Asher Keddie remembers exactly how she felt when she walked up on stage to accept the TV WEEK Gold Logie Award from the late Bert Newton in 2013.
“I was clearly overwhelmed, as you can see if you Google my speech,” Asher says. “I felt particularly shy at that time too. Part of me wanted to say, ‘Look at me and look at everything I’m doing!’ and part of me wanted to run away and hide, but I think that was my age at the time.
“Ten years on, I’m in a very different place, professionally and personally.
Now, with some distance on it and some perspective, I look back and think, ‘Wow, how wonderful that was to be recognised in that way.’ I would have liked to have been able to embrace it and swim in the joy of it a little more than I felt I could at that time.”
In just a couple of weeks, Asher could find herself swimming in the joy of a second Gold Logie. She’s received a nomination for playing publisher Evelyn Jones in Strife, the series inspired by journalist Mia Freedman’s memoir Work, Strife, Balance. It’s the first time the actress has been nominated for Gold since her seven-season run as obstetrician Dr Nina Proudman on Offspring, and she admits it was “surprising”.
“It’s such a wonderful thing, being nominated for Gold,” she says. “It confirms that you’re actually doing what you want to do on television, and that’s to connect with the audience. I feel thrilled that I’m connecting with the new shows that I’ve been working on in the past couple of years.”
Back in 2013, Asher walked the red carpet with her future husband, artist Vincent Fantauzzo. Their son Valentino, who wasn’t born back then, is now nine and old enough to know that his mum’s Gold Logie nomination is a big deal.
“My little one was excited for me,” Asher says. “He was like, ‘Oh, Mum, you’re nominated for the gold one!’ I was like, ‘I know, how cool is that? and he goes, ‘Yeah, that’s really cool!’”
Asher says neither Valentino nor Luca, Vincent’s son from a previous relationship, have ever watched any of her television shows.
“They haven’t asked and, until they do, I don’t think I’ll encourage it,” she says.
The couple don’t talk about work much at home, but Luca and Valentino do understand that their parents have a public profile.
“They’re just reaching that age where they’re slightly more aware of it because their friends mention it,” Asher explains. “But really, I don’t think he [Valentino] cares that much. He just cares that I’m going to get him to soccer on time!”
Asher, who turned 50 on July 31, was around the same age Valentino is now when she appeared in her first television series, Five Mile Creek, alongside Nicole Kidman and Michael Caton.
“When I was young, I always wanted to be an actor. I can’t recall when I didn’t. I was obsessed with cinema and anything on TV that was drama.”
Asher’s acting career began when she was in a ballet class and was asked to appear in a commercial for dancewear. From there, an agent spotted her talent, and the roles started coming.
“It was an amazing childhood, really,” she says. “It was lots of fun.”
While landmark drama Love My Way made Asher a household name, it was Offspring that turned her into the golden girl of Australian TV. But she wasn’t worried that after seven seasons people would always see her as Nina.
“I just saw it as a challenge to diversify and invest in projects that were really different, and I did that over the past six years and it’s been great,” she explains. “And I just love that people still love it [Offspring]. People talk to me about it daily on the street or wherever I might be.”
For Asher, Strife was the first series she’d produced as well as starred in. She’s currently working on the second season. Asher says she identifies with Evelyn, just as she identified with Nina when she played her.
“I identified with Nina in my thirties, and now I very much identify with the different challenges Evelyn has. But there’s also quite a lot of Evelyn that I don’t understand, and I really like playing her for that reason.”
This is an exciting time for Asher, with Fake, her new drama with David Wenham, getting people talking, and Plum – the “very poignant” series that reunites her with her former Love My Way co-star Brendan Cowell – headed for our screens soon. Fitting in around that are the extended celebrations for her 50th birthday.
“I decided a few months ago, feeling the pressure to plan a big celebration, that what I’d actually like to do this year is travel with my friends and my family, so that’s what I’m going to do,” she says. “We’ve had a few trips already and I’m going to do more later in the year.”
And then there are the TV WEEK Logie Awards on August 18, where Asher will again walk the red carpet with Vincent.
“Vincent’s great on the red carpet,” she says. “He’s better than I am! He’s very sociable and enjoys it because he loves me. He likes to celebrate me just as I do him, so he always has a great time.”
Whether she wins the Gold or not, Asher is embracing the nomination in a way she couldn’t last time around.
“I think it comes down to age and experience, and feeling really comfortable in my own skin, doing what I’m doing.”
The 64th TV WEEK Logie Awards airs Sunday, August 18 on Channel Seven
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