‘We're roadkill': How this Kiwi actor turned middle-age rage into her best work yet
'Honestly, they go on and on and on and on,' she says. 'Of course, our award was right at the end. By the time it got to the end, I was like, 'I hope we don't win', because my feet are so sore in these massive shoes I bought, and I was desperate to go to the loo. And I thought if we did win, I'd either fall down the stairs because my feet were numb or I'd piss myself on the stage. So when it went to Shogun, I was like, 'Oh, thank god for that.''
Surely it was a bit glamorous? 'Oh, it's a nightmare!' she says. 'There's the going to the ball aspect of it, which is fun … but then you stand in the heat and there's all this jostling and pushing and photographs and chaos, and it was really hot. And then you get inside and you sit and watch these damn awards for 3½ hours. And honestly, it's not entertainment.'
Malcolm, who turned 60 in March, is in Glasgow, where it's early evening, but the temperature is a balmy 25 degrees. 'All the Glaswegians are, like, freaking out that they're so unprepared for it,' she says, laughing, over Zoom.
She is exactly as I had hoped – funny and forthright, stripped of any artifice – and instantly familiar. She's been on New Zealand and Australian screens for years, starring in everything from the big stuff (Jane Campion's TV series Top of the Lake) to the cult local stuff (Outrageous Fortune) and the delightfully funny stuff (Upper Middle Bogan).
It was on Top of the Lake where she met her partner Peter Mullan, the Scottish actor who specialises in being both terrifying and charming on screen, who pops in mid-chat, so Robyn can pop out to farewell his grandson.
'He's just a really f--k-off actor,' says Malcolm. 'He's an enormously fun actor to work with. I've worked with actors before who are arseholes, and people make excuses for that because they're playing a dark character. And I'm like, 'I know a fellow who's played some of the meanest motherf---ers on the planet, and he'll get the third AD [assistant director] a cup of tea because he's such a sweetheart.''
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She has been in the UK for the last three months or so, after being summoned by an agent when After the Party aired last year. 'They just said, 'Could you not talk to any other agents, and can you come with me?' – which was great.'
The series, which was co-created by Malcolm and screenwriter Dianne Taylor, was about a high school teacher (Malcolm) who accuses her ex-husband, Phil (played by Mullan) of sexually abusing a drunk friend of their teenage daughter. Malcolm was hailed for giving the best performance of her career and five-star reviews followed.
'I feel like I'm at the beginning of something, not the end of it,' says Malcolm. 'Because I've never lacked ambition, so this has just got my pilot light going faster again, which is fantastic. Weirdly, it's sort of new-lease-of-life stuff.
'I'm more confident than I used to be. I know a lot more. I know what I don't know. I know where I need to get better. I feel like I'm in an excellent place right now for the age I am, you know. I'm not about to buy a La-Z-Boy [reclining chair] any time soon.'
My mother-in-law has one of those. 'No, no, no. Although they are f---ing great chairs, I have to say.'
Back to the serious stuff – Malcolm is part of a growing group of older female actors using their power on screen and refusing to be invisible. Women can now – shock! – play their age instead of being quietly shuffled out of shot, having reached their screen use-by date of 40 (or, really, a 40-year-old who can pass for 30). It's their stories that Malcolm is most interested in telling.
'One of the things that I love about women in midlife is that it's the three-act structure,' she says. 'You set everything up with the first act, and then everything has to go to shit in the second act so that third act can happen.
'And I feel a lot of us are at the end of our second act. So women of our age straddle so much stuff … we're the generation where a lot of people were divorced. Mistakes have been made, new lives are being started. Careers have been dropped. Careers have been picked up. There's been tragedy. We're in the middle of a big story and that, in itself, I find a really fascinating place to start from.
In drama, she says, women's conversation often sits around romance.
'I always remember being so furious – I mean, I was never a major fan – but being so furious that Sex and the City ended with them all shacking up with blokes. I was like, 'This is not what this show was meant to be about. How dare you.'
'You don't see women living independently of the romance story, women being – I hate this word – but having an agency that is completely separate from that. Women having powerful lives in other areas.
