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While The Men Are Away stars reveal why the show is so important: 'We need this'
While The Men Are Away is a witty reimagining of 1940s Australia set during WWII.
SBS' new show While The Men Are Away is a witty reimagining of 1940s Australia, set during WWII while the men are off fighting, with those who have previously been excluded from power suddenly finding themselves running the show and is available to stream now on SBS and SBS On Demand.
Yahoo Lifestyle was lucky enough to be invited to the set of While The Men Are Away in Orange earlier this year to speak with Michela De Rossi, Max McKenna and Phoebe Grainer about the project and why it's such an important show, especially for LGBTQIA+ audiences.
Frankie (Michela De Rossi) flees to the small town of Bush, in Australia, from Italy after her relationship with another woman becomes too much for her small-town family to ignore, and marries Aussie farmer Harry Whitmore, as she knows her family will hate it.
She is then left in charge of their suffering farm when Harry seemingly goes off to war. She enlists Gwen (Max McKenna) and Esther (Jana Zvedeniuk), who are members of the Women's Land Army to join herself, Kathleen (Phoebe Grainer) and Robert (Matt Testro) (a man who did not go to war), to help lead.
SBS adds of the show: "It’s about five individuals who find each other, and for a glorious moment in time, sample a life tinged with promise and hope and acceptance. And once they taste it, it’s impossible to go back."
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Max spoke to us about their character, Gwen, who discovers a lot about herself when she arrives in Bush, including about her own sexuality.
Max, who is non-binary, tells us they believe Gwen would have used they/them pronouns as well if she was living during modern times, "I play Gwyneth Mountjoy, who is quite a privileged young woman in the 1940s, who decides she wants to go and be part of the women's land army, and she's had a very sheltered life and kind of done what she has been told to do.
"And when she gets here and she's not with her mother and she sees a much wider world, she discovers a lot about herself and her own sexuality."
She continued, "I think Gwen would definitely have different pronouns if [the show] was set today. I think that language wasn't around but you will see a journey for Gwen and on finding who they are."
"It's always exciting when I can be a non-binary person in a queer role," Max adds of the character. "I think it's just cool to see so many of my queer and non-binary and trans friends working, and you know, there's a lot of people who have come before me, and I have to pay tribute to them for paving the way, so I can be here and we can be telling this story right now."
Max shares that it's been a dream of theirs to tell a period piece from a queer perspective for some time, saying, "I have been dying to be a part of a period piece that tells a queer story. And when I heard that this was created by queer people, I just immediately wanted to know more about it and wanted to be involved in any way. And when I read for the role of Gwen, I just went, 'I have to play this role.' This is a dream because I think a lot of queer stories from this time haven't been told yet, especially in Australia."
Speaking about what makes the story special, Max shared that it covers countless topics and deals with people of all backgrounds in "a really smart, clever, unique way".
"It's something I don't think we've seen yet in Australia. I hope that people remember what this time period was like and how hard it was for queer people and people of colour to exist in this time period and really take pride in how far we have come and still how far we have to go," they add.
'Never felt so strong'
Michela shares with us that it was "overwhelming" making the decision to move from Italy to Australia to be the lead in an English-speaking TV show.
"It was, it still is overwhelming, but I've actually never felt stronger in my life," she tells us. "In 30 years, I never felt so strong like [I do] now. It helped me, every challenge changes you."
Speaking about the project, Michela says we "need" more shows like this because "people need to feel safe" and know their stories are important.
Phoebe has never worked in TV before and shared her excitement with us, saying, "When I first read the script, I was just like, wow, this is incredible, and I could [see] from then that this was like nothing that I've ever seen before on Australian TV.
"And it was so beautiful and poetic, and I just really fell in love with the storytelling and when I [saw] the story of Kathleen's journey throughout the TV series, I was just like, 'I want to play Kathleen.'"
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Speaking about what it was like behind the scenes, Phoebe shared that there was a lot of singing, especially given many of the cast members are singers, with the star telling us, "We'll have jam sessions between takes, and it's actually really fun, it's kind of nice that we do that together because it also brings us closer and [we feel] more connected. Then we have that kind of pleasure to play and have fun when we're in the scene."
All episodes of While the Men Are Away will be available to stream on SBS On Demand from Wednesday, September 27.
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