Carried Away

With a successful career and a beautiful family, Rachelle Unreich, there’s a lot of grit behind the glamour Carrie Bickmore makes it look so easy. But, as she tells

- Rachelle Unreich

It turns out that Carrie Bickmore is not so easy to spot. When I try to find her at our meeting place – a photographic studio in Melbourne – I scan the crowd, trying to see who is taking up the most space; who lies at the epicentre of a fluttering entourage. I see the back of a blonde head in a hairdresser’s chair, but everyone is acting so calmly on the perimeter that I assume it can’t possibly be her. But that wide smile is the giveaway. She spies me and calls out, “Come over! Let’s just catch up first!”

We’ve met once before, and I have the same impression again. This girl is utterly, engagingly normal. I can see it when she does a half bunny-hop to her position in front of the camera, because her zippered dress gives her little leg room. I can see it when she gives her shoulders a few shakes, moving to the Rolling Stones song she’s requested (“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”). They’re not the moves of a coolgirl Rihanna type. They’re the moves of someone who could easily cross the threshold from good dancer to ’80s dork when the clock strikes 5am on the dance floor. (She admits she’s been there, done that, at most Logies parties she’s attended.) “I’m not good at this, I don’t like ‘still’ stuff. I just like to move. I’m not from a modelling background or an actress, so I still feel uncomfortable in my own skin, a little bit.” What goes through her mind on red carpets? “Don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t trip.”