Latest news with #Mamamia
NZ Herald
23-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Mamamia's Holly Wainwright on why she wants to celebrate midlife
One of its co-hosts is Holly Wainwright. A British expat who has lived in Australia since the 90s, in the past few years she has been hosting her own podcast, MID, tackling self-care and tricky topics, with an aim of sharing wisdom with her audience. Speaking to Francesca Rudkin and Louise Ayrey on the NZ Herald 's lifestyle podcast, The Little Things, Wainwright said that the big window between 35 and 65 where things change was not something she was fully prepared for. 'There's lots of levels to it, isn't there? Because there's the hormonal stuff, and then there's just the fact that there's a lot of what one of the guests on an episode of MID has described as 'midlife collisions'. 'There are a lot of big things [that] are bound to happen in that phase where maybe you've been parenting for a while or maybe that never happened for you and you are reckoning with how you feel about it or with choices you've made. 'Maybe your relationships are changing, a lot of divorce in midlife, a lot of separation, a lot of friend dynamics shifting. There's a whole lot of stuff happening. 'But with the hormonal stuff, I think I wasn't ready for it because I think I was the kind of Gen X feminist who was very reluctant to give my hormones too much credibility in my world.' Wainwright said discussions about menopause were never talked about when she was younger because you could be dismissed as being 'crazy'. She recalls even trying to cover up weaknesses 16 years ago when she was pregnant with her first child, so as not to show any weakness. 'So I think that I've been a bit of a denier of the realities of the female body and the impact it has on you. 'But then what happens is perimenopause and menopause comes along and just smacks you right in the face. And you have to kind of [realise] this isn't just me who's dealing with all these wobbles and issues and physical symptoms that don't make sense and worrying you're losing your mind. This is hormones and I can't deny it any longer. 'So in some ways it's been a bit of a reckoning for me.' In the past few years, Wainwright has noticed a big change in these types of conversations. Mamamia put together a summit about perimenopause recently, and the company was blown away by the response to it. She's even seeing the impact it is having on younger generations. 'The young women I work with, they talk all the time about what phase of their cycle they're at, how they're feeling about it. It's really shifted and, and I'm really delighted about that.' And while she is glad that these conversations are being had, Wainwright also wants to ensure that it's not the sole thing defining women. 'I don't want every conversation around women in their 40s and 50s and beyond to be about hormones.' She said many women about her age have experienced a lot, surviving numerous challenges, and have reached a stage where they have a lot of experience and wisdom to share. 'Exactly that moment, you are kind of pushed aside by the culture and society, whatever that means, and sort of pitied a little bit, and it's like you're not really relevant anymore, are you? 'So I really wanted to make a show that explored all these different parts of 'mid' but with a positive feel to it.' Listen to the full episode of The Little Things for the full conversation with Holly Wainwright about celebrating 'mid' – including the best parts of this time, challenging the feeling of being 'invisible', beauty standards and what her advice to younger women is.
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.
