When Rachel met Deborah

They always admired each other from afar but when Rachel Griffiths and Deborah Mailman finally joined forces in TV’s Total Control they were not only in fan-girl heaven, they became instant friends.

- JULIET RIEDEN

They are two giants of Australian show business, both revered for their gutsy choices and prodigious acting chops, and yet when Rachel Griffiths and Deborah Mailman came together for the first time to star in the ABC’s Total Control in 2019 they were a quaking mess. Not only were they terrified to be carrying the weight of this bold political drama on their shoulders, but they desperately wanted to do each other justice.

“I just think she’s the bees’ knees and I had to get over my fan-girling at the beginning because – s***, I’m working with Rachel Griffiths, I’ve got to step up, I’ve got to bring my A game in!” Deborah explains, still tingling from finishing series two which, as we speak, is mid-editing and she has yet to see.

When I tell her Rachel felt exactly the same about her, she collapses into giggles – which I soon discover is a regular state for Deb, that and a wide smile that breaks out uncontrollably and makes her eyes literally twinkle.

“I worship the ground she walks on,” Rachel tells me separately. “I remember being sooo nervous on the first day that I was on with Deb. Then Deb’s saying, ‘I’m really nervous’ and I said, ‘so am I, darling’. She replied, ‘what are you nervous for?’”