Love My Way: articles


Julia's progress

NEUROTIC and controlling, Love My Way's Julia is not one of television's most cuddly characters.

She's run over a former lover, been busted for shoplifting and doesn't hold back when telling people what she really thinks.

But the woman who knows her best, actor Asher Keddie, believes the career-driven blonde has come a long way since the show began.

"I think a certain level of self acceptance has kicked in, particularly after she kind of spiralled out of control in the second series," Keddie says.

"She definitely has a little more wisdom under her belt and she's been able to recognise who she really loves and who she needs in her life."

In that regard, Keddie and her alter ego have one important person in common ­ actor Dan Wyllie, who plays her husband, Charlie.

When Keddie married fellow thespian Jay Bowen in Melbourne last month, Wyllie was the only guest the couple asked to make a speech.

"He was a very big part of my life before I met my husband and now he's just as much a part of Jay's life," she says. "We would have changed the wedding date if he wasn't there. It's as simple as that."

Keddie describes the success of Love My Way, which begins its third season on Monday, as one of those "really lucky happenings".

"It's just unfolded this way and it absolutely feels right that we're still here telling the story of this family," she says.

"I feel like I've done some serious growing up in the last three years and I'm sure Love My Way, and in particular this character of all the characters I've played, has allowed me to have a good look at myself as well."

In series three, Julia's life appears to be at a much more stable juncture ­ until the arrival of her estranged sister, the mysterious Simone, played by Justine Clarke.

"We've always known that she doesn't have a good relationship with her family, so it's been great to see whether she can actually embrace her family members in the way she's embraced her extended family," Keddie says.

At a time when Australian drama budgets have been slashed, Keddie says there are signs that LMW has provoked a new way of thinking about television.

"I am hearing talk of a good push towards keeping the bar up there and raising it," she says.

"I feel really heartened by that talk and the fact that producers are being bold and brave enough to go there as well.

"There's a real need for us as an industry to give audiences intelligent, complicated and interesting stories because that's what our lives are like. That's reality."

As for the future of LMW, Keddie will only say that filming the final scene of series three was "incredibly freeing".

"You never know," she says cryptically. "Our show is full of ambiguity so we could surprise you."

Love My Way, Showtime, Monday, Feb 26, 7.30pm

By Erica Thompson
February 20, 2007
The Courier-Mail