Just two weeks before Denise Scott was due to fly to Sydney to start filming Mother And Son opposite Matt Okine, she found out she had cancer. Matt says it was “devastating” to hear about Denise’s diagnosis. But from the beginning, he felt she was going to be okay.
“I had a reckless faith in Denise’s ability to get through it, mainly because my real mum died of cancer,” he tells TV WEEK.
“So I felt like it would be pretty rude of the higher beings if my TV mum were to die of cancer too.”
Matt, 38, had been wanting Denise to play his mother in a reboot of the classic Aussie sitcom ever since he went on a stand-up comedy tour of Singapore and Hong Kong with her back in 2013.
“There was something that was really genuinely cool about her and I thought, ‘Oh, I wish that there was a show on TV where someone like me and Denise could work together,'” he remembers.
It was then that the idea of remaking Mother And Son, with him and Denise in the lead roles, hit him.
“I realised that that’s what my family would look like if my mum hadn’t died when I was 12 and I just thought, ‘That would be amazing.'”
(Image: Supplied) (Credit: (Image: Supplied))As for Denise, 69, she’d been equally impressed with Matt when they’d gone on tour together.
“He’s a lovely guy and a fun guy and oh, it sounds old-lady pervy, but a handsome guy,” she tells TV WEEK. “And so we got on well.”
But she never believed that Matt’s idea for rebooting Mother And Son would win the approval of the sitcom’s creator, Geoffrey Atherden.
“I must admit I rolled my eyes and thought, ‘Good luck with that!'”
Years later, when the show got the go-ahead, she was thrilled – but also “terrified” that she’d be taking on the role made famous by the acclaimed Ruth Cracknell.
“I’ve barely acted, as such,” she explains.
“So it was a scary thought. At the same time I really, really loved the character of Maggie.”
(Image: Supplied) (Credit: (Image: Supplied))When Denise found out she had cancer, she “just couldn’t bear” the idea of calling a halt to the show and focusing solely on her chemotherapy treatment.
“Part of it was like, people would be out of work,” she explains. “But also, I really wanted to do it. I just thought, ‘Well, I’m going to do both.'”
She made plans to have chemo in Melbourne, where she lives with partner John Lane, and also in Sydney, where she’d be shooting Mother And Son.
“The oncologist’s face would be screaming at me, ‘Don’t do this! You can’t!’ but they’d be nodding their head going, ‘Oh sure, give it a try. You never know.’ Anyway, I did it.”
The fatigue and nausea that came with the chemo were “phenomenal”.
“But I found that when I actually played Maggie, when the cameras were rolling, I was transported to a fun place. I felt well for those minutes of filming.”
Matt says Denise was “honestly amazing”, shooting scenes where she was dancing, pretending to be dead and smoking.
“She’s like, ‘You know, I’ve got cancer and you’re making me smoke!'” he remembers. “Just so much stuff. But she persevered and she was incredible.”
Denise says it’s not her naked bottom on view in the first episode. “A professional bottom double was brought in.”
(Image: Supplied) (Credit: (Image: Supplied))Denise, mum to musician Jordie and artist Bonnie, has done plenty of TV over the years, from Spicks And Specks to Studio 10 to Travel Guides.
As far as acting goes, her previous biggest role was as Jenny’s (Melissa Bergland) mum Trish in Winners & Losers.
Virginia Gay, who starred in Winners & Losers as Frances, is now playing Denise’s on-screen daughter-in-law in Mother And Son.
“She said to me, ‘Scotty, you stood at a kitchen bench and chopped vegetables for however many years I was in Winners & Losers. I’m repaying you. This is my chopping vegetables.'”
As for Matt, he’s best known for starring as AJ in The Other Guy, a series he wrote based loosely on his own life.
Out of his many TV appearances, there’s just one that has impressed his four-year-old daughter Sofia, his first child with partner Belinda Rabe. It involved him sitting on a couch next to Humpty.
(Image: Supplied) (Credit: (Image: Supplied))“The daycare teacher decided to put on the episode of Play School Story Time where I read a book and Sofia was so excited when she came home,” Matt says.
“At the same time, she doesn’t care much for what I do. If I try to tell her a joke she’ll just be like, ‘Not funny,’ or if I try to sing a song – I’ve got an ARIA-nominated kids’ group, Diver City – she just tells me, ‘Stop!’ “They’re very grounding, kids, aren’t they?”
Matt’s expecting to face more criticism – this time, from viewers – when Mother And Son premieres. He knows there’ll be people unhappy that he’s remade a classic comedy. “One of the things I’ve learnt over the years is that having haters is a good sign,” he says.
“It just means that people are having to be confronted with something, so that they have to rejig their way of thinking. It often takes time for people to realise that change can be a good thing.”
Denise is also “bracing” for criticism. But she loves the reboot, and says it was “pretty darn sweet” to be offered the job at this point in her career. “Really, I can’t express how strongly I appreciate the role. Maybe that’s why I so ferociously hung onto it. I felt like it was an absolute dream come true.”
