In real life, Aussie actress Kat Stewart is a down-to-earth mum-of-two, humble, curious and self-aware. Julie Cosgrove, the character she plays in season two of Black Snow, couldn’t be more dissimilar.
“Part of the fun of being an actor is walking around in someone else’s shoes,” Kat, 52, tells TV WEEK. “Julie was different to me. She thinks she’s the most important person in the room at all times. That’s not how I carry myself.”
“Julie doesn’t suffer from imposter syndrome, which we women are most guilty of – we’ve got to stop!”
The six-part second season of Black Snow reinvestigates the cold case of a missing young woman – Zoe Jacobs (Jana McKinnon) – who “ran away” from her own 21st birthday party in the picturesque town of Moorevale in Queensland in 2003.
Zoe left behind a note telling her parents she needed time to follow her own path, but was never seen again. While her mother believes she’s built a new life for herself somewhere far away, her father thinks his daughter has met a more sinister fate.
Julie is the mother of Zoe’s ex-boyfriend and is a senator involved in shady deals that took place at the time Zoe went missing. When the detective heading the case – James Cormack, played by Vikings and Boy Swallows Universe star Travis Fimmel – tries to expose her, she needs to silence him.
Despite her co-star’s impressive résumé, Kat wasn’t intimidated.
“Someone else asked, ‘Were you daunted [working alongside Travis]?’” she recalls. “If I’d thought about it, probably. But luckily, I didn’t [find it daunting] – actually, I found it really useful. I thought the first series was brilliantly executed, and the performances were amazing, so it was great to have that as a reference to know something about the production values.”
Kat has had an inspiring career herself, starring in hit series such as Underbelly, Offspring and Five Bedrooms, a surprise to her considering the “huge unemployment rate” for actors in Australia.
“There are never enough roles at any age,” she says. “I’ve been very fortunate. Things are much better than they were in terms of seeing characters beyond the age of 30. It used to be that you fell off a cliff.”
Something that did affect her career was having her children – Archie, 12, and eight-year-old Georgia – which she was inspired to do after a storyline in Offspring made her realise, at age 38, that her biological clock was ticking.
“I’m so grateful for Offspring for reminding me that I didn’t have forever, because I was distracted,” she says. “My kids are my two favourite people, but it does affect your career. I probably would have worked more interstate, done more theatre.
“I’m reluctant to espouse all the wonderful things about motherhood – because it’s not for everyone and it’s not possible for everyone – but I’m very grateful for my two kids, because they’re really cool.”
Kat fell in love with theatre when she was about eight and now performs in plays alongside husband and fellow actor David Whiteley.
“We’re going to the Sydney Theatre Company next year with Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf,” Kat reveals. “We play George and Martha, a couple ripping each other to shreds. It’s a really vicious play. We love working together.”
Kat doesn’t regard herself as a Method actor, although there are small things she picks up after she’s developed a relationship with a character.
“One thing I’ve noticed over the years is my wardrobe often gets influenced by the character for a while,” she says. “And Roberta Williams [the wife of underworld figure Carl Williams, who she played in Underbelly) comes out in bad traffic.”
Roberta earned Kat a TV WEEK Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress in 2009 – an achievement her late mother, Kitty, who died of cancer in 2015, was incredibly proud of.
“She’d watch anything I did – even if it was through her hands when I was doing Underbelly,” Kat recalls with a laugh. “It felt like the sky was falling when she died, but I’m a glass-half-full kind of person and count myself lucky I had such a great mum, who was at every opening night.”
“She’d love Black Snow; she loved a mystery drama.”
Black Snow S1-2 available on Stan
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