'People Are Funny & Vulnerable & Messy & A Bit Shit': Kat Stewart Finds Humour In Truth

“I have memories that I can call on to make me laugh immediately, and they won’t be funny to anyone else, but it’s usually something visual or stupid that someone’s done,” Kat Stewart begins. 

Working as an understudy in the 1999 commercial run of Popcorn in Sydney and Melbourne, Stewart recalls mucking around with a castmate – and even just the memory of his antics can make her laugh.

“We had to do a scene in our underwear and it was not sexy, it was just ridiculous, and he'd do an amazing impression of ET with his jocks hitched up before we'd go on stage. Even now, it reduces me.” 

Now that Stewart is thick into her run as the star of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Heisenberg, she has time in the early afternoon to take The Music’s call after heading to her kid’s music class. 

“I have some funny people in my life that make me laugh. I have a three-year-old and a seven-year-old that give me endless opportunities to laugh,” Stewart says.

Stewart returns again and again to her family, colleagues and friends – they are who make her laugh. Having built a career with comedic and dramatic roles on Australian television sets and theatre stages, Stewart is not short on hilarious people in her life. 

She cites people like Rob Brydon, who she starred opposite in Supernova, and Shaun Micallef, with whom she worked on Newstopia and Mr & Mrs Murder. She also brings up the cast of Offspring, where she played big sister Billie for seven seasons, including Asher Keddie, Lachy Hulme, Jane Harber and Alicia Gardner. 

Brydon is just one co-star who was always trying to push her to the point of "corpsing" – to make her laugh and ruin the take. 

“Some actors are really naughty and wanna make you laugh,” she explains. “Like it's their mission to make you laugh. So that's kind of the delicious push-pull of the scene sometimes – to see how far they can push it without you losing your mind. Holding onto a laugh is just the best fun. It’s one of my favourite things.”

To recover from that moment of laughter is just to let it all out, wait for it to pass and then start again. “That's one of the best things. There aren't too many jobs where you get to contend with that kind of problem – what a fantastic problem to have.”  

"I probably gravitate towards the light rather than the dark now – in life generally, really.”

When Stewart pares it all back, she reckons what makes her laugh is the truth, whether she finds that watching This Time With Alan Partridge or her favourite movie of all time, Tootsie. Or she finds that honesty when she’s bingeing Kath & Kim in the wake of a break-up and feeling much better – before she met her husband, actor David Whiteley.

“I think what really tickles my funny bone is honesty, because honesty's always compelling. I get a real laugh from something that's truthful as well as something that's odd or quirky.” 

Rhythm too is a major player in whether Stewart finds something funny or not, on whether a laugh line lands. And that, she says, all comes down to instinct: “Some people are just naturally funny. Some people understand how to deliver a funny line.

“It's really interesting, performing in a play at the moment, the lines that get a laugh,” Stewart muses. “Sometimes I think it's not always about content alone, it's about the rhythm that invites an audience to respond with laughter.”

To combine rhythm and honesty, in an acting sense, is to play every line “for real”. It’s easy to get caught out if you’re too obviously trying to get a laugh.

“It also is a great safety net too, because if you're playing it for real, at least it'll work dramatically, so even if you don't get the laugh, it's still working. Whereas if you're kind of obviously playing for laughs, a), you might not get a laugh, and b), it's gonna be cheap anyway. You're better off playing it for truth or playing it with massive stakes,” Stewart concludes.  

That sense of playing characters for truth is something Stewart notices in the shows she watched growing up, like The Young Ones or Fawlty Towers.

“They're completely played for truth with massive stakes and they're quite physical, both of them. And they've both got appalling characters in them,” Stewart laughs, “that are delicious to watch.” 

She cites Newstopia as an example of that honest style of storytelling – played for truth, despite elements of absurd, physical humour. 

“That was mad stuff – kind of interviews and sketches – and the thing was [Shaun Micallef] always played it, no matter how ridiculous it was or how many bizarre wigs they put on us, he always, always played it for truth. I think that's the key.”

Stewart currently stars as Liz in Five Bedrooms on Channel 10, describing Roz Hammond, who plays the role of her boss, as “an incredible physical comedian” who also approaches her characters from a position of honesty. Even if she’s just honest about being “absolutely revolted” by even the idea of taking a shot at a house party.

“[Her character is] always – case in point – absolutely played with absolute truth, but with such force she's irresistible. I find her hilarious. “

As the mother of a seven and three-year-old, Stewart says she’s “exposed to a lot of poo humour… and I’ve been fine with that”. Being a parent has “softened” her sense of humour, as she watches more and more Pixar movies: “I'm genuinely happy to take my son to one of those, because a), it's some quiet and it's comfortable, but also there's always stuff for the grown-ups.

“I think in your 20s you like to think you're a bit, y'know, you have edgier, darker tastes, but then you get a bit older and you have kids and you kind of mellow out a little bit. So I probably gravitate towards the light rather than the dark now – in life generally, really.” 

Even when Stewart is playing a more dramatic role, she says she is attuned to finding moments of light and levity in the script, to help create a “full-bodied, three-dimensional character”. It’s about teasing out opportunities for humour, rather than imposing them: “My taste is to find moments of levity when you can because I think that's what we do as humans.

“People are funny and vulnerable and messy and a bit shit. That's what people are,” she laughs. 

“Even if we're miserable, we don't go looking for misery, we look for relief, we look for deflection. I think it's important to try to find those moments when you're putting a character together – even if it's a straight, dramatic role people still have senses of humour.”

The success of shows like Offspring or Five Bedrooms seems to come, in some ways, from their mix of comedy and drama. As viewers, Stewart notes, we don’t “wanna see misery, drudgery all the way through”.

“I think [as] human beings, we strain for the sunlight. We wanna take that gasp of oxygen. Often, you get more, with storytelling, with some sugar, not beating people over the head with messages or heavy sentiments. I'm not interested in sitting in the depths of it all – I'm much more interested in finding light and shade. I think it's a great thing to look for, to strive for.”  

Heisenberg plays until 6 Jul at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. 

Five Bedrooms airs Wednesdays on Channel 10.