Having just left Dancing With The Stars: All Stars last night, Bridie Carter describes the experience as “very different” from when she first appeared on the show in 2007.
WATCH: Bridie Carter shares an update on the Northern NSW floods
“When I did that series way back when, for me, it was absolutely about high quality dancing, entertainment at the highest level, and we had the time to create that. And I had so much creative input. And this series was very different to that for me,” she tells New Idea.
“I am a high achiever, I don’t compete with anyone else, I compete with myself. And if I’m going to entertain you, I’m going to do it in the best way I can. And I tried to do that. But I think the benchmarks were quite different in this series and there were different things at play,” she continues, adding that she wasn’t criticising the format.
Bridie, 51, goes on to explain she felt as though she was “doing other people’s dances”, adding that the thing she was “most cranky” about was that she never got to perform her favourite dance.
“I was actually rehearsing five dances at once. The one where it was actually Bridie dancing, which was bare feet, contemporary, with amazing music that I connected to and a piece that I actually chose myself with my dance partner, I never got to do.”
The dance in question was reminiscent of her time in the first series, where she entered the floor barefoot, and danced with a frame.
“I was just sh*tty that I didn’t get to do that. It had nothing to do with winning, or mirror balls. I just knew people would hopefully love that.”
The actress also tells New Idea that the “schedule was insane” and didn’t align with her work ethic.
“I work as if I’m doing an opening night every dance. I’ve got to master every dance. I’m not very good at cutting corners. And the schedule was not very accommodating to my work ethic,” she says. “I was dancing seven hours a day, seven days a week. And maybe I actually did too much, but I just don’t know how to do it any other way. I don’t go halfway.”
During her time on the show, Bridie confesses that she struggled to “fit in” to the world of reality TV.
“I’m not a celebrity, I’m an actor, and I felt far more absolutely this series that I was in the world of reality television, and I find that very uncomfortable because I don’t want to be a reality television star.
“I’m Bridie Carter the actor who wants to tell stories and connect with people at home, that’s my world. I think a lot of people there were more familiar with that world and, for me, I didn’t feel like I fitted in at all; I felt really uncomfortable actually a lot of the time.”
Despite all of this, the 51-year-old stresses she is “grateful” that Channel Seven offered her the job in the middle of the pandemic.
“I’m a realist,” she says. “I live in Australia and our industry is really small and there’s not as much drama as reality television now. So when I get a job offer, I say ‘thank you so much and yes I’m coming’. We don’t live in a country where actors might go ‘oh, I don’t know, it’s not really my cup of tea’. Most of us say yes to everything and anything because we’ve got to pay our mortgage and we’ve got children to feed.”
The pandemic certainly placed a horrific strain on many incomes. Now, the floods in Northern NSW are having an equally damning effect on the citizens of impacted communities, including Lismore – which is Bridie’s farming community.
The star has seen first-hand the damage that is still underway, and is hoping to raise awareness and funds for the disaster.
“Catastrophic, unbelievable, and devastating. I suppose they’re three words,” Bridie tells New Idea when describing the situation, adding that she’s “very unsure of what the way forward is”.
The actress lives on a farm with her husband and children, but stresses that she is “so fortunate” her property is on higher ground.
“My farm is elevated so not one bit of my farm flooded,” she says. “Outside my gates is devastation. I’m just very blessed and very grateful.”
Throughout the natural disaster, Bridie says she’s been “inspired by the people around (her)” as communities continue to come together to lend a helping hand.
“When tragedy hits, you really find out who your friends are and who your community is. And often people’s best traits come forward,” she muses.
The McLeod’s Daughters actress goes on to share touching stories of the “spirit in action” she’s witnessed during the disaster, speaking of a man who travelled from Sydney to deliver a generator, and another townsperson who gave out free coffees for people cleaning up.
But it’s the story about her optometrist that hits Bridie the hardest, with the star getting emotional as she explains that the “trauma hits in different ways”.
“When we had the floods in 2017, everyone put hearts up in their window in Lismore when people were up and running again,” the Home & Away star tells us. “I drove past my optometrist and they had a string of hearts in the window. No shop or business, total devastation right up to the awning, but there were these hearts.
“I have great faith in human beings.”
Being far away from the devastation, Bridie acknowledges it’s easy to feel removed from the tragedies, but emphasises that the community is “by no means out of the crisis yet”.
“Everyone’s still in crisis, and everyone’s still in shock. But don’t go away because that help will be needed. It’s just that everyone’s trying to get out of crisis and rescue right now. A lot of communities are by no means in that state of recovery, they’re still reacting to an emergency. A little further south down from us communities like Broadwater and Woodburn and Coraki, they’re still being rescued.
“I don’t believe the fatalities are over either,” the actor adds.
The main form of assistance we can bring in at the moment is money.
“Donate whatever you can,” the DWTS star says. “If you haven’t got it, please don’t, because we’ve all been through a pretty hellish two years as well. Trauma, upon trauma, upon trauma.
“If you’ve got it, please give it. the Lismore City Council has direct donations and the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre is taking direct donations both on their website.”
Find out more about how to donate to the floods below:
Donate to the Lismore Flood Fund
Australian Red Cross QLD & NSW Floods appeal
Echo Northern Rivers 2022 flood donation appeal
