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Lisa McCune had plans for her 50th birthday. For years, she’d been thinking of doing something special, involving her sons Archer and Oliver and her daughter Remy.
“I always planned that I’d want to do a little bit of a great trip with my kids and go and see some theatre overseas,” she tells TV WEEK.
When her 50th birthday came along in February this year, Lisa was in Australia, filming the latest season of How To Stay Married. But that didn’t bother her. In fact, she says she was “really thankful” to be working that day.
COVID may have taken away Lisa’s chance to go on an overseas holiday, but it’s left her with something: a new determination when it comes to her career.
“I don’t know what it was this year – I think it was lockdown that did that – but I just went, ‘Right, there is no wasting time now. What do I want and how do I go about getting that?'” she explains.
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“As you’re climbing the ranks, there’s a certain humility that I think’s really important to have, but I haven’t got time for that now. It’s like, ‘Go!'”
Lisa in must-watch comedy, How To Stay Married.
(Channel Ten)Lisa didn’t have to spend too long climbing the ranks. She was just 22 when she was cast as Constable Maggie Doyle on Blue Heelers, the role that won her four TV WEEK Gold Logies.
She still gets stopped in the street by people, most often in their forties, who tell her how much they loved the show.
“I like that,” she says. “I guess I’m far enough away from it now that I’m almost not apologising for its success anymore. I embrace it more now than I did then.
“I never wanted to look as though I was up myself or anything like that, because really, there’s so many people involved in making a TV show, but I am so proud and delighted that it gave a lot of people joy. A girl yesterday said to me, ‘My mum passed away during that time and it helped me.’
“God, that made me feel warm.”
Lisa and Maggie are one-in-the-same when it comes to fans.
(Supplied)Right now, Lisa is in “a really good place”. She’s in great health and doing what she loves. And, after having been married to Tim Disney, and having had a relationship with New Zealand singer Teddy Tahu Rhodes, she’s very happily single.
“I love my time,” she says. “I pity the poor person that I may end up dating next, because I think, oh my God, they’re going to have to deal with me going, ‘No, I want to do this, and I want to do that.'”
This year, Lisa’s oldest child Archer will be turning 20, Oliver will be 18 and Remy will be 16. She says she enjoys them being old enough to be left alone, so she can catch up with friends. But at the same time, there’s a sense of loss.
“I miss my babies because they adore you when they’re young. Now I’m a little bit more of, I guess, an annoyance at times. But I think they’re really remarkable young people and I just adore them.”
Two of Lisa’s children could end up following in her footsteps. Ollie, “a pretty clever kid”, is showing an interest in film and TV production. Remy, meanwhile, has inherited her mother’s love of music.
“I think that she’s actually quite a remarkable self-taught musician,” Lisa adds. “But look, if she wants it, she’ll find it. You’ve got to really want it.”
Lisa’s kids got the creative gene.
(Supplied)She says she might get them a day or two of work experience, but the rest is up to them.
“I always say to them, ‘Start at the bottom.’ You always want to do the nuts and bolts of this industry so you know how it works.”
During lockdown, Lisa was “pleasantly surprised” at how well her kids coped. As for her, she made an effort to stay fit and healthy.
“I didn’t drink a lot during lockdown. I made a really conscious decision that it would not be great to turn it into, ‘Let’s try every different kind of wine down at the bottle shop.’ I painted my house. So I really kept fit doing that and doing lots of gardening and stuff like that.
“I just made the most of it – downloaded MasterClass. I guess it was the year that I maybe had craved to do things for myself, and I did. Selfishly.”
The actress is happy with how her life is at 50.
(Tina Smigielski)At the end of lockdown, Lisa started shooting the new season of How To Stay Married, with Pete Helliar as her on-screen husband. She loves that the show doesn’t take itself too seriously.
“None of us need to do in-depth chatting about storylines and what we had to go through as performers to do the research or whatever,” she says. “It’s actually really lovely to work on something where you just go, ‘We’re in there having a great time.'”
Looking ahead, Lisa would love to do more comedy, “maybe some darker comedy, with a bit more of an adult skew”.
“And I’d love to go back to doing some heavier drama, because I do love that as well,” she adds. “I’m just going to be really greedy, basically, and do as much as I can and throw myself in the deep end.”
After three decades in the industry, Lisa isn’t afraid to say how she really feels.
“I am what I am, I’ve been gifted the gifts I have, I work hard, and that’s pretty much it and a bit really.”
