Antonia Prebble, seen here for a stage adaptation of North By Northwest, says her career has allowed her to take on a variety of different roles. Photo / Dean Purcell
Antonia Prebble, seen here for a stage adaptation of North By Northwest, says her career has allowed her to take on a variety of different roles. Photo / Dean Purcell
For more than 20 years, Antonia Prebble has been one of the regular faces on New Zealand television screens.
Starting as a child actor on The Tribe and hosting the after-school show WNTV, Prebble went on to star as Lorretta in Outrageous Fortune, and then play her character’s grandmother Rita in prequel Westside.
In her latest role, Prebble has taken another turn, playing one half of the couple in Three’s Double Parked.
Speaking to Paula Bennett on her NZ Herald podcast, Ask Me Anything, Prebble said she was drawn to the show for how revolutionary it is.
“It was made specifically to have broad appeal, to be entertaining on a main broadcast network, and the central couple is queer.
“But the fact that they are lesbians is not what the show is about, and their sexuality is never in question. We have had lead characters who are queer on TV before, and in movies, but a lot of the time, their sexuality is the thing that’s being questioned. Whereas with this, their sexuality is a given, and it’s also not what the show is about, it’s about a relationship and how two people navigate motherhood.”
It’s just the latest role in Prebble’s career that has allowed her to reinvent herself. While she’s only 40, her career has allowed her to take on a variety of different roles, and she has avoided being typecasted.
Prebble said she has been lucky to avoid that, but puts it down to her 15 years in the world of the Wests.
“That was really against my type. Those two characters are really not really me and it’s not really how I come across, because often you are typecast by your natural vibe and what you naturally look like. Whereas I know that I don’t come across like a Westie, both those characters are quite different from my essence.
“I haven’t been typecast because I’m able to, I guess, show people the breadth of what I do. And I also personally love the transformational process of playing a character.”
Antonia Prebble (second left) plays one half of a couple in Three’s Double Parked. Photo / Zara Staples
Prebble said one of her favourite things about acting is figuring out the character.
“With Rita, for example, she was a real transformation for me. It took me a while to find her, actually, she really speaks differently to me, she holds her body differently, she moves through the world physically, even, quite different to me, but I love that. I love that challenge.”
Prebble is still looking for more opportunities though. She told Bennett she still takes acting classes to further her craft, and is always looking for new challenges – even if finding engaging roles is still a challenge at times.
“I definitely noticed a huge reduction in the number of auditions that I get in comparison to when I was in my 20s. Because if you just think about most TV shows, most movies that you watch, they’re generally about people in their 20s or 30s. And [a man] can be 50, he can be 20 years older than his wife.
“I think it is changing, absolutely, and it is less acceptable for a man to be 20 years older than his wife, but it’s absolutely still happening.”,
And while she is well established here, Prebble does still feel the pull of America and Los Angeles, particularly now that her children are getting older.
“There have been like a couple of opportunities that have come up overseas, but I’ve just been like, no, it’s, it’s too hard, and you’ve got to weigh up professional development with your family commitments and what will work for all of you as a unit.
“But as they’re getting older and things are a bit easier, yeah, I am thinking about that again.”
Listen to the full episode for more from Antonia on getting into acting, meeting co-star Madeline Sami at clown school, and 20 years of Outrageous Fortune.
Ask Me Anything is an NZ Herald podcast hosted by former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett. New episodes are available every Sunday.
