arthur scargill daughter; robert h book net worth; Actualits. Leah Purcell was born on 1970-08-14. So she was writing a screenplay during rehearsals of the play. "We were the secret family and it was all hush, hush, but I think, you know, small country town, everyone knew. (Excerpts from 'The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson'). Her daughter, Amanda, is temporarily living with Purcell and her husband of two decades, Bain Stewart. Bain is such a beautiful human being; he's stuck around and worked me through that. LEAH PURCELL: I get lost in it. At 17, Purcell was pregnant with her daughter, Amanda. When Wentworth actor Leah Purcell was in high school, she tuned out of geography class. actress, director, writer, producer. Purcell's versions centres around Molly, who is left alone on a remote homestead while heavily pregnant and having to care for her four children while her husband is away droving cattle. Books by Leah Purcell. When Leah left Murgon she had three bags, a baby on her hip, a tank full of petrol and nothing left to lose. Leah, in character: I can take care of myself. BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: I said to Leah, there's a film in this as well. LEAH PURCELL: Because I believe that if you call Australia home, this ancient culture is yours as well. I was in the C group. Her grandmother Daisy was born on country at Mitchell but became part of the Stolen Generations when the children were herded into a cattle cart and taken away to Cherbourg. Let's get out there tomorrow, have a go and see what happens.'. In 2014, Purcell wrote and starred in the play, The . BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: If you were to say to me, 20 years ago, you know, you'd be producing films or TV or plays or negotiating publishing deals it would be laughable. BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: And everywhere she looked she had an ally. DEB MAILMAN, FRIEND AND ACTOR: In the late 90's Leah wrote and directed her one woman show Box the Pony and essentially it was the story of her life. I think, you know, just be brave. DEB MAILMAN, FRIEND AND ACTOR: None of Leah's success surprises me. In early TV presenting jobs, Leah had to phone a friend at home to find out what some of the words meant. She . I sung up the play, I sung up the novel, I sung up the movie. I had to pull my socks up real quick. "I'd be singing with Liza Minnelli, Doris Day, Barbra Streisand. [7][8], Together with Scott Rankin she co-wrote and acted in a play called Box the Pony, which played at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, the 1999 Edinburgh Festival and in 2000 at the Barbican Theatre in London. When Leah Purcell was filming the acclaimed movie Jindabyne in 2006, she would go up into the Snowy Mountains on her days off. Leah Purcell is a proud Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka woman born and bred in Murgon, Queensland. Polyethylene Film / PE Sheet It was announced that she was one of three new leading cast members to join the series for its sixth season, alongside Susie Porter and Rarriwuy Hick. While she was writing she had her childhood copy of Henry Lawson's book on her desk. Supplied: Oombarra Productions/Bain Stewart, These 'ordinary' Australians shared incredible stories and made a difference, How a 21yo man with the code name 'Svyat' smuggled residents past Putin's private army, Anna called police to report an assault, but they took out a family violence order against her. She made her film debut in 1999, appearing in Paul Fenech 's Somewhere in the Darkness, which led to roles in films, such as, Lantana (2001), Somersault (2004), The Proposition (2005) and Jindabyne (2006). BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: In 2005, We were doing the Jindabyne film with Ray Lawrence and Leah said, I love this landscape. It's not the water, it's the vibe. When she was 32, she made her peace with her father. And so he sort of wasn't around or had much of an influence in my upbringing. I want to go, yes, Ive been working bloody hard and its all coming home now.. Ms Purcell. Leah Purcell. ", At barbecues, she would direct 20 cousins in a performance. 