Claudia Karvan is that rare thing – a child actor who made a seamless transition to adult roles and a successful career as a producer. But even more surprising is how well she navigated her chaotic childhood.
When she was six, her mother and stepfather opened the Kings Cross nightclub Arthur's, and for the next 10 years she and her two brothers were brought up amid the inevitable chaos that accompanies such an enterprise.
"We were always pretty unconventional and bohemian and, you know, not much routine," recalls the 50-year-old actor and producer.
"It was a stressful way, I think, to raise a family, have three kids. There was a lot of socialising, a lot of alcohol, a lot of all that sort of stuff. So we saw and heard a lot more than we probably should have."
She laughs about how she and her brothers would let themselves into the club in the mornings before school when her parents were still drunk in bed and search the floor for anything the patrons might have dropped the night before.
"You'd make good money. You'd find a $20 bill, find some jewellery, find little packets of illicit substances and parents would go, 'Oh, I'll take that'," she says.
"From day one, she was the adult," chuckles former partner Jeremy Sparks. "There weren't a lot of adults around or, if they were, they were kind of doing other things."
Karvan has talked about her unorthodox upbringing in the past, but there are aspects of her childhood – and its legacy – that she hasn't discussed publicly until now. What changed was the death last year of her biological father, Peter Robins, who struggled with mental illness for much of his life.
"When my dad was alive, I was a lot more protective of my privacy," Karvan tells Australian Story. "He could get quite vindictive or quite upset about stuff in the media or about family, so I just always knew that delving into family stuff was a little bit dangerous or going to be complicated."
'I hereby disinherit and disown'
Karvan's relationship with her biological father was difficult from the start. Her mother Gabrielle fell pregnant to him as they were splitting up ("I'm the mercy f***," she jokes) and by the time Gabrielle realised she was pregnant she was already in a relationship with Arthur Karvan.
Her mother changed her and older brother Rupert's surname to Karvan, and there followed several years of bitter court battles. Robins was initially given custody of Rupert and Claudia, and there were times when their mother would drive to his property north of Sydney and kidnap them back.
"Once she got stuck on the highway with us stolen in the back and there was a petrol strike and she ran out of petrol and it was all just drama, drama, drama," Karvan says.
Eventually Gabrielle was given custody of Rupert and Claudia and they lived mainly in the city but continued to spend time with Robins on his property.
Because of childhood roles in the movies Molly and High Tide, there was media interest in Karvan from an early age. Invariably those stories would focus on her unorthodox inner-city upbringing, a detail that upset Robins enormously.
"It was always, 'the daughter of Arthur from Arthur's, raised in the Cross'," Karvan says. "It was never reported that we also were bush kids, and I think that was like a knife in his heart all the time."
Following Robins's death, Karvan was alerted to the many wills he had lodged over the course of his life. One that caught her eye was from 1988, when she was 16 and Rupert was 18.
"I thought he was sort of in love with us when we were that age," she says, leafing through the densely handwritten 10-page document.
"I was like, this is going to be like a sort of a gift from the grave,” she says. Then she flipped to page five. “It gets to the part about me and Rupert and he writes: 'I hereby disinherit and disown and disassociate myself from Rupert Temple Karvan and Claudia Karvan.' I was like, 'Oh, I did not expect that'.
"My first reaction was anger and tears for a couple of hours and then I was sort of disappointed in myself – sort of, why do I have these positive expectations? Why do I sort of load something up and then get sort of disappointed? Anyway, it is what it is."
It was around this time that Robins began to exhibit clear signs of the mental health issues that would plague the rest of his life. He became an increasingly difficult presence and was eventually diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and, in his case, bipolar.
"There were periods where he would just boil up and the anger would be so intense that he couldn't calm down and he would develop all these conspiracies about me and paranoias. And he was very abusive, so you couldn't get through to him through those periods of time.
"We had a really beautiful six years before he died where he was really open and then he had another episode; the last two years of his life we were estranged."
