Latest news with #EveLife
Perth Now
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Asher Keddie in her producing era but isn't quitting acting
When watching a comedy movie or TV show, you may wonder if the actors struggle with trying not to crack up when reciting their lines on set. For one of Australia's most adored actors Asher Keddie, becoming hysterical mid-line is something she is very good at. These latest crack-ups came when playing Evelyn Jones, the lead character in Strife, which follows the modern imperfect woman and publisher on her journey from a blogger to a force in digital media with her startup Eve Life. After the first season in 2023 became Binge's biggest original series premiere of all time, the second season premiered on May 8 and sees Keddie's character exploring the complexities of womanhood, relationships, dealing with the threat of a new rival women's website, and tackling nasty trolls — all the while keeping up just the right level of lighthearted gags. 'This is the sort of show that incites so much mischief and laughter,' Keddie says on a phone call from Sydney. 'The whole ensemble is always engaged in shenanigans and humour and, you know, so much fun behind the scenes. It's about creating a certain level of hysteria when you're doing comedy drama, I think.' It's something the actor, who also serves as executive producer on the show, always encourages 'to the point of being probably the most unprofessional of the lot of them'. 'I'm terrible when it comes to hysterical laughing in the middle of a scene,' she says. 'It's not my strong point, put it that way. if I'm amused by something, I find it difficult not to respond in the moment, and this cast is incredibly amusing, so we've had such fun together.' Asher Keddie as Evelyn Jones. Credit: John Platt In among the comedy, of course, is the importance of telling authentic female stories. After all, the series is a fictionalised adaptation of Mia Freedman's 2017 memoir Work Strife Balance, about her experience of leaving magazines to launch women's lifestyle website Mamamia. 'It was just so incredible listening to the stories at the beginning that Mia had of her experiences throughout, and the challenge of presenting her ideas online and putting them out there and using her voice no matter what the consequences were, and sometimes the consequences in the cost to her were huge,' Keddie says. 'We explore in the second series trolling, which became a really big thing around the time that Mia started up Mamamia, so that's a really interesting storyline.' The Offspring star says viewers need to see women's vulnerabilities on screen. 'What I want to see is not to apologise for getting it wrong and failing sometimes and not being able to achieve that kind of elusive perfection that we put on ourselves all the time,' she says. 'I think those themes that we explore in the show, particularly in the second season, are the things that I really want to lean into as a woman and a viewer, so I'm hoping that other people feel the same way.' Asher Keddie attends the 2025 AACTA Awards. Credit: Dan Peled / Getty Images for AFI The Melburnian reunited with Bruna Papandrea, whom she worked with for roles in Nine Perfect Strangers and The Lost Flowers Of Alice Heart, to produce the show. Keddie found it helpful rather than challenging to be a producer as well as an actor. 'Being able to produce and being in conversation about how we can write it, how we're going to perform it, where it's gonna be, all the different millions of choices that you make on the entirety of a production, it's so involving for me that it's almost easier to be a bigger part of it in that way than it is just to deliver a performance,' she says. Despite loving the production side of things, Keddie isn't stepping away from acting. 'Oh no, I'm not gonna give up my day job,' she says. 'I love acting. I always have. I enjoy it more now actually than ever so no, I still love what I do but I just like combining the two.'
