Wednesday March 16 at 8pm on ABC
In this warm and witty episode of Home Delivery, Julia travels to the Northern Territory to meet Miranda Tapsell in the heart of the glorious Kakadu National Park.
As an only child growing up in the tiny town of Jabiru, Miranda tells that she was regularly “subjected to bushwalking”. She developed a love of performing from a very young age, and joined the Jabiru Tappers at age six, and delighted her parents with an endless series of plays starring her friends and stuffed toys.
They visit Jabiru Area School, where Miranda recalls that a visit by Aaron Pedersen ignited a dream of becoming an actor. She also tells Julia about a how a troubling episode of racial bullying shattered her carefree childhood.
The family moved to Darwin for the final years of Miranda’s schooling, so she and Julia take a road trip to the big smoke. They visit Darwin High School where Miranda performed in plays and musicals in the school’s astonishing amphitheatre. It was here that Miranda seriously started to plan an acting career. She tells Julia about attending summer courses at NIDA and seeing a stage performance of the Sapphires. From that moment on Miranda wanted nothing more than to be a ‘Sapphire’.
On a headland overlooking the beautiful Mindil Beach, Julia and Miranda talk about her courageous acceptance speech at the 2015 Logie awards – when Miranda challenged the Australian television industry to put more people of colour on our screens – and they reflect on her journey from a small Kakadu town to the red carpet at Canne
