THERESA HEALEY

‘The church was my first theatre, then the theatre became my church.’

Theresa Healey, star of stage and screen, is soon to appear in Head High, a six-part drama series about the hopes and dreams of high school rugby players in New Zealand, premiering on Three, Sunday, June 28 at 8.30pm.

Dad could’ve been a professional tennis player but he put family first and got a job with the Farmers’ Trading Company. He started as a watchmaker and eventually became CEO. Mum had trained with the Royal Ballet in London, so it was a beautiful marriage of business and art.

Mum ran a dance school above McDonald’s on Queen St, and my sister and I both danced, but I hated it, partly because it was so rigid, and also because my sister was way better than me. She’s a very successful choreographer now, but I was never going to be a dancer – at 13, I was five foot eight and 10 stone with knock knees and all the others were tiny — so I became an actor instead.

Lots of Catholics become actors. I think it’s because we’re introduced to the concept of spirituality from an early age. Mass is a performance, it’s all rituals, mystery and symbolism. The transubstantiation, wine becomes blood, bread the body. The church was my first theatre, then the theatre became my church.

In the summer holidays, Mum sent us off to this wonderful drama and dance camp in Napier and the teachers there suggested I move to Wellington to study drama at Victoria. So I did. I took the overnight train and arrived in Wellington early one morning. I had my big red bag and no idea where I would stay. I didn’t know anybody and my parents had never heard of halls of residence. Because Mum had gone to London at 16 by herself, she just expected us to be like her. But it made me very resourceful.

Wellington was so different to Auckland. There was so much political stuff going on. My flatmates read Socialist Action at breakfast, we protested about the tour, the Homosexual Law Reform Bill and better wages.

Wellington was also very feminist, especially in the acting scene, where there were all these amazing activist women. I’d lived such a sheltered life so this was an awakening as to how

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