Having carved a career spanning several decades, WA-raised Tasma Walton is used to having to travel widely for her acting work.
But her most recent job, filming a role for the second season of Binge’s award-winning drama The Twelve, saw her just around the corner from her house — and she couldn’t have been happier.
“It’s always great to be working at home, that’s for sure,” says the 50-year-old star, who lives in the suburbs of Perth with husband Rove McManus and their 10-year-old daughter, Ruby.
“Particularly when your home is as beautiful as Perth.
“It’s lovely to be able to go home at the end of the day; to be able to do the things you need to do for your family, and not feel like you are away from them.”
Filming for the second season of The Twelve began in August last year, shooting in Perth — the ABC studios double for the courtroom — York, Northam and other parts of the Wheatbelt.
The production, which dominated last year’s Logie Awards, is Western Australia’s biggest ever, and brings together one of the largest ensembles of any series produced in Australia — 11 Perth-raised or based stars are front and centre.
“It’s so wonderful,” Walton says of the local connection.
“The production is such a gift to people with families; to be . . . home, to be around your extended family unit and to be able to do your work.
“Last night I got to go home. My daughter was still up and I could put her to bed.
“Often, you are away for an extended period of time. And the hours are not kind to families.“
The Twelve, which will hit screens on July 11, also saw a host of big names descend on the State, including Sam Neill, reprising his role as lawyer Brett Colby SC, and WA-raised Frances O’Connor, who returned to her home town to play his colleague and lover.
Joining them are Kris McQuade, Amy Mathews, Erroll Shand, Fayssal Bazzi and The Block’s Sharon Johal, along with many others.
The second season sees Neill’s character travel to the fictional town of Tunkwell in WA, “a world away from the urban city landscapes of season one” to preside over the case of a wealthy local woman who it appears has been murdered by her daughter and her daughter’s partner.
Walton plays one of the jurors.
“It’s been absolutely wonderful working on the show,” she says.
“I love a big ensemble piece — I think it’s a gift to actors, this sort of work, because they have really thought through every character.
“(Each character) has depth and complexity, and there’s an incredible storyline — that’s a wonderful canvas to get to play on.”
Walton’s character goes on a significant journey of self-discovery during the course of the show.
“She’s the type of person who’s always had a very contained, sheltered world — she has her husband, her chickens, her farm and her job at the council, and she likes that order and structure,” Walton explains.
“Her life is just continuing on known parameters until she gets called up (to be a juror), and she’s really taken out of her comfort zone with that.
“ . . . Through the course of the trial, she comes to realise she needs to confront some prejudices that her lived experience has taught her.”
As well as filming for The Twelve, Walton has had a busy year working on another, intensely personal, project.
She is writing a novel, I Am Nan’nert’garrook, a work of historical fiction based on the true events of her ancestor’s abduction by sealers from coastal Melbourne.
“I have always felt that that was an important story that needed to be given proper weight,” she explains.
She admits her work on the book, which she has been thinking about writing for years, has taken a toll.
“It can be really hard going there because there is a lot of brutality (in that) story,” she says.
“There’s a lot of challenging material and things that we will need to, at some point as a collective society, turn a light on to and discuss and explore.”