Claudia Karvan has been an almost constant presence on Aussie TV for decades, but her latest gig is perhaps her most rewarding – and personal – role ever.
The actor-producer was approached to take part in family history docuseries Who Do You Think You Are? more than a decade ago, but pulled out before filming began.
“[The producers did] a lot of the research, but I just knew it would be too inflammatory while [my father] was alive,” Claudia, 52, tells TV WEEK.
“My dad died [two years ago], and they approached me again. I said, ‘Yes, I’d love to do it now that he won’t take things the wrong way.’”
So, 15 years on, Claudia finally dives into her past, in a journey that sees her travel to the UK, Cyprus and New Zealand’s South Island.
“You get to the airport and you honestly have no idea where you are going until they give you a boarding pass,” Claudia says with a laugh. “Friends like Stephen Curry and Miranda Otto have done the show and said: ‘You have to do it.’ And it’s such a gift.”
Initially, Claudia is doubtful she’ll uncover anything of interest. But she’s stunned to learn her paternal grandmother, who she assumed had died before she was born, was alive until Claudia was 13 but didn’t ever make contact with her granddaughter.
“I don’t hold any grudge,” Claudia explains. “I’m glad that she was living the life she wanted and didn’t feel this obligation to be a doting grandmother.”
Claudia was also convinced she wouldn’t feel any emotional connection to her long-dead relatives. But, after discovering creatives, pioneering feminists and a host of resilient women in her lineage, Claudia realises she could not have been more wrong. Even her great grandfather was part of a unique specialised group known as ‘balloonatics’.
“Having gone on the Who Do You Think You Are? journey, I feel it’s more DNA than anything else,” Claudia muses, as to how her family has shaped her.
“I didn’t feel that before. I felt as if I could just take all the credit for [my life]. But my ancestors had a huge role to play, and I’m very grateful for them.”
The show has changed Claudia’s whole outlook. “I feel more empowered [and] motivated, and less inclined to give in to self-pity,” she reflects. “I’ve got those people behind me to pick me up. I didn’t know they were there before, but now I can see them all.”
The experience makes Claudia reflect on her own kids – Audrey, 23, and Albee, 18. “I’ll be fascinated to hear what they take away from watching it,” Claudia says, adding that Audrey shares many traits with the women in her family’s past.
“My daughter’s a woman of action, she’s a go-getter. She’s got that gene.”
The other pivotal mother–daughter relationship in Claudia’s life is fictional – her role as Angie in comedy-drama Bump, which Claudia also co-created and produced.
The show, which follows a family grappling with a teen pregnancy, has been embraced by Aussie viewers. The series ended on a high, just as Claudia hoped.
“We always had the exact ending in mind – Oly [Nathalie Morris], her face as she is going into childbirth, by choice this time,” she recalls. “We just got to a point where we felt: ‘Great, let’s jump off now, while we all still love each other!’”
Although the final season was released last year, Claudia’s been busy working on a Bump Christmas special.
“It was a perfect way to come back and do our… I’m calling it ‘dessert’! To have our Bump dessert,” Claudia says with a laugh.
Who Do You Think You Are? airs Tuesday, 7.30pm on SBS
