Latest news with #ClaudiaKarvan
The Age
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘I don't go to a restaurant I can't walk or cycle to': The local gems Claudia Karvan loves most
Aussie acting royalty Claudia Karvan has starred in some of Australia's best films and television shows (Bump, The Secret Life of Us, Love My Way and yes, a Star Wars film, too, to name but a few). Most recently, it's her journey on the new series of the SBS show Who Do You Think You Are? that has her back on our screens, as she travelled to England, Cyprus and New Zealand to walk in the shoes of her ancestors. From a culinary perspective, Karvan's stepfather, Arthur, remains a huge influence − he introduced her to Greek cooking and opened the King's Cross nightclub Arthur's with her mother Gabrielle in Sydney in the 1970s. Karvan also lived in Bali when she was 10, and fell in love with Indonesian cuisine. A maternal lineage takes her to central Otago, where the hills are covered in wild thyme. 'It's the only other place in the world outside of the Mediterranean where thyme naturally occurs,' says Karvan. 'It really was exquisite − the smell is wonderful and comforting.' We sat down with Karvan to discuss her food favourites, at home and further afield.
Sydney Morning Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘I don't go to a restaurant I can't walk or cycle to': The local gems Claudia Karvan loves most
Aussie acting royalty Claudia Karvan has starred in some of Australia's best films and television shows (Bump, The Secret Life of Us, Love My Way and yes, a Star Wars film, too, to name but a few). Most recently, it's her journey on the new series of the SBS show Who Do You Think You Are? that has her back on our screens, as she travelled to England, Cyprus and New Zealand to walk in the shoes of her ancestors. From a culinary perspective, Karvan's stepfather, Arthur, remains a huge influence − he introduced her to Greek cooking and opened the King's Cross nightclub Arthur's with her mother Gabrielle in Sydney in the 1970s. Karvan also lived in Bali when she was 10, and fell in love with Indonesian cuisine. A maternal lineage takes her to central Otago, where the hills are covered in wild thyme. 'It's the only other place in the world outside of the Mediterranean where thyme naturally occurs,' says Karvan. 'It really was exquisite − the smell is wonderful and comforting.' We sat down with Karvan to discuss her food favourites, at home and further afield.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Bump actress Claudia Karvan breaks down over tragic family secret: 'I couldn't have prepared myself'
Claudia Karvan has opened up about her emotional experience filming the latest season of the SBS program Who Do You Think You Are? The Bump star, 52, broke down as she discovered a tragic secret about a family member on the ancestry series. In a new interview ahead of her episode, which airs on Tuesday, Karvan says she was 'unprepared' for the tragic stories in her family history. At one point during the episode, Karvan discovers that a long-lost relative killed himself after returning safely from the battlefields of World War I. Describing the moment as 'pretty full-on', the actress burst into tears while filming the scene. Karvan said that making the show, which explores her family history in the UK and Cyprus, and includes stories of terrible hardship, had an important message for her. 'My takeaway wasn't that the [the lives of my ancestors] were grim – it was how resilient they all were,' she told News on Monday. 'That's what blew me away. I learned a lot about resilience and how constructive and industrious my ancestors were. I couldn't have prepared myself for that.' Karvan added that her family history contains stories of strong and independent women. 'I think I imagined that a lot more of our lives were preordained by 'nurture,' but now I'm more in the camp where I feel what's reflected in my life is more ''nature''. 'It turns out I've inherited a lot, which I was surprised by.' It comes after Claudia Karvan has revealed what she really thinks about the most controversial role of her career. The Australian actress has enjoyed a decades-long career in movies and TV - but none of her roles were as divisive as The Heartbreak Kid. In the 1993 movie, Karvan plays a young Greek-Australian teacher called Christina who starts a controversial affair with high-school student Nick (Alex Dimitriades) after landing her first teaching job at a Melbourne school straight out of college. Reflecting back on the role, Claudia admitted viewers have given her their unfiltered opinions on the explosive storyline. Speaking to Stellar's Something To Talk About podcast, the veteran actress admitted she has never watched it again and said it was far from being her 'favourite' job of her career. Claudia raised concerns about how the storyline has become dated and insisted she didn't have any say in the film's direction, but was just hired to play the leading role. 'I had a great conversation with someone recently where they're like, the sex didn't bother me, and the fact that you were not Greek didn't bother me,' she said. 'It was the fact that that boy was pretty much stalking you. [They] thought it's sort of dated, which I thought was really interesting. No one had brought that up. 'But I think, yes, some people say, we [are] over-apologising for things that are done in the past, and I just think we can't overcompensate. Elsewhere in the chat, she talked about her her experience shooting nude scenes. 'So that storyline, I don't take responsibility for. I was a 19 year old girl. And it was a tough job. I felt like I was an adult, and I was playing a very adult role. 'But I was only 19 and away from home. And the content – there was quite a lot of intimacy and nudity. 'I probably wasn't that equipped to do it. I got through and I did it, but it wasn't my favourite job.' Her hugely successful career Down Under includes the hit comedy feature The Big Steal (1990) and the cult TV series The Secret Life of Us (2001-2003). She later starred and produced Stan's hit streaming series Bump from 2021 until its final season in 2024.