West Australian
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Asher Keddie loved producing as well as acting in Strife but isn't giving up her day job
When watching a comedy movie or TV show, you may wonder if the actors struggle with trying not to crack up when reciting their lines on set. For one of Australia's most adored actors Asher Keddie, becoming hysterical mid-line is something she is very good at. These latest crack-ups came when playing Evelyn Jones, the lead character in Strife, which follows the modern imperfect woman and publisher on her journey from a blogger to a force in digital media with her startup Eve Life. After the first season in 2023 became Binge's biggest original series premiere of all time, the second season premiered on May 8 and sees Keddie's character exploring the complexities of womanhood, relationships, dealing with the threat of a new rival women's website, and tackling nasty trolls — all the while keeping up just the right level of lighthearted gags. 'This is the sort of show that incites so much mischief and laughter,' Keddie says on a phone call from Sydney. 'The whole ensemble is always engaged in shenanigans and humour and, you know, so much fun behind the scenes. It's about creating a certain level of hysteria when you're doing comedy drama, I think.' It's something the actor, who also serves as executive producer on the show, always encourages 'to the point of being probably the most unprofessional of the lot of them'. 'I'm terrible when it comes to hysterical laughing in the middle of a scene,' she says. 'It's not my strong point, put it that way. if I'm amused by something, I find it difficult not to respond in the moment, and this cast is incredibly amusing, so we've had such fun together.' In among the comedy, of course, is the importance of telling authentic female stories. After all, the series is a fictionalised adaptation of Mia Freedman's 2017 memoir Work Strife Balance, about her experience of leaving magazines to launch women's lifestyle website Mamamia. 'It was just so incredible listening to the stories at the beginning that Mia had of her experiences throughout, and the challenge of presenting her ideas online and putting them out there and using her voice no matter what the consequences were, and sometimes the consequences in the cost to her were huge,' Keddie says. 'We explore in the second series trolling, which became a really big thing around the time that Mia started up Mamamia, so that's a really interesting storyline.' The Offspring star says viewers need to see women's vulnerabilities on screen. 'What I want to see is not to apologise for getting it wrong and failing sometimes and not being able to achieve that kind of elusive perfection that we put on ourselves all the time,' she says. 'I think those themes that we explore in the show, particularly in the second season, are the things that I really want to lean into as a woman and a viewer, so I'm hoping that other people feel the same way.' The Melburnian reunited with Bruna Papandrea, whom she worked with for roles in Nine Perfect Strangers and The Lost Flowers Of Alice Heart, to produce the show. Keddie found it helpful rather than challenging to be a producer as well as an actor. 'Being able to produce and being in conversation about how we can write it, how we're going to perform it, where it's gonna be, all the different millions of choices that you make on the entirety of a production, it's so involving for me that it's almost easier to be a bigger part of it in that way than it is just to deliver a performance,' she says. Despite loving the production side of things, Keddie isn't stepping away from acting. 'Oh no, I'm not gonna give up my day job,' she says. 'I love acting. I always have. I enjoy it more now actually than ever so no, I still love what I do but I just like combining the two.'
Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Asher Keddie is back as a ball of nervous energy in the new season of Strife
Strife ★★★★ The first season of this loose adaptation of Mamamia founder Mia Freedman's memoir broke records as Binge's biggest original series premiere, and fans will be pleased to know season two picks up shortly after the events of the finale. Evelyn (Asher Keddie), who is struggling to get traction for her new website for women, Eve Life, discovered her deputy Christine (Maria Angelico) had defected to a start-up at their old workplace – a website aimed at the same audience as Eve Life. That competitor, Whoman (the pronunciation is as silly as you think), has launched, amping up Evelyn's already considerable anxiety. (If you're coming into Strife fresh, it's important to know the action is set around 2012, when websites such as these were something of a new frontier.) Adding to that stress is the fact Eve Life isn't making as much money as it needs to (perhaps she shouldn't have rented the cinematically pleasing but over-the-top warehouse space their office is now in), not all of her employees are happy, and her home life is more complicated than ever. Having given up her apartment to save money, she and her almost-ex-husband Jon (Matt Day) are trying out the 'birdnesting' idea, in which children stay in the family home and both parents take it in turns to stay there with them. Even when Evelyn has her weekly turn though, her son Alex (Darcy Tadich) spends more time with his precocious new girlfriend, and her daughter Addy (Willow Speers) isn't that keen on spending time with Evelyn either. Then there's the fact that Jon has started dating again, as has Evelyn's mum Ginny, a fabulously dry Tina Bursill, who gets a bigger role as Jon and Evelyn stay with her when the other is at home. While much of the action takes place in the Eve Life office, where Evelyn spends most of her time second-guessing herself, frantically searching for an investor and dealing with an online troll calling out her middle-class privilege and hypocrisy, this season focuses more to her personal life and anxieties around parenting, divorce, and even friendship in middle age, which Evelyn explores with her new therapist Sylvie (Mary Coustas). And all this before Evelyn's former employee Norma (Lucy Ansell) publishes her book Toxic Boss, a thinly veiled story about Norma's time working at Eve Life.