A pragmatic 'wild child'
People react in different ways to a turbulent childhood. Some replicate it in their adult lives while others, like Karvan, seek stability and order.
"I've always been amazed by the person that she is, really, given the chaos around her," says fellow actor Justine Clarke, who has known Karvan since they were children and shared a flat with her when they were in their early 20s.
Karvan jokes how she's often compared to Saffy, the nerdy, strait-laced daughter of Jennifer Saunders' freewheeling Edina in the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. "My parents are like, 'Oh my god, you're so boring, you're so conservative. Like, why is she so conservative?'."
Perhaps to her famously unconventional parents Karvan might seem conservative, but there's plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise.
This is, after all, a woman who was tempted back to the stage after 25 years by an Edward Albee play in which a man has sex with a goat. In fact, Karvan loved the play so much when she first saw it 17 years ago, she named the child she was carrying Albee, after the playwright.
In person, she comes across as inquisitive, confident and free-spirited. In her light-filled, inner-city terrace, incense burns constantly, shelves groan with books and the walls are covered with large, brightly coloured canvases. The vibe is bohemian chic, albeit uncluttered and spotlessly tidy.
"She was always very sensible and pragmatic but also kind of a wild child as well," Clarke observes, recalling how they'd go clubbing together in their early 20s and Karvan would always bring a cardigan. "She'd always look amazing, but she'd bring a cardigan because she'd know it was going to get cold."
A special relationship
Karvan laughs easily and often, and appears to wear her troubles lightly.
"My mum said I was just born with a happy disposition and just connected with people very quickly, very easily," she says.
She jokes about how as a young child she would follow cleaners into the boarding houses along Victoria Road where the nightclub was and hang out with "the old men in undies eating bars of chocolate, watching daytime TV."
"I was a people person," she says with a laugh.
Her older brother Rupert was not like that. Like their father Peter, Rupert was diagnosed with schizophrenia. And as with their father, the diagnosis came relatively late in life; in Rupert's case, his 30s.
She remembers her older brother as a gorgeous child with a wild mop of curly blond hair and an infectious giggle. But he was also introverted and quiet and didn't have a lot of friends. As he grew older, his mental health deteriorated.
He lived for many years in public housing and was in and out of mental health facilities. Karvan would be at her wits end trying to find the appropriate care for him and was often called on to intervene when police became involved.
She clearly adores her older brother. In her long interview for Australian Story, the only time she became visibly emotional was when talking about her feeling of helplessness when she couldn't get him the help he needed.
Four years ago, things changed when a social worker suggested Rupert move into a privately run boarding house that provides residential care for the mentally disabled. Karvan's sense of relief is palpable.
"He gets help with his medication, he's being fed and told to have a shower and shave. With this sort of support, it's a miracle how much better his life is. He's a bit like me – he loves rules and he abides by the rules. So he lives really well now."
"Claud's relationship with Rupert, it's a really special one," says Sparks. "Like with Peter, her father, she's taken the parent role and she took it many, many, many years ago."
For a long time, Karvan didn't speak publicly about her brother, mindful of protecting his privacy. But she believes strongly that mental health should be talked about openly and mental illness de-stigmatised, so she asked him several years ago how he'd feel if he read somewhere that Claudia Karvan's brother had schizophrenia.
"Rupert was like, 'Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia? Is that what I've got?' I'd love that. I'd love to read that, Claud,'" she recalls. "So once I got his blessing, then it felt like something that I was allowed to talk about comfortably. And I think it's really important to talk about it."
'Can you use this in your TV show?'
There's no question that aspects of Karvan's family situation have been challenging and she has taken on heavy responsibilities for both siblings and parents.
But managing a turbulent family life might not be the worst preparation for navigating the vagaries and insecurities of celebrity from an early age.
Her role opposite Judy Davis in the 1987 movie High Tide, shot when she was just 14, marked her out as someone to watch. She was still doing her HSC when she shot the hit movie The Big Steal.