'One of my most favourite things is the word 'crone'. The etymology of the word crone comes from either Greek or Latin, and it basically was a word that meant roadkill. So the middle-aged or older woman, the crone word essentially means that we're roadkill. I love that because it's like we've just been chucked out the window, knocked over by a car, and we're splat on the road, and who gives a f--k about us. There's something incredibly powerful in that.'
Her latest role is in Netflix's Tasmanian murder mystery The Survivors, adapted from Jane Harper's bestselling 2020 novel. Malcolm plays Verity, the mother of Kieran, who has returned home 15 years after two young men were killed in an accident. The relationship between Verity and her son is strained, and it's another cracker of a performance from Malcolm, who is brittle and forthright on screen.
'To use all the cliches in the book, she's multi-layered,' says Malcolm of Verity. 'What she says she doesn't mean, and what she doesn't mean, she says. There's always something else driving her. She's bottled up so much grief and so much pain. She's blaming the wrong people. She's angry at the wrong people. She's just all over, all over the place. And I really love that.'
Malcolm has been onscreen so much in Australia that we would have a fair chance of claiming her as one of our own.
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'I just think we should build a bridge [between Australia and New Zealand] and just be done with it,' she says, laughing. 'I don't think I would ever call myself an Australian. I've been in Aotearoa for too long. But I love Australia and I love working there.
'I love the directness of Aussies; Kiwis can be very apologetic, very self-deprecating. A friend of mine said once that to determine the difference in personality between an Australian and New Zealander, you just have to listen to the bird calls,' she says. 'So in New Zealand, in the mornings, the bird calls are sort of like [Malcolm does a lovely sweet bird call] and in the morning in Australia, it [sounds] like this mass vomit.'
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ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Why Donald Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance want to 'Make America procreate again' through pronatalism
Simone Collins is making pizza, sourdough and banana bread while juggling a toddler on her back when a fight breaks out between two of her three older children that inevitably ends in tears. "Every night is the Hunger Games," she jokes. "Every night is chaos, battle royale, flat-out disaster zone." With four kids under six and a fifth on the way, you'd think her and husband Malcolm Collins just love children but Malcolm says it's not really about that at all. "Kids do not exist for our pleasure, right? If you want that, get a pet. Kids, we have to pay to the future the debt we owe the past," he says. The Collinses — who ultimately want at least seven children and preferably up to 12 — have become the poster couple for the pronatalist movement, which promotes having more babies to address falling birth rates. Malcolm believes it is an existential issue that could have an impact on the future of the human race. "Our greatest threat is fertility collapse," he says, while his youngest daughter Industry Americus squirms in his lap. "If fertility collapse does lead to a collapse of human civilisation, eventually all of life dies, because humans are the only life form on this planet that can take life to the stars before the sun eventually and inevitably consumes our planet." Pronatalism is a cause they believe is so grave that Simone is prepared to die for it. After complications with her first birth, she's getting ready to have her fifth C-section, a potentially life-threatening procedure. "Before I met Malcolm, I would do things like base jumping and skydiving, and that also was a pretty risky thing to do, but it didn't make the world a better place or create a new life," she says. The former Silicon Valley couple use their tech connections to grow their family, testing and selecting embryos based on intelligence and future health to have not just a big family, but an optimal one. That's drawn accusations of eugenics, which Malcolm strenuously denies. "When we do polygenic selection or gene modification, everyone's like, 'Oh, people are going to use that to get rid of groups that are seen as disabled, like autistic people'," he says. "And it's like 'bro, my wife is autistic, my two older kids are autistic and we could have selected against it, and we didn't'. "Because with polygenics, rather than the government deciding what are good genes and bad genes, the people who experience those genes get to decide." The couple admits they deliberately troll the left, with controversial statements and Simone's outfit of choice — a pilgrim-style dress topped off with a bonnet and Handmaid's Tale hat. "It's funny because the only way we can avoid a Handmaid's Tale future, is for feminists to have more kids," she says. "Our primary means of raising awareness about demographic collapse has involved making people angry, making people outraged, because that's the only way they're gonna take this issue seriously. "We don't care if we become the punching bags of the movement, if at least people are aware of the fact that this is a major issue." But their willingness to become