461 following. Little thingamajig. leah purcell daughter amanda leah purcell daughter amanda on 28th January 2023 on 28th January 2023 She really claims it not as an Aboriginal woman, but as an actor. An incident sets her on a path of going back and discovering.. Cut to 2019, "and I am literally on the opposite mountain range and I'm singing out 'action' and 'cut' on my debut feature film". "I wanted to put my Indigenous storytelling through it, my blood through the piece.". To my daughter Amanda for putting up with me for far too long. Purcells version was a revelation when it ran for 33 performances at Sydneys Belvoir St Theatre. She, as a cheerleader, has acquired this abundance. DEB MAILMAN, FRIEND AND ACTOR: To take something that I think is only six or nine pages long, turn it inside out and, you know, make it from a perspective of an indigenous woman. LEAH PURCELL: I truly believe that he was a gift from the ancestors because he's just been such a support. I never let it kill my dream. Leah, in character: Johnson. Leah and I both had cousins that were trying to put us together so I roll up for this blind date and she's just stunning, beautiful, you know. This little voice said, didn't you want to be an actor? "Sometimes I'd knock my mother's drinks back. In the boardroom of her new films distributor in Sydneys eerily quiet Pyrmont just before lockdown, the celebrated writer, actor and director checks the digital recorder on the couch beside her is working yep, theres numbers flashing then gets down to talking about everything thats happening. Life's for living, so just get out there and have a go. [3] She has said of the development of the stories:[17].mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}. "It actually made me check myself. "It was normal for us young girls to be in these violent relationships. My mother came from a generation of Aboriginal women that werent given a voice, Purcell says. I always saw myself that I was going to be on stage. And that put me back onto the path of this isn't right for me. AUNTY BRONWYN PENRITH, ELDER AND CULTURAL ACTIVIST: She didn't look like an Aboriginal woman just being put in the place because it's an Aboriginal woman. All I can share is the truth in my family's stories, because that's all I know.". The messy family drama behind one of the world's biggest K-pop empires, Self-help author Marianne Williamson launches primary challenge against Joe Biden for 2024 Democratic nomination, A Nazi-hunting nun, an accused murderer, a theatre legend: This Australian actor plays them all, feature film The Drover's WifeThe Legend of Molly Johnson, Lights, cameras, AACTAs: Awards celebrate best of bingeworthy Aussie TV and films, Aboriginal filmmaker flips script on well-worn Australian myths in her take on Henry Lawson story, How has one tiny town produced so many rugby league stars? I did all my own stunt fights throwing myself on the ground with that [pregnant] belly when Yadaka jumps up, she says. [5], After a difficult adolescence looking after her sick mother, Florence, who died while Leah was in her late teens, as well as problems with alcohol and teenage motherhood, Leah left Murgon and moved to Brisbane and became involved with community theatre. Ali tried to transfer $30 for his nephew's birthday. BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: It's genius the way she's taken this, what I call a foundation story of Australia through this great Australian writer, Henry Lawson, and she's completely flipped it on its head. Leah Purcell's income source is mostly from being a successful Actress. IN CINEMAS NOW, from Leah Purcell, named as one of the 100 figures shaping Australia's creative future. The original story centres on a stoic woman who protects her four young children from a snake under their isolated two-room hut while her husband is away droving. DEB MAILMAN, FRIEND AND ACTOR: Redfern Now it was extraordinary. Man: One action straight through, shoulder and hip. Rob Collins (Yadaka) and Malachi Dower-Roberts (Danny Johnson). Submit your Australian Story now. It is a story that would never leave her. The Drover's Wife by Leah Purcell. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Bain: Sign that and Ill fax it off when I get back. Purcell was awarded the Balnaves Scholarship in 2014 . Save. In TV, God bless them, nine times out of ten, you just screaming at 'em, because you got to . For her body of screen work, Leah was awarded the 2017 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award for innovation, imagination and impact. What do we do with her? Let's go'. In her own words, Leah Purcell has 'come from the dirt' and pulled herself up to the top of her industry as a writer, actor and director. Leah: I don't come to block anything darling until I come to put it on and go oh no not as awesome as I thought it would look! This year is shaping as the most memorable and action-packed in the 20-year-career of Indigenous writer-director-producer-actor Leah Purcell. The book was one of the things I took with me when she passed away.. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. LEAH PURCELL: There was this cycle that was forming in my life, uh, with drinking, um, boys, very young, um, I experienced domestic violence for the first time when I was 14 um, because I was in a relationship. So we really related on that. PAULINE CLAGUE, FILMMAKER AND ACADEMIC: He could see the brand that could be Leah. "I just made my mind up that I was going to do it for myself and my daughter. Leah Purcell weaves her Indigenous Songlines into new film The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson. ", If she stayed, her only option would have been working in the local abattoir, her days a cycle of drinking and the domestic violence she had lived with since she was 14. Bain is such a beautiful human being, he's stuck around and worked me with me through that. Slowly we're giving the power of the voice back to the individual, back to the mob, back to our people so that we can be the truth-tellers.". Now she's putting her history on the big screen. BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: And then Clever Man comes up shortly after that. I fell pregnant when I was 17 turned 18 in August my. Net Worth in 2021. Hated it, Purcell says. In allen's grocery weekly ad; i sneezed and something popped in my head . Although no one believes me but my daughter was planned. I turned 18 in August. Pauline Clague, in character: I know why you here. It is Purcells latest take on Henry Lawsons classic short story The Drovers Wife after adapting it first into a play in 2016 then a novel in 2019. Leah, singing: If I have to I can do anything. Purcell is well known for acting in the TV dramas Redfern Now (2012-13), Janet King (2016) and Wentworth (2018-21), the films Lantana (2001), The Proposition (2005) and Jindabyne (2006), the semi-autobiographical play Box the Pony (1997) and the documentary Black Chicks Talking (2001), which she co-directed then adapted into a book and a stage show. Of course, it was going to happen. "It would start a whole Drover's Wife journey for me. ", Her acclaimed late '90s one-woman show Box The Pony, a tour de force that played sell-out seasons at the Sydney Opera House, and went to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Barbican in London, was about the three generations: her grandmother, her mother and herself. And while she sees her mother in Molly, there is also a lot of Purcells own resilience. "The sexism, the racism, the violence that was set upon them by the men of that time. "You have to confront those issues where there's anger within you. The book would win the 2017 Victorian and NSW Premier's Literary Award. And all of a sudden, I had a tiger by the tail. ", "I don't think you can talk about Leah, her life and her work, without acknowledging Bain," DebMailman says. Melbourne International Film Festival is scheduled to run in cinemas August 5-15 and online August 14-22. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. The film has a heavily pregnant Molly Johnson (Purcell) living in a timber slab hut with her children while her husband is away droving. And shes also found out that her film The Drovers Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson has been selected for opening night of the Melbourne International Film Festival, the $60,000 competition for courageous, audacious and cutting-edge cinema at Sydney Film Festival and the $100,000 competition at CinefestOz in Western Australia. A year later, in 1988, Florence died. STEPHEN PAGE, ARTISITIC DIRECTOR BANGARRA: Someone said geez that Leah Purcell's ambitious and yeah we have every right to be. Author "Representing Australian Aboriginal Music and Dance 1930-1970" (Bloomsbury 2020) $1 Million - $5 Million. Leah was 17 when she gave birth to her daughter, Amanda. So one of my big dreams that I want to fulfil and I want to tick it off is I want to go to Hollywood. Leah, in character: And didn't little Leah Purcell look grand. "I think if I look too much into the history and what that building really represents and what it all means, you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning, would you? Although no one believes me but my daughter was planned. To Amanda Florence Faith ", Leahwas about to semi-retire from acting to concentrate on her writing when she was offered one of the three leads in Wentworth. Pending lockdown, Sydney Film Festival runs August 18-29 with the full program to be announced soon. ", Leah has been researching her family history since she was 14. She is literally getting, you know, the crap kicked out of her, gets off the ground, looks through a monitor. She was four-foot-nothing but she was unreal. She was hoping to become an actress like the Hollywood icons she used to imitate in the mirror: Doris Day, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston. I don't. ", Sometimes they would be early to the pub and the last ones to leave. So I want to use [film] to bring stories to the forefront and be a truthteller.. [3], In the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours, Purcell was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for "significant