By the time she was in her early 20s she was a bona fide movie star, appearing opposite Guy Pearce and Hugh Jackman. And when she made the shift to television in 2001 with The Secret Life of Us, she became one of the most recognisable faces in the country.
The ability to keep a level head and a sense of perspective when there is chaos all around is a handy skill to have in the entertainment industry. And having a strong sense of self can't hurt when you're a teenager suddenly thrust into the spotlight.
It seems clear her experiences growing up and managing complicated family relationships kept her grounded, aware of the fragility of mental health and watchful of her own.
What's more, an eventful life provides plenty of material for drama.
"Having a tumultuous childhood can be very useful in our business," says producer John Edwards, who created the landmark television drama Love My Way with Claudia in 2003, and has collaborated with her many times since.
"It means you've done a fair bit of reflecting in ways that people who have very stable childhoods don't necessarily. I think those lessons are very valuable and what we're often doing in writers' rooms and writing things is we try to turn our problems into virtues. And that's helped if that's where you've come from."
"The way I evaluate and understand my life is putting it into drama," Karvan says. "Even with my mum, like some devastating crap will happen in my family life and my mum will be crying, 'Can you use this? Can you use this in one of your TV shows?'.
'Yeah, I will, mum. I'll put it in somewhere. It'll be worth it.'"
Says her daughter Audrey: "She actually said to me when we were having a chaotic family Christmas, 'If I didn't have a family like this, I probably wouldn't have had a successful career.'"
Karvan remains close to both her mother and stepfather, who separated many years ago. Her mother lives close by and she visits her regularly. Arthur relocated to Bali and went through something of a transformation.
"He became a Buddhist, he gave up all of his vices," Karvan explains. "If I'm having a difficult time, he's the first person I'll call. And his advice is always very sage."
Karvan's advice to her 20-year-old self
Karvan turned 50 last year and has spent 40 of those years as a professional actor. Remarkably, her star has never burnt brighter. She's receiving glowing reviews for her return to the stage and Bump, the television series she co-created, co-produces and stars in, has been commissioned for a new season.
Since becoming a TV producer in her early 30s, she has worked happily on both sides of the camera, finding ever-more avenues for her creative energies.
"I think Claudia has to be regarded as the most successful producer in Australia," Edwards says. "More so than anybody by miles. As a producer, nearly all of her shows have been hits."
"I could never have predicted to be enjoying my career as much as I am now at 50," she says. "If only I could go back in time and just talk to my 20-year-old self. There's so much pressure on people in their twenties, particularly as an actor, like this is you at your peak, it's all downhill from here. And it's not been like that at all."
On a personal level, she finds herself calmer and more content than she could ever have imagined when she was younger.
She and Sparks separated about six years ago, after almost 22 years together, but maintain a harmonious relationship.
"The best way of really looking at it is you both grow," Sparks says. "Claud certainly grew a lot, as did I, and in that we probably grew apart. It was a choice that Claud made and she made a really good call for us both."
"I think we navigated it extremely well," Karvan says. "It wasn't easy but we all get on very well."
"I don't think I went through what other people would say was a divorce or a normal split whatsoever," says daughter Audrey. "We've had family Christmases all together since the year they split."
Karvan lives surrounded by friends, her days filled with yoga, dance classes and meaningful work. There is nothing accidental about her current stability and contentment.
"Your mental health is something you can never take for granted," she says. "A lot of it is about not allowing yourself to be contaminated by anger or self-pity. Just kindness, openness, generosity, patience, friends, community, avoiding stress. All that sort of stuff."
Audrey looks at her mother's current situation with a sense of happy disbelief.
"The place that she is in right now, it makes me want to be her age. Like, I'm 21 – aren't we all supposed to want to be 21? I'm like looking at my mum and I want to be 50."
Watch Claudia Karvan: Making a Scene on Australian Story on ABC iview.
