With an impressive resume to her name, actress Jane Allsop has worked hard to carve a name for herself in the arts over the last three decades. But as she sits down with New Idea to talk about the multiple plates she has spinning these days, we soon realise there is much more going on in her world than purely her career.
First and foremost, Jane is a mum of four and is “enormously busy” managing all their “different personalities” and age gaps.
“My eldest Indiana, 17, he’s currently in America in Arizona, and my twin girls Skyler and Willow are six,” she shares.
“My second born, Jagger, 15, is madly into motocross and flying through the air on motorbikes. That keeps my heart pumping.”
Adding, “We’re dealing with teenage issues, but then also, teaching other people to swim – it’s quite the spread.”
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It’s no surprise with her full agenda that Jane, who resides in Melbourne’s inner city with her husband David Serafin, admits they “may have missed” their golden retriever Marley’s birthday, who has apparently just turned two.
“He’s adorable,” Jane says with a smile.
“He’s come to a very hectic home and taken one look around the joint and gone ‘If I don’t look after myself here, I’m gonna choke on something.’ He’s going to have to keep his wits about him.”
Jane, 48, has lived with “quite severe skin allergies” for most of her life, and during the COVID lockdowns, “going slightly mad” she decided to use her pent-up creativity to build a makeup line using organic ingredients called Zoey + Zara – the middle names of her daughters.
“The idea had been bubbling in my mind for a really long time,” she explains of her exciting new business, which also includes cocktail-flavoured lip balms.
With her twin girls suffering from multiple health issues when they were born, Jane also made the benevolent decision to donate five percent of all profits to Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital.
“It’s been lovely to tap into something else that’s not acting that I have a little bit of control over,” she adds.
Acting is still very much a part of her, however, and for her latest venture Jane plays Louise Fisher in the new action series Heat, a role she tells us was “really enjoyable” to play and a “delight” to create a friendship on-screen with real-life pal, Pia Miranda.
The show centres around two families whose secrets are unveiled when they find themselves trapped in the path of a bushfire.
The series also stars Englishman Danny Dyer, who didn’t get the sunny climate he was hoping for during the shoot.
“It was meant to be bushfire season and it ended up basically cold, rainy and muddy,” Jane reveals.
“Danny was quite disappointed that his little trip to Australia he’d envisioned being all about sunshine turned out to be as dreary as England!”
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Jane considers herself “blessed” to have had the career she has had, but admits the industry has “definitely changed” in a positive way in terms of young actresses “learning the ropes.”
“There’s more protection in terms of intimacy coaches these days,” she says.
“That didn’t exist back then. You were kind of expected to go for it. I don’t begrudge that, things were different 20 years ago, it was just different.”
Although Jane shares she has accepted there are less roles for women as they age, she understands to be an actor means embracing the “random ride” and your progress may not look linear.
“There’s just a different kind of gold in every opportunity,” she states warmly.
“Sometimes it’s about exploring or challenging yourself in a role that maybe you didn’t think you were capable of.”
When it comes to giving advice to budding actors, which she does regularly as a teacher at Brave Studios, Jane wants to help creatives understand “it’s not always about the best person getting the job” and it sometimes boils down to “things that are out of your control” when it comes to landing a gig.
“It can be quite gruelling if you get caught up in the idea of tying your self-worth to when you get jobs – it’s not worth it,” she says.
“I wish I had someone tell me that.”