service to the performing arts, to First Nations youth and culture, and to women". PAULINE CLAGUE, FILMMAKER AND ACADEMIC: Box the Pony was such a crucial part in Leah's storytelling because it was the moment where she realised that she had to start writing her own stories to show you the truth. I was a C average student. In 1972, he and his family moved to Bondi, New South Wales in Australia, and later to Western Sydney in Penrith. And if it was basically good enough, it would then be actually scheduled in the theatre. Indigenous Australian actress, film director and writer, The Drover's Wife:The Legend of Molly Johnson, Asia Pacific Screen Awards Jury Grand Prize, The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, The Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama, "The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson is a compelling story weaving in present and historical truths", "Actor, director and writer Leah Purcell", "Monologues shift focus to the body beautiful and battered", "Wentworth season 6: date and new cast members Susie Porter, Leah Purcell and Rarriwuy Hick revealed", "Heritage Characters Join Siege Survivors on the Inside As Wentworth Season 8 Commences Production", "Leah Purcell on reinventing The Drover's Wife three times: 'I borrowed and stole from each', "Leah Purcell weaves her Indigenous Songlines into new film The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson", "The Drover's Wife review plot twist leaves Australian classic spinning on its axis", "Leah Purcell wins Australia's richest literary prize for reimagining of The Drover's Wife", "Helpmanns 2017: The Drover's Wife and Adelaide festival claim Australian theatre awards", "Hacksaw Ridge and Lion win but Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife dominates Awgies", "The drover's wife: the legend of Molly Johnson", https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/leah-purcell-announces-a-limited-series-based-on-the-drovers-wife-set-in-2020/news-story/a4104a29dd2b1a8e5298571bbf19d762, "Leah Purcell wins major screen award for The Drover's Wife", "Leah Purcell for The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson", "Leah Purcell receives star on the Winton Walk of Fame", "The secret is finally out: so excited to announce that I will be joining @jessicamauboy1 and the rest of the amazing cast in the new Channel Seven drama 'The Secret Daughter' playing the role of Rachel Rossi #thesecretdaughter #channel7 #comingsoon", "Screen Australia's Indigenous Department celebrates 25 years", "Dream of love, and success will come (pp32-34)", "Davitt Awards 2020 shortlists announced", "NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2022 shortlists announced", AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Equity Award for Most Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leah_Purcell&oldid=1138292665, 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers, 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights, 21st-century Australian non-fiction writers, Australian women dramatists and playwrights, Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Articles needing additional references from August 2019, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Director; episodes: "The Boyfriend Experience"; "Lividity in Lycra", Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Play, Purcell was lead actor, writer, director and co-producer of a film adaptation, also titled, In late 2022 it was confirmed that Purcell was writing the follow-up to, This page was last edited on 8 February 2023, at 22:50. June 30, 2002 10.00am. These are no small achievements for a proud Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman who left Murgon in country Queensland as a 19-year-old single mother. I loved Wentworth because we women had kickass, bad-ass, boss-bitch moments.". Credit:Bunya. Anyway, I'm getting something. Bain understood Leah. You know, we were here, we lived through two ice ages. Age (2022) 51. Scientists hope to learn new tricks from dogs from radioactive Chernobyl, Prime Minister dismisses Greens' calls to expand scale of super changes, Alex Murdaugh handed two life sentences for murder of wife, son, Bakhmut under siege as Ukrainian defenders consider retreat, International drug operation stops $1b worth of cocaine, Magnificent aurora australis stuns stargazers in Western Australia, How to spot greenwashing terms in fashion, food and cosmetics, Newly-engineered varieties of fruits to land in Australia, 54 people drowned on the Australian coast over summer period. Leah, in character: You really think I'm going to let you leave me here with 4 kids on my own when two of them are your spoilt brats. LEAH PURCELL: It was just perfect because you weren't afraid to ask dumb questions. This other voice said, well, your mothers dead, theres nothing holding you here., Purcell secretly organised to leave: I packed three suitcases, climbed out a window, pushed my car down the drive and went.. I hope to be doing this until the day I die. Leah, in character: C'mon here Steph. I didnt want that for my daughter. Theyre looking at me and going, Leah, youve got another five weeks of this. Where we going tonight? ''No work now,'' declares two-and-a-half-year-old Raf when she gets home, leaping into her arms. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. I think it was the first time I could use my imagination and I put myself as that little boy, she says. She was in the ABC drama Police Rescue. She appeared on stage in The Vagina Monologues. And we just don't, we rarely see it. "But I thought if I killed myself and my daughter survived, who's going to understand her? "She was mighty, she was my mother, my father, my hero. After focussing on acting for the past few years she has signed on as the start-up director of My Life is Murder , the 10-part mystery-drama starring Lucy Lawless, commissioned by Network 10. We have estimated Leah Purcell's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets. Even then she had confidence that was at odds with being beaten down as a teenager. 'OK mum, you finished that drink. Sample Page; ; 1. LEAH PURCELL: In our very early stages of our relationship when we did have a first our first dispute, he said, 'Stop'. First film writing, directing, lead actor. That was Bedevil in 1993. Through family history, she had found that her great grandfather was Daniel Johnson, a white stockman who lived in the Aboriginal camp, and who had tried to save her grandmother from being stolen but had been unable to reach her. I'd sing with Whitney Houston, dance with Janet Jackson. [27][17], At the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards held in November 2021, she was awarded the Jury Grand Prize for her film The Drover's Wife,[28] "not just for her singular vision in writing, directing, producing and starring in the film but for the journey to bring this remarkable story, viewed through the lens of a First Nations woman to the screen in its entirety". What are you doing?. [11] She went on to appear in three 2004 films, Somersault, The Proposition and Jindabyne, as well as playing the role of Condoleezza Rice in David Hare's play, Stuff Happens in Sydney and Melbourne. And I would go back there and I would climb out of it again.". Cultural historian, musicologist, listener, ocean swimmer, PARADISEC. If Leah was a C-average student who "hated" school, it might have been because she was tired. Wife: It's a war injury, plays up every now and then. BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: There are some themes that are in a lot of Leah's work. LEAH PURCELL, 2022: Yeah, one of my dreams was to conquer Hollywood? And I went, wow. leah purcell daughter amanda. I didn't want that for her and this little voice said, 'didn't you want to be an actor?'". At 20fleeing a violent boyfriend and her own alcohol habitPurcell moved with her daughter Amanda to Brisbane. 2017 was a landmark year for writer/director/actor Leah Purcell, with critical and audience acclaim for her stage adaptation of Henry Lawson's classic short story, The Drover's Wife. Among the intruders that test her mettle and bring up secrets from the past are a rogue bull, an English police officer (Sam Reid) assigned to a nearby town and his aspiring writer wife (Jessica De Gouw) and an Aboriginal fugitive (Rob Collins) with a shackle around his neck. Leah Purcell is a Goa, Gunggari, Wakka Wakka Murri woman. "I believe that if you call Australia home, this ancient culture is yours as well. Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife: the Legend of Molly Johnson is an inspired and compelling re-imagining of Henry Lawson's The Drover's Wife, a short story originally published in The . He said, 'You want me to hit you.' Could electric vehicles be the answer? "I just remember thinking how stunning she was and the sort of passion and energy that she had wanting to be an actor.". I truly believe he has been a gift from the ancestors because he has been such a support. I turned 18 in August, my daughter was born in September and then my mum died in October, she says. Leah Purcell's total assets are supposed to be around $2 million. Done a lot of things I regret. And it's like, there she is. You weren't afraid to go, oh, I'm not too sure. Leah, singing: I am woman hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore. The Drover's Wife The Legend Of Molly Johnson is Leah's debut feature film which premiered at SXSW as part of their Narrative Spotlight programme in March 2021. She was my hero.. Growing up poor in regional