From dressing in drag to playing Streisand on his Harley, there’s a lot more on the flipside of Wentworth’s good-guy Robbie Magasiva, as The Celebrity Whisperer discovered!
Wentworth has been a massive success. What’s the secret to its success?
I put it down to Foxtel allowing Marcia Gardner and her group of writers to produce what they’ve wanted to do. Both Foxtel and Fremantle have given the writers that freedom. Also when first casting, they decided to look outside of the box, rather than taking the easy road and casting the usual actors. And the calibre of powerful female actors is just outstanding. Pamela Rabe, Susie Porter, Leah Purcell…the just list goes on. We also have an amazing crew and production company and have created what we call the ‘Wentworth family’.
Your character Will Jackson has certainly had his drama. Do you ever find the role challenging?
I take great pride in the role, and this sort of work really gets my blood pumping. This show has given me everything I could ever want as an actor. It’s challenging both emotionally and physically, which is what you want. It can be challenging in terms of trying to get into to a certain emotion, but I love the process. If you talk to any actor, they’ll say exactly the same thing.
You’ve really got a role that a lot of actors would kill for.
Oh hell, yeah! It’s the same with the female roles too. When the ladies on our show go to the Logies, they discover most of the female actors in Australia are busting for any Wentworth audition that comes up.
Where is Will headed this season?
I don’t want to give too much away. I think in the past, there was only one point where Will saw happiness, which was episode one of season one. He discovered his wife dead, and from then on it’s been the same road of guilt and every other emotion. He’s gone through a lot, and I just hope that this season he finds happiness.
Your colleague Bernard Curry is also a DNA Straight Mate. He speaks highly of you.
Oh yes, when it comes to Bernard, it’s wonderful having his energy around. He’s very talented and giving when we’re on set, and he’s also funny as hell. Since Aaron Jeffery left, we’re the only male cast, but we’ve now got David de Lautour playing the new doctor – another Kiwi!
Have you ever played a gay role?
I did a play where my character wasn’t gay, but took revenge on his family by having sex with his stepmother, stepbrother and stepsister. I was the brother and they didn’t know I was related to them all, and wanted revenge for what they did to my biological mother. It was called My Name Is Gary Cooper, and was written by my gay friend.
Do you get the whole man in uniform appeal thing?
I kind of got a glimpse of it from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman and then Top Gun, but I never really got the whole sense of it. When my girlfriend Natalie first saw me in my Wentworth costume, she said, “You know that whole man in uniform thing? Well, It doesn’t work on you Babe.” (Laughing) I thought well that’s nice!
But I think your uniform definitely works on Vera…and Jake! When are Will and Jake going to get together?
(Laughing) When Jake first came onto the show, that’s what everyone was saying. “Oh my God, Will Jackson and Jake should definitely get it on!”
Do you have a best gay mate?
I do, his name is Victor Rodger and he wrote the play I mentioned. He’s been writing stuff for me for a long time. In fact, I’m going to take him a copy of the latest DNA!
This month is our wedding edition. Have you been to a gay wedding?
Yes, it was actually my first one. Kate Saunders who’s in charge of our art department married her long-term partner Kath last year, down on the beach in Williamstown. I was wonderful.
Have you been into any gay clubs?
Yes, there’s a gay bar back home in Auckland called Family, and another gay friend of mine Harry, took me there. He said, “Stay by my side!” I’m like “Why?” And he’s “Seriously, stay by my side!” I soon discovered why! (Laughing).
If you were gay, who would you go for?
I’d say Eric Bana. I like them tall and handsome. I can’t have someone small or I’ll squash them! I also like Cliff Curtis back home in New Zealand. He always plays the bad guy. Funny thing is, I told jokingly told my fried Victor that if I were gay I’d do him. But when we had the same conversation a few years later, he said he now preferred my brother Pua who’s also an actor!
You have a Samoan heritage. How would you say Straight Mate in Samoan?
Uso Sao!
What’s the campest song you’ll dance to?
Would you believe that every year I do a drag queen act on set? It started off in Season One when we were giving out presents at our Christmas lunch. I was asked to play Santa and said I’d rather play Mrs Claus! So our makeup artist did me up as Mrs Claus and I sung Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas as I gave out the presents. So that became a thing and now that crew will ask me “What are you going to do this year?” Each year I’m a different diva!
So who’s your diva?
Streisand. I love her songs. My favourite is Guilty with Barry Gibb. In fact, Kate Atkinson who plays Vera the Governor came to see me a few months back in New Zealand. I have a big Harley, so she was on the back, I put on my playlist and Guilty comes on. She lost her shit! And you should’ve seen the faces on the people as I pulled up at the lights!
You had a role in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. What was that experience like?
That was a bizarre experience. We we were flown down to Wellington at 4.30am, taken to makeup and all fall asleep for three hours while they worked on us. We’d wake up later, forgetting what the makeup people had done, look in the mirror and see this…Uruk-hai! I also remember I had to drink through a straw because I couldn’t open my mouth!
Have you ever had an on-set wardrobe malfunction?
I’ve had a malfunction, not so much wardrobe, but during a sex scene in a film called Stick Me. It opens with the other actors playing pool while I’m having sex with one of the girls. It was my first ever sex scene and I was fucking nervous as! The girl had to put her hand slowly into my undies and then…well, things started to happen down there! It went ‘boink’, just as they said cut. She took her hand out and by that stage it had gone up! I stood up with a huge erection and the boom operator gave me a double take!
At the beach is it boardies or budgies?
Boardies! You Aussies love your budgies, but back home we’ll give them a certain look.
You guys would have Kiwi smugglers?
(Laughing) I’m boardies all the way! But if my girlfriend and I have the beach to ourselves we like to go naked!
And are you briefs, fitted boxers or freeballs?
Briefs! They’re more comfortable and hold everything together. In fact I hate undies altogether. I can’t sleep in undies or T-shirt. I sleep naked!
Wentworth returns to Foxtel Showcase 28 May
