A golden age
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ|August 2023
At 50, A Place to Call Home star Marta Dusseldorp is glowing with creativity. Motherhood has made her a better actor, while moving to Tasmania has sparked her greatest challenge yet.
GENEVIEVE GANNON
A golden age

After our long day with Marta Dusseldorp has ended and the tape recorder is turned off, the actress tucks her legs under herself on the soft white banquette and continues to talk about work, life, acting, and the wicked paradox of raising fearless young women – wanting to protect her daughters from having to go through what she went through, while understanding that adversity builds resilience.

A flickering fire warms our backs, and to our left, a two-storey window looks out onto Tasmania’s Mount Hazard underneath a sky that sparkles like thousands of tiny diamonds spilled on a sheet of midnight-blue velvet. Marta speaks eloquently and thoughtfully about these big subjects, and the responsibility she feels to the industry that has shaped and fulfilled her.

“I want to continue to perform, but also create and nurture and mentor. I see my role as that now. As a 50-year-old woman, I’m ready to do what was done for me, which is identify and support and encourage young women,” she says.

The Weekly’s photoshoot lasted all day against the chilled beauty of Tasmania’s Coles Bay. With daughters Grace, 16, and Maggie, 13, in tow, Marta gamely clambered over pink granite, swished through tall grass, and posed on the rocks turned orange by lichen.

I’ve cried, triggered by Marta talking about being separated from her girls while filming amid COVID, Marta has cried, speaking about the woman who helped her forge her career, and she’s let our team glimpse the close bond she shares with her daughters, of whom she is prodigiously proud. Now, her voice is hoarse, but she’s eager to talk more. She’s on the cusp of a new grand adventure. She is about to launch Bay of Fires, a drama she stars in, produced and co-created from scratch with Jack Irish collaborator Andrew Knight and AFI-winning screenwriter Max Dann.

Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY NZSe alt
PRETTY WOMAN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

PRETTY WOMAN

Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.

time-read
3 mins  |
July 2024
Hitting a nerve
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

time-read
5 mins  |
July 2024
The unseen Rovals
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The unseen Rovals

Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.

time-read
2 mins  |
July 2024
Great read
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Great read

In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.

time-read
2 mins  |
July 2024
Winter dinner winners
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter dinner winners

Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.

time-read
3 mins  |
July 2024
Winter baking with apples and pears
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter baking with apples and pears

Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.

time-read
7 mins  |
July 2024
The wines and lines mums
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The wines and lines mums

Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2024
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE

Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.

time-read
7 mins  |
July 2024
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN

When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.

time-read
8 mins  |
July 2024
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START

Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.

time-read
5 mins  |
July 2024