human clickbait for the cause has taken a toll, with death threats and doxxing a semi-regular occurrence. Simone proudly shows off an AR-15 assault rifle and Beretta mounted on the walls of their 18th century home, in part to protect against the growing threats they face. "We have guns for the death threats but also we have guns because we love guns," she says. The pronatalist movement is spearheaded by someone even more polarising and controversial than the Collinses — billionaire Elon Musk. Fox News asked him what was the biggest thing that keeps him up at night in March. "The birth rate is very low in almost every country and unless that changes, civilisation will disappear," Mr Musk said. Earlier this year — when the father of 14 brought his four-year-old son to a White House meeting with US President Donald Trump — Mr Musk's nose-picking, face-pulling child stole the show. The number of progeny Mr Musk has produced is a source of pride for him. "You've got to walk the talk, so I do have a lot of kids and I encourage others to have lots of kids," he said in 2024. Even though the two men have since spectacularly fallen out, pronatalism is having a moment under the Trump administration. Mr Trump has declared himself the 'fertilisation president', vowing to make IVF more accessible. When campaigning for the presidency, he declared: "I want a baby boom. Oh, you men are so lucky out there, you're so lucky." Earlier this year Vice-president JD Vance told a crowd, "Let me say very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America." Mr Trump's recently passed Big Beautiful Bill included a $US1,000 baby bonus and the Trump administration is reportedly considering several other measures to encourage a baby boom. They include a 'motherhood medal' for women with six or more children and government-funded programs to teach women about their menstrual cycles, so they can work out when they're ovulating and try to conceive. Experts like Associate Professor Catherine Pakaluk from the Catholic University of America are sceptical those measures will make any difference. "I think a fair reading of all of the countries that have looked at this problem squarely, including Australia, is that you can get a little bit of lift by sending out cash to people — baby bonuses, tax credits, subsidies — but that lift in the birthrate seems to be mostly temporary and short-lived," she says. The researcher and author also has a deeply personal connection to the issue — as the mother of eight children herself. Unlike the Collinses, her Catholic faith played a big part in her decision to have a big family and she believes it's religious communities who may hold the key to boosting birthrates. "If you want to encourage child-bearing, have a hard look at the way in which your policies affect or don't affect living church communities," she says. The movement has seen an unlikely convergence of trad (traditional) wives and tech bros — religious groups who oppose things like IVF and abortion and tech advocates like the Collinses, calling for genetic selection, surrogacy and artificial wombs to grow their families. "At the end of the day, the traditional family form folks are not going to be able to get in bed, proverbially, with the tech-genetic-selection-surrogate birth situation," Ms Pakaluk says. "So I don't know what it spells about the future, but I don't expect there to be tight alliances between these really deeply intellectually different positions." Other experts are sceptical that population collapse is even a legitimate concern. Demographer Philip Cohen from the University of Maryland doesn't believe population decline is a real risk for the US or other developed societies, but that aging populations are. "As birth rates fall, the number of old people in society increases and that's expensive," Dr Cohen says. "We have to address that, but what we don't need to be worrying about is population decline as something that must be fixed by more births now or else we're going to be in trouble. "That's just not the case. "At some point in the future, if birth rates don't rise, our populations would decline if we don't reinforce them with immigration, which of course is something we can do if we want to." He believes there are a number of factors behind the current pronatalist push and why its proponents are reluctant to embrace immigration as a solution. "On the political right, the motivations are a combination of nationalism — 'if we don't breed faster, our competitors will outbreed us'," he says of the mentality. "[There is a] sort of a chauvinism or racism, that is a certain kind of people — the wrong kind of people — are having all the children these days so we will be replaced by new populations of people who have higher birth rates, people who aren't as good or desirable for some basically racist reason. "And then there's also a gender component, which is sort of a nostalgia for a patriarchal past." Simone Collins disputes that there's an element of racism within the movement. "There are racist groups that call themselves pronatalists, but they're not, they're white nationalists," she says. "A pronatalist just believes that the future is bright, humanity is good, and everyone should, if they want to, have children." She argues the movement is actually about preserving diversity, not just Western cultures. "A lot of ethnicities, groups, cultures are going go extinct because they're reproducing below repopulation rate," Simone says. When asked why Australians should care about the pronatalist movement, Malcolm Collins is clear. "We will replace you," he says. "The game of who wins human civilisation has entirely changed. Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Sky News AU