News.com.au
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Aussie actress Claudia Karvan breaks down over ‘tragic' revelations
Claudia Karvan didn't have high hopes when she agreed to appear on SBS' genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? She might be one of Australia's best-loved actors, but Karvan confessed she was worried it might present an acting challenge beyond even her: Pretending to be fascinated by the show's findings about her family history. Karvan says at the top of her episode, which airs this Tuesday on SBS, that she doesn't expect to feel much of a connection to her deceased ancestors during this fact-finding mission. She's soon proven wrong, though, and at one point even breaks down on camera as a tragic family secret is uncovered. 'My biggest fear was I thought I'd be bored and that I would have to act like I was interested in all these foreign names and pieces of archival footage and documents,' Karvan told ahead of her episode airing. 'But that was completely reversed: I was engaged, and I loved being out of control. I loved been taken on this mystery trip.' Karvan's dive into her family's past takes her to the UK and Cyprus, where she's visibly moved by the suffering her ancestors endured, from a great-grandmother who grew up 'loveless' in an orphanage with a death rate so high it had its own morgue to a great-grandfather who survived World War I despite having one of the most dangerous occupations imaginable: A balloon operator or 'balloonatic', responsible for surveying the land from on high (while being a sitting duck for any enemy snipers). But Karvan doesn't agree when I suggest her ancestors' lives – indeed much of human history – seems rather grim. 'My takeaway wasn't that their lives were grim – it was how resilient they all were. That's what blew me away. I learned a lot about resilience and how constructive and industrious my ancestors were. I couldn't have prepared myself for that,' she said. Nor could she have prepared herself for one heartbreaking revelation during the episode. A historian hands Karvan the death certificate for one of her war hero ancestors, and she immediately breaks down as she learns that he survived the war only to later die by suicide. Karvan said filming that particular scene was 'pretty full-on.' Her own late father would've been eight or nine when that tragic suicide rocked the family, and yet it was information that was never passed down to her. But there were happier discoveries too, as Karvan identified a theme with many of the women in her families that she could trace to her mother and herself: Strong, independent women who followed their passions, regardless of whether that was what society expected of them at the time. 'I think I imagined that a lot more of our lives were preordained by 'nurture,' but now I'm more in the camp where I feel what's reflected in my life is more 'nature'' Karvan says. 'It turns out I've inherited a lot, which I was surprised by.'
Sydney Morning Herald
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
It took 13 years, but Claudia Karvan finally said yes to this hit show
Claudia Karvan's appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? Australia has been a long time coming. One of Australia's most beloved actors, charming us since the age of 10 in the family movie Molly, riding the early 2000s sharehousing vibe with The Secret Life of Us, and most recently co-creating and starring in family saga Bump, was first approached by producers of the series 13 years ago. 'This was when my kids were a lot younger and my biological dad was still alive,' Karvan says. 'He had schizoaffective disorder and bipolar. So it just would have inflamed the relationship. So I backed out of it at that point. But now he has left this Earth, it felt like a much more possible thing to do. And I was really curious about his past – his ancestors and my family from my paternal family. I'd never met his mum, my grandmother. So it was great to just have a clean go at it without all that potential conflict.' Raised in King's Cross by her mother and stepfather, who famously owned a nightclub where she would hang out with drag queens after school, Karvan spent time with her biological dad in the country. What she discovers about his early life while filming the series, which takes her from Britain and Cyprus to the goldfields of NSW and Otago on the South Island of New Zealand, brings her to tears. 'Marc Fennell [who also appears on this 16th season] had the same experience,' says Karvan. 'Like, he blubbed. No one likes to blub publicly. It's really humiliating. But suddenly, you're blubbing.' Also featured this season are fellow actors Patrick Brammall, Matt Nable and Marc Coles Smith, as well as comedian Tom Gleeson, fashion designer Camilla Franks and Alone Australia winner Gina Chick. 'It was the gig of a lifetime,' says Karvan. 'Looking back, I feel like it lives with me. It's a part of who I am now. There's so much knowledge that I gained and so much reassurance.' Karvan's daughter, Audrey, appears in the episode, presenting research about a long-lost relative. Her mother isn't convinced she's old enough to form a genuine interest in the family tree. 'I think she had to perform that a bit,' Karvan says, laughing. 'I did ask her and my son, 'Do you want to have a watching party on the 13th and we'll watch it together?' Yeah, I'll let you know whether she falls asleep or not … In fact, my kids will just be watching TikTok through the whole thing!'