The Age
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Asher Keddie is back as a ball of nervous energy in the new season of Strife
Strife ★★★★ The first season of this loose adaptation of Mamamia founder Mia Freedman's memoir broke records as Binge's biggest original series premiere, and fans will be pleased to know season two picks up shortly after the events of the finale. Evelyn (Asher Keddie), who is struggling to get traction for her new website for women, Eve Life, discovered her deputy Christine (Maria Angelico) had defected to a start-up at their old workplace – a website aimed at the same audience as Eve Life. That competitor, Whoman (the pronunciation is as silly as you think), has launched, amping up Evelyn's already considerable anxiety. (If you're coming into Strife fresh, it's important to know the action is set around 2012, when websites such as these were something of a new frontier.) Adding to that stress is the fact Eve Life isn't making as much money as it needs to (perhaps she shouldn't have rented the cinematically pleasing but over-the-top warehouse space their office is now in), not all of her employees are happy, and her home life is more complicated than ever. Having given up her apartment to save money, she and her almost-ex-husband Jon (Matt Day) are trying out the 'birdnesting' idea, in which children stay in the family home and both parents take it in turns to stay there with them. Even when Evelyn has her weekly turn though, her son Alex (Darcy Tadich) spends more time with his precocious new girlfriend, and her daughter Addy (Willow Speers) isn't that keen on spending time with Evelyn either. Then there's the fact that Jon has started dating again, as has Evelyn's mum Ginny, a fabulously dry Tina Bursill, who gets a bigger role as Jon and Evelyn stay with her when the other is at home. While much of the action takes place in the Eve Life office, where Evelyn spends most of her time second-guessing herself, frantically searching for an investor and dealing with an online troll calling out her middle-class privilege and hypocrisy, this season focuses more to her personal life and anxieties around parenting, divorce, and even friendship in middle age, which Evelyn explores with her new therapist Sylvie (Mary Coustas). And all this before Evelyn's former employee Norma (Lucy Ansell) publishes her book Toxic Boss, a thinly veiled story about Norma's time working at Eve Life.
West Australian
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Screen Queen TV reviews: Long Way Home, Strife, The Piano, Live From The E! Met Gala and Play School
You might know Ewan McGregor as the A-list star of movies like Star Wars and Trainspotting. Not me! The piece of work I most associate with the Scottish actor is this project: the motorbike action/adventure series he's been involved with for the past 20 years. What? You've not heard of it? You've been missing out: it's fab. Essentially it sees McGregor and his long-time best mate Charley Boorman crisscrossing the world astride various kinds of motorbikes, their exploits filmed as a travelogue series. I've been a huge fan right from the start, having interviewed the pair ahead of the release of their very first show, Long Way Round, in 2004. That series documented their epic adventure from London through Europe and Asia, up to Alaska and then down through the United States. I absolutely adored it, so much so that I bought the book and accompanying CD (which is still on high rotation), and I've obsessively watched their two subsequent docos, Long Way Down (filmed in 2007, it saw them ride from the northern tip of Scotland all the way to Cape Town, through 18 countries in Europe and Africa) and Long Way Up, which took them on electric motorbikes from Argentina up through Central America to LA. This time, they're off riding refurbished vintage bikes from Ewan's home in Scotland across the North Sea to Scandinavia, up to the Arctic Circle and down through the Baltics and Europe, to Charley's home in the UK. All the crew we've come to know and love over 20 years are along for the ride again, including producers David Alexanian and Russ Malkin, as well as trusted cameraman Claudio von Planta, who's been filming them since the very beginning (weird to think he's been with them that whole time, just off-camera!) A lot has changed in two decades, but this show is steadfast in its loveliness, and Ewan and Charley really are the most delightful travel companions. I can't wait to spend more time with them on their latest adventure. As a survivor of the women's publishing sector, I find this series, loosely based on the career trajectory of media mogul Mia Freedman, incredibly triggering (you can take the girl out of women's magazines, and all that). But despite the fact I get an eye twitch every time the employees at Eve Life discuss diets in an editorial meeting, I am thoroughly enjoying the revisit in the second season of this locally produced show. Asher Keddie is terrific as Evelyn Jones, the imperfect powerhouse driving her media empire forwards, and the ensemble cast, which this season includes Tim Minchin, Mary Coustas and Dylan Alcott, are great as well. Well worth a look. If you shed a tear at Old People's Home For 4 Year Olds or got over-invested in Love On The Spectrum, chances are you'll adore this new series, all about everyday people playing the piano. Amanda Keller is a delight as host — this is must-see feel-good TV. Tissues to hand! Love yourself a good old-fashion heckle? Of course you do: you're only human. And what better way to do it than via E!'s annual Met Gala take-down? Bring it. This great little series takes a look at the jobs kids can do when they grow up, and boasts a great selection of stars, including Tim Minchin (again!), Adam Goodes and Nate Byrne to talk the littlies through it all. Adorable.