Shocking new twist in Malcolm-Jamal Warner's final moments revealed by officials
Officials have revealed a shocking new twist in Malcolm-Jamal Warner's death by drowning on Sunday while he was vacationing in Costa Rica. Initially, Elberth León, the head of the Tourist Police for the country's Atlantic region, claimed the actor's 8-year-old daughter was in the ocean with him and was successfully rescued. However, Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) has since clarified that the girl was on the beach's shore when her dad entered the water with a friend, got 'caught by a high current' and drowned. 'Mr. Warner was playing with his daughter at the seashore at one point. He then left her out of the water, and he and a friend of his entered the sea,' a rep for the OIJ told People in a statement, which was translated from Spanish, on Thursday. 'It was at that moment that they were swept away by the current, and the friend managed to get out,' the statement continued. 'However, Mr. Warner was unable to get out and was pulled out by several people on the beach. He received care from Red Cross officials but was pronounced dead at the scene.' The man who pulled Warner out of the water, a doctor, recounted the harrowing scene to Us Weekly. Like Warner, he was on vacation, enjoying the day in the town of Playa Grande. According to the doctor, there were 'very few people on the beach' that day, which could have been because the 'sea was rough.' When he heard a group of people screaming and calling for help, he quickly 'ran to the area and entered the sea with [his] surfboard, heading into the rip current toward the person being pointed at by some beachgoers.' After a few minutes, the doctor said he 'saw a shadow' and immediately 'dove down and pulled the person out.' When the doctor finally reached the beach with Warner, he saw another man lying on the sand, struggling to breathe. '[He was] just someone who tried to help during the emergency without any rescue equipment,' the doctor explained, adding that 'immediately, [first responders] began providing first aid to Malcolm, but he had no vital signs.' The medical professional said two tourists who identified themselves as doctors 'ran over to help.' A few minutes later, Costa Rican Red Cross personnel arrived. They used specialized equipment on the 'Cosby Show' star, including a defibrillator, but he did not respond. Warner was pronounced dead at the scene at the age of 54 due to 'asphyxiation by submersion.' The other man was transported to the local medical clinic in critical condition but has since been released. Originally published as Shocking new twist in Malcolm-Jamal Warner's final moments revealed by officials
Perth Now
24-07-2025
- Perth Now
Regina King pays heartfelt tribute to ex Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Regina King says Malcolm-Jamal Warner left a "lasting imprint" on her life. The 54-year-old actress previously dated the late Cosby Show star - who died over the weekend aged 54 after getting caught by a rip current - from 2011 until 2013, and she has paid a heartfelt tribute to her former flame. Alongside a photo of her ex on a motorcycle, she wrote on her Instagram Story: "Some people leave a lasting imprint, not just for who they were but for the energy they carried. "I'm sending prayers filled with love and understanding to your family and loved ones. 'Rest easy Malcolm-Jamal Warner.' Warner died in a drowning incident near Cocles, a beach in Limon, Costa Rica over the weekend. He was in the water with his daughter - whose name has not been made public - when the incident occurred. Police have told ABC News that surfers attempted to save Malcolm and his daughter after the pair were spotted struggling against the current. A surfer was able to save the Suits star's daughter by returning her to safety on his surfboard whilst Malcolm was pulled back to a shore by a volunteer lifeguard and another surfer. The actor - who was best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show - was given 45 minutes of CPR but was pronounced dead at the scene. Malcolm's official cause of death has been declared as "asphyxation by submersion". The Caribbean Guard had revealed that there was no lifeguard on duty at the time when the tragic accident took place as they had "allocated resources" elsewhere due to "recent water incidents" at two beaches nearby. Tributes to Malcolm have poured in from across the showbiz world, including his 9-1-1 co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt. She wrote on social media: "This hurts my heart. A gentleman, an incredible talent and we were so lucky to have him in the 9-1-1 family. Heartbroken and sending love to his family." Comedian Sherri Shepherd said: "To know Malcolm was to know a renaissance man that possessed humour, grace, humility and deep cultural appreciation. He was just a good guy! "His passing is a true loss to the Hollywood community. He was a proud girl dad and loved his daughter so much. To his family, friends and all who loved him - my heart is with you."
