Bryn Chapman Parish is one of the busiest people I know. He never sits still, instead preferring to pack life with as many projects, people, and places as he possibly can. Case in point; he does our Zoom interview from inside his parked car where he’s waiting to take an acting class during a break in rehearsals for his new play, Big Girls Don’t Cry.
Three years ago, Bryn, 27, could walk down his home streets in Sydney and no one would bat an eye at the lithe blonde with piercing blue eyes (who to me is honestly just waiting to be tapped on the shoulder for a David Bowie biopic). Now though, if he wants to leave his house without being recognised, a hat to hide that distinctive hair and sunglasses are his best bet, and even then, they don’t always do the trick.
But that’s what happens when overnight you become part of a Netflix juggernaut like Heartbreak High, which was watched by millions of people around the world and became one of Netflix’s most successful shows of all time. Who would’ve thought such a quintessentially Australian show (imagining people in other countries being confused by the iconic Nutbush scene at the school formal makes me laugh) would be such a global phenomenon? I guess it’s because no matter where you live, growing up is hard and messy, imperfect and glorious all at once.
“It’s a big privilege to be recognised for doing what you love. Once the novelty wears off though, it’s a huge adjustment.”
That chapter of Chapman Parish’s life will soon close, with Heartbreak High’s third and final season due to drop later this year. It’s something he describes as “a mixed bag because it’s been such a big part of everything”. When the show wrapped in the early hours of a summer morning earlier this year, many of the cast members took a moment of quiet to sit and watch the sunrise. Then, they hightailed it to the airport for a flight to the AACTA Awards because that’s just the pace of their lives now. (The night culminated in yet another statuette for the series and a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming audience singalong with Robbie Williams to his hit ‘Angels’.)
Most people after such a momentous slog would probably imagine taking a break. A quiet holiday. A moment to step back and process. No one would blame them for going underground for a while. But Bryn Chapman Parish isn’t most people. In the midst of shooting, he took off for a 48 hour whirlwind trip to the iconic Sundance Film Festival to promote his feature film debut in Jimpa, from Australian director Sophie Hyde. Then, it was a few weeks off before diving into rehearsals for his Belvoir St theatre debut, Big Girls Don’t Cry. And finally, when the play finishes its limited April run, he’ll head on tour around the country as frontman of rising punk band Mac The Knife.
His calendar is enough to make even my head spin, and I’m a busy person. So, how does he manage it all with enough time to eat, sleep and just be? “I won’t lie, sometimes I get very overwhelmed but I’m very lucky to be supported by my family, my parents are great, always willing to run around and help me,” he tells PEDESTRIAN.TV. “And then there’s my agents who are brilliant, I wouldn’t be able to do it all without such a great team of people around me.”
Although he studied at the prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts — or WAAPA as it’s affectionately known — Big Girls Don’t Cry is Bryn’s professional stage debut.
Picture this: Sydney in the 1960s. Redfern, a tinderbox of politics, culture and vibrant city life. Three young Indigenous women coming of age at a crucial moment in our country’s history. A moment where every person they pass on the street gets to decide if they are considered human or not. This was the reality of life for First Nations people during and leading up to the 1967 Referendum. It’s a piece rendered in the powerful technicolour of lived experience by proud Gumbaynggirr/Wiradjuri woman, playwright and actor Dalara Williams. The stories of Cheryl, Lulu and Queenie are those of her aunties and grandmother, their history poetically brought to life in the very streets they actually happened, which for the seven actors involved, says Bryn, “lends the story both a tangible grounded realism and a sense of magic.”
So then, where does Bryn fit in? He brings shadow to the romcom, as Officer Robinson, a member of the police force dripping in racism, bigotry and an ignorant attitude. That the play is being performed now, only a few years after our own referendum feels like a timely echo, a reminder of how far things have come but also how far they have to go. It’s no secret the world is a tense place, that politics is more divisive than ever and that in the coming years, people are going to have to make some choices about where they stand on things. With all of that context and weight — not to mention the fact the play finishes mere days before our next federal election — Officer Robinson is a heavy role.
It is, however, made easier to carry by the care and kindness of director Ian Michael, whose “number one priority has been making sure everyone is comfortable and from the start has been very conscious of not only the energy but also the choreography”, Chapman Parish says. “We’ve taken it slowly and been able to get deeper and deeper, until we’re in this really safe space.”
Getting inside a character’s head who is so far removed from the way Chapman Parish himself thinks, acts and exists in the world was tricky, he says, but like all actors, he had to find a way in. “Officer Robinson is a bully and the thing about most bullies that drives them is insecurity,” he says. “We all know what it’s like to be insecure even if most of us hopefully wouldn’t deal with it in that way.”
Playing tough characters and tackling hard things is becoming a hallmark of Chapman Parish’s career; his character arc as Spider in Season 2 of Heartbreak was steeped in toxic masculinity and manosphere culture, while Jimpa is a film about how a family navigates generational divides, family history and various tendrils of the queer and trans experience.
For Chapman Parish, these artistic choices are “a heavy weight to carry but also a privilege. I feel very lucky to get to be able to say and stand for these things in some small way through my art, which hopefully opens up conversations.” From what I can tell, Big Girls Don’t Cry will definitely be doing that. And as for it being a politically charged dramatic play? Bryn wants us to know “there’s joy in it too – it’s a romcom, a love story, there’s dancing! All sorts of beautiful things that are rarely represented in Australian media at all, but absolutely should be.”
I can’t help but agree. Now more than ever, our tools of survival, resistance, revolution and art can’t just be struggle. There has to be joy, too. And from where I’m sitting, Bryn Chapman Parish brings that to the world and everything he does in spades, with no sign of slowing down — charging head-on into life with a few BHAGS (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) in tow. I can’t wait to see what they are.
Big Girls Don’t Cry runs from 5th – 27th of April at Belvoir St. Theatre.
Header image credit: IMDb / Supplied
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