on to study at Auckland’s Unitec School of Performing Arts, working as a stuntwoman to pay her way.
You could say that fate led her that way. Is she a spiritual person?
“Well, I was christened and went to Sunday school, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve had my own exploration of faith through counselling and emotional work,” she says. “The desire to know and understand how I work from a deeper level.”
I wondered why this effervescent, confident, celebrated actress would need to work on herself.
“Acting is a tough choice, especially when you’re trying to start a career, when you know deep within yourself that you’re not good at this.”
This sense of not being up to the task came from her school days. Sara would always audition for the lead roles – Cinderella,
Snow White and later Sandy or Rizzo in Grease – but she was always passed over and given a mute role or something minor that passed in the blink of an eye. I’m reminded of how much power schools have over our self-esteem.
It was hard on the young, aspiring actress. “I became an emotional eater,” she shares. “Eventually, I found a spiritualist who walked the talk. We developed a close relationship and it helped enormously.”
Of course, actors have to brace themselves for a lifetime of rejections. It may have nothing to do with their acting smarts – they may be too tall, too short, too white, too brown, too pretty, not pretty enough... You need to be comfortable in your skin and have a healthy dose of self-esteem.
“Acting is often seen as a ‘luxury job’ – we’re not saving lives. It’s often disregarded and held in contempt. I challenge people who think like that to reapply for their jobs every two weeks and see how it feels, knowing that if you get this job, it will allow you to pay the rent for the next four month,” she admonishes.
“Actors are vulnerable – we’re presenting versions of ourselves. At auditions, we’re going up against all our mates, knowing that our lives could be changed forever if they get the part.”
Sara knows better than most how tough the audition process can be.
“Coming out of Mercy Peak [it ran for 60 episodes], I didn’t work for two years. People would say, ‘You’re the face of Mercy Peak.’ It was so frustrating they couldn’t see past that.”
Dealing with the lows is challenging and Sara tends to head back to the outdoors to regather. “Getting in the ocean – cold-water immersion
is great. Free-form dancing, screaming in the car and having an incredible network of friends all help.”
Coming to the end of a series, she tells, is like going through a grieving process. She’s just been through it again on A Place to Call Home. “There were a lot of tears in the final read-through. You grieve for people who have become like family. You get the post-wrap blues.”
Sara is committed to giving back to the art that has, for the most part, treated her so well.
She co-founded the Actors Program 10 years ago. It provides a one-year intensive practical performance experience and it came out of a feeling that no amount of theory was going to help an up-and-coming actor get an audition – practical help was needed.
“It’s the kind of place we Artistic Board members developed, somewhere that we would want to train in, and is drawn from knowledge and experiences from our various screen and theatre careers both here and in Australia,” explains Sara. “It’s a place where we strive for generosity, empathy, connectivity, courage, exceptional work ethic and professionalism. It’s not all about being a better actor – it’s about being a better human being. It is from humanity that actors draw.”
One of Sara’s best bits of advice came from Sophie Roberts, the director of the renowned Silo Theatre in Auckland. “Find your posse,” she told her.
“I know that girl who is trying to fit in still lives in me, but I want my own independent voice. I’m so fortunate with my posse.” Sara still counts her old schoolmates among her closest friends and supporters.
There is one special person, though, who anchors her.
“Craig is home base,” she tells me frankly. “When I was 38, Craig and I made a conscious choice not to have children. I think that speaks to our gypsy souls. For our world, it’s the right decision.
“But I do find it confronting when people have children and they say things like, ‘Now I know what love is.’ So... implying that other men or women without children don’t?” she says frustratedly. “I love big!”
It is with that in mind that she is thinking about her next challenge.
“Writing is an area I’m developing. How many roles are there for independent women with no kids? As I become more courageous and open, there are issues I want to tackle.”
It’s then she truly opens up.
“An issue I’m more proud of now is my bisexuality. I’m 48 now and its been with me since I was 20,” she reveals. “Craig is so embracing of that. I am so fortunate to find someone who accepts all of me.”
Now she has the courage to write about women who don’t sit in traditional roles and with online streaming services, there are more platforms to tell those stories than ever.
And facing the future with excitement, Sara has come to a precious realisation, stating proudly, “I’m not unique, therefore I fit in.”
“Craig and I made a conscious choice not to have children.”