She seems like some kind of superwoman. Marta Dusseldorp is the star of two hit Australian dramas, and also mother to two girls, Grace and Maggie.
But there are times when it all gets a bit much, even for her.
Like when she recently finished filming the latest season of Janet King, then had just three days off before starting work on A Place To Call Home.
“I have to say I was pretty tired,” the 44-year-old admits. “Janet really takes it out of me, for obvious reasons.”
Luckily, the cast and crew of APTCH were “very thoughtful”, and gave her as much time as possible to recover.
“They are my family,” she says fondly. “Season five. It’s ridiculous! We’re so close. Everyone was very gentle.”
It’s no wonder filming the latest season of Janet King left Marta exhausted. The setting is the world of professional sport, which was completely new to her.
“It’s not really a world I know, or am necessarily attracted to,” the actress explains.
But Marta did her research and started reading news stories about promising young players who’d gone off the rails. She found she did care – a lot.
“Why is that happening? And what is our responsibility to help those kids?” she asks. “I got really involved in it and became very passionate about their rights.”
When it came to Janet’s home life, Marta didn’t need to do any research. She admits she could see a little of herself in the way Janet behaves as a mother this season.
Janet discovers her twins have a talent for athletics. She decides to get coaching for them, believing it will turn them into champions. Marta understands that way of thinking.
“My daughters are 10 and seven, and the 10-year-old loves reading,” she says. “I read this article about a young girl who wrote her first novel at 15. She’s now 27 and has written a couple of books. I was like, ‘Grace, do you think you want to start writing a novel?’
“I realise I was doing that thing: ‘This could be it! This could be what you do! You’re a famous novelist!’”
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