Queensland, Leah's career options seemed limited. LEAH PURCELL, 2002: I've always dreamt of Hollywood ever since I was a little kid. LEAH PURCELL: He was a kickboxer. Leah Purcell is an award-winning actor, singer and writer. Zodiac. BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: Because I never came from that background at all. And she always says it would be criminal if I didn't grab it with both hands by my teeth and take, take these advantages. She was 18 years old. Black chick talking. "She's somebody that's untrained," Bain says. You're either going to be a nurse or work at the meatworks.' "I am applying my Dreaming or my Songlines to their stories, but my grandmother's story was the foundation. Purcell is the first Indigenous woman to write, direct and star in her own feature film, The Drovers Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson. BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: Mate, I've worked in the building game and Leah and I have both worked in meat works. Through this process, she has discovered that the essence of her film is domestic violence and the effect it has on children. Dr Ruby Langford Ginibi We meet in the early '90s, when I was new to Sydney. Set in 1893 in Australian Alpine Country of the Snowy Mountains, a heavily pregnant Johnson struggles to take care of her children. She taught me how to pack it and she would say, 'don't pack hollow otherwise a snake can get in' just like in the story.". I'm happy with where I sit in my country. As she seems to do with everything, including fitness training with boxing and weightlifting to being grandmother of two boys, Purcell threw herself into filming on a cold, windswept mountain range across from where she had made that declaration. LEAH PURCELL: In cultural ways, you have that thread of a songline which connects you to country, connects you to family, connects you to culture. I sung up the play, I sung up the novel. Then, frustrated by being a director at a writers workshop in 2014, she went home, took down the tattered copy of the story from a shelf and wrote the first draft of her own version in seven days. I don't know, not really. Purcell seemingly spent the better part of the year in the public eye, as she picked up a never-ending stream of . And what she has to deal with while her husband is away. She directed across both series of Indigenous drama Cleverman. Leah: Would it be a good thing to go through Molly's 2020 journey. Posted By was tasha cobbs husband married before in floridita washington heights menu 25. She is also known for her writing and directing across Redfern Now . BAIN STEWART, PARTNER: Animals, kids, period piece. LEAH PURCELL: Aboriginal people have survived since time began. One day, taking in the beauty of Mount Kosciuszko she suddenly yelled out: "I love this landscape, I'm coming back, I think I'm going to do a film, I think it's going to be The Drover's Wife, and I think I am going to be in it.". And I thought, if I did that well, all of this pain, all of this confusion, I said, doesn't it all just go away? [2], In 1996 she moved to Sydney to become presenter on a music video cable television station, RED Music Channel. She was doing reconciliation before the word became fashionable.". Australian Story first met my mate Leah Purcell 20 years ago as a star was on the rise. And we're going to survive again. She is an internationally acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, director, novelist and actor and a cultural icon and activist, whose work stands at the forefront of the Black and Indigenous cultural renaissance and protest movement sweeping Australia and the world. Master of Ceremonies: Miss Leah Maree Purcell. All the time she was watching and learning:"I never sit in the green room. You go half pace.' Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. LEAH PURCELL: And people can say no to me, but I won't accept it. leah purcell daughter amanda. Well, at least, you know, her childhood. Leah Purcell is a multi-award-winning and self-made author, playwright, actor, director, filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and showrunner. Leah Purcell AM is one of Australia's leading actors, writers, and directors with award-winning roles across all mediums. We haven't unpacked, let's just get out of here. Purcells mother would read the story to her when she was five years old. ", Now, says Deborah Mailman, "she doesn't just open the door, she kicks it off its hinges in terms of creating opportunities. So you know, Leah I have similar backgrounds, which is obviously in part why we've always got on and understand each other. The Drover's Wife The Legend Of Molly Johnson is Leah's debut feature film which premiered at SXSW as part of their Narrative Spotlight programme in March 2021.