Screen star on her second act as a director and farmer
British-born, Australianbased Rachel Ward talks about her new documentary and the problems facing women in the acting industry. By
In the 1980s, Rachel Ward starred opposite Richard Chamberlain in The Thorn Birds, a US mini-series about the forbidden romance between a woman and a Catholic priest. Romance blossomed in real life, too, with British-born Ward meeting her future husband, Australian actor Bryan Brown, while filming the series.
The pair have three children, and while Brown, 76, is still accepting acting roles, Ward, 66, has turned much of her focus to the cattle farm they own in Australia’s Nambucca Valley, in New South Wales.
The property is the subject of
Rachel’s Farm, a documentary in which Ward explores a passion for regenerative farming.
“I’ve had the farm for 35 years,” she says. “It was very much a lifestyle place. We always had cattle and we had managers. It’s quite a big farm for the area, but it’s not a big farm. It’s 440 hectares, so it’s quite a small farm in Australian terms.
“But I really didn’t pay attention until we had fires,” she says referring to the Australian bush fires of 2019-20.
“We [Ward and Brown’s property] were surrounded by fire and we narrowly escaped. My neighbour, who is about 100 metres away, her house was burnt.
“It shocked me into attention really.” Arguably, farming used to be a male-dominated industry, but times are changing. As shown in the documentary, Ward doesn’t mind mucking in and tackling some of the outdoor tasks.
“This is what I love about regenerative farming,” she says.
“It’s a much lighter way to farm. It doesn’t rely so much on brute strength
and lugging great chemical barrels around.”
Ward talks about the value that women can bring to farming.
“Traditionally they’ve fed the poddy-calves [bottle-fed calves] and they’ve done the books,” she says.
“But it seems like the men have had all the fun being out there, being with the animals and being on the land, and that was certainly the bit I wanted.
“Bryan can do the books and the poddy-calves. I’ll get on the tractors or move the cattle or work with the cattle in the yard. In fact, I’ve got a new manager and she’s a woman.”
When asked how farming compares with acting, Ward says, “Well, I haven’t acted for a long time. I’ve been a film director for the past 20-25 years.”
In the 80s, Ward, a former model, acted in Hollywood films such as Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and Against All Odds. But it was her role as Meggie in The Thorn Birds, an adaptation of a Colleen McCullough novel, which had the biggest impact on her acting career.
“Obviously, it was extremely popular and had enormous exposure,” says Ward. “So it gave me some longevity in an industry that’s notoriously fickle and difficult to get a foot in.
“I made some really good money very early on in my career. But it’s got a very short shelf life for women.
“I mean, women are basically still, the majority of us, we’re eye candy, we’re male-fantasy stuff. And yes, roles for women have improved, especially on television.
“But when I was in the industry in the 80s and early 90s, you were just eye candy. There was nothing interesting in a role to play really. That has changed a bit. But there is still about five-to-one jobs for men to women.
“You know, Bryan works all the time, and all his actor friends are still working as older men. There are a handful of older women who are working like that.
“It was always going to be a very short shelf life, which is why I got into directing and got behind the camera by the time I was 40.
“So from 40 to my 60s, I’ve been directing. And really this [Rachel’s Farm] is my first documentary and I really got into it because, of course, I went, ‘I have three ways that I can contribute to our climate crisis. One, I can be really conscious about the food I eat. Number two, I’m a film-maker, so I can film an idealised way of farming, and, three, I can become a farmer who prioritises the land’.”