With Brig and Lehmo (and Catherine in the studio as well):
Brig: Our next guest has won a Logie, an AFI and an ASTRA. She's been an absolute stalwart in the Australian industry of drama, and we're very happy to have her here today. She's starring in the third series of Tangle, would you please welcome Catherine McClements!
Lehmo: Ohh, Catherine!
Catherine: Good morning!
Brig: Now Catherine, I'm mad for Tangle, I've been watching the first two seasons, and I'm just hooking into the third. Tell us about, because your character, Christine, is a hilarious uptight psychiatrist, tell us about Tangle and the premise of the whole thing.
Catherine: Well it's about families and their children. It's about 15 year old kids and the moral dilemmas that they go through, and the parents of those children and the moral dilemmas they go through, and how they react with each other. You know, it's upper middle class families, with their own woes and worries.
Brig: Quite a few woes and worries as it turns out.
[Catherine laughs]
Lehmo: Do you find it reflective of your life?
Brig: I must admit I watch it and think, God, a lot of this that goes on, you can really see it happen in your own backyard.
Lehmo: Are there lessons for people with kids around that age?
Catherine: Well, I don't think you can give everyone lessons like that, but it does expose the world. It's a lot of pretty extraordinary things that are happening to kids that age now, and I think that it's starting to reveal and sort of explore those things.
Lehmo: What are your thoughts generally on the Gen Y generation, because I know that, if I can just pull out a Cold Chisel reference, because I love one when I can. [Catherine laughs] On the new album, No Plans, Jimmy Barnes sings a song about how Gen Y's theses days they don't care about the art, they don't care about music, they don't care about acting. All they wanna do is get famous.
Catherine: I'm not an expert on that generation, my kids are much younger and stuff. But we always sort of think about, in our generation it was so much better. But there does seem to be a sort of a lack of 'what is the meaning', 'what is the meaning of where I'm going', 'I've got all this technology, I've got games'... but, how do I find 'what's the purpose'.
Brig: Do you think the secret of long jeopardy, which you have had in this industry, is probably because you're a proper dramatic actor? You studied acting, you're not just some reality star.
Catherine: Uh huh. Those reality stars can have quite long careers. I don't really know. I think, I've been theatre trained... sometimes that doesn't work. But sometimes when you do theatre, you get a rehearsal period of about six or seven weeks and you can explore a few things, and start to stretch your talents.
Lehmo: You studied with Baz Luhrmann, didn't you?
Catherine: Yeah, yeah. He was in my year.
Lehmo: That's exciting!
[Catherine laughs]
Lehmo: Did you have a sense at the time that Baz Luhrmann would go on to become an international Hollywood megastar?
Catherine: Yeah. He was a pretty extraordinary character, he was.
Brig: Moulin Rouged him, at the time?
Catherine: Yeah, it's interesting because a lot of the stuff he was interested in at the time at drama school, he has gone on to sort of explore and create. Things like the Romeo and Juliet that he was very keen on and the La Boheme(?) stuff, yeah.
Brig: I'd like to go to school with someone as famous as Baz Lurhmann! Well, all I can say is if you love drama, Tangle is the place to be. And Catherine's character Christine... gee, she's having a bit of a rough trot!
[laughs]
Brig: Catherine McClements, thank you for joining us!
Catherine: Thank you!