Deborah Mailman - Total Control
Deb Mailman, Wayne Blair and Rob Collins in Total Control
Internationally political dramas are a dime a dozen, whether it's something like The West Wing, House Of Cards or The Good Wife. Here in Australia though our political system somehow escaped scrutiny, until ABC's Total Control starring Deborah Mailman & Rachel Griffiths came along.
Starring two titans of Australian screen Deborah Mailman & Rachel Griffiths, ABC’s prestigious and razor-sharp political drama Total Control follows Alex Irving, an Indigenous woman who gets pulled into the high-stakes world of Australian politics.
As the show enters into its third & final season this month we spoke to Deborah about the show & why it was so special to her as an Indigenous woman.
According to Deborah the importance of this show stems back to her childhood growing up in Mount Isa, "We only had 2 channels back then. It was ABC on one channel & mixture of commercial TV on the other, so the ABC & a lot of its shows were my childhood."
That history combined with the production company behind Total Control & the subject matter of the show it was a no-brainer for Deborah to sign on for the role of Alex Irving.
"The fact that this was being made by Blackfella Films... when I was tapped on the shoulder to look at the idea of playing this woman, who's a black female politician, I just said 'Okay, that sounds amazing."
Not only does Total Control dissect racial issues in Australia, such as underlying racism & social justice disparities, but it also explores the gender divide in politics & even the environment in the third season.
Now that might seem like a lot of topics to cram into a show but it gives the show an air of reality & prescience to modern Australia.
"The show provides a really unique point of view because firstly it looks at the scrutiny female politicians face but then we add black to that," Deborah explained to Pario. "We've never really explored anything like this on Australian television before, which meant that the writers could go anywhere & imagine anything... So, in our show, we have Australia's very first Indigenous Prime Minister."
While the writers had absolute freedom with the direction & vision for the show they managed to weave in a plethora of nods to the current state of Australian politics. This was most obvious with a cheeky line about the show's Prime Minister taking a Hawaiian holiday amid a natural disaster.
Total Control seemingly even predicted a major shift in the Australian political landscape recently, with the rise of the 'Teal Independents'. A moment Deborah credits to the genuine mind of Rachel Griffiths, "Total Control is Rachel's baby/ Rachel's a political junkie, so it's her idea that she brought to Blackfella Films."
The biggest challenge Deborah faced with Total Control & the character of Alex Irving came in the very early stages when she was defining the character. Since Alex was to be a new face in the Australian political system Deborah explained to Pario that she made a "deliberate choice" not to look at any politicians for inspiration.
"I really wanted to create Alex away from any politician that we know. I wanted to build her from scratch, from the ground up, & actually build her from the script that was given to me," Deborah said. "I just wanted to create Alex in her own silo, in her own private space so that she wasn't reminiscent of anyone... I wanted her to be unknown. I wanted her to not know the process. I wanted her to be completely out of her depth & then build on that."
Another area of the production that proved difficult was how to make politics "politics sexy". From Deborah's perspective, this was of vital importance because everyone realised, "We didn't want this to be just another run-of-the-mill television show. We wanted to add a little bit of spunk to it because we knew we've only got one chance at this."
Knowing this Deborah & the team behind Total Control are all incredibly thankful to have a network such as the ABC, that is willing to take risks on this type of show & tell deeply Australian stories.
"It's great that we have something like ABC because it allows us to do a show like this, where can take those risks in the stories that we tell," beamed Deborah. "This show is so important to me because it reflects the issues that are important to us as mob, particularly youth social justice."
With Total Control coming to a close after the third & final season Deborah pondered the mixed emotional impact of the show ending.
"It's going to be bittersweet. I'm going to miss this show & I'm going to miss playing Alex because I love her so much. She's my favourite character & she's set a new benchmark for me... But at the same time, I'm really proud of what we've created over 3 seasons & I hope audiences really, really enjoy this final season."
Total Control - Season 3 is now streaming on ABV iVIEW
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