If you’re someone who had a television between 1988 and, well, now, chances are you know who Georgie Parker is. She’s a TV icon and one of Australia’s most beloved actresses.
First appearing in her breakthrough role on A Country Practice in 1988, Parker is also well-known for her role in other popular shows like All Saints (in the golden era of Australian TV) — and, of course, her long-running stint as Roo Stewart in Home & Away.
Watch: Speaking of Home and Away, here’s another Aussie TV icon, Kate Ritchie, on leaving Home and Away. Post continues below.
What you may not be aware of, however, is that for most of her life, the double Gold Logie winner has been coping with a serious medical condition that forced her to give up her dream of becoming a ballet dancer in favor of acting.
At 13, Parker’s aspirations of pursuing a dance career were crushed when she was diagnosed with scoliosis (a condition that causes a curvature of the spine) and had to wear a back brace. In that pivotal moment, she chose to explore acting instead.
Reflecting on her journey in an interview with Stellar, she explained, “I had to learn, or rather embrace, very early on, that how I looked was only the surface. And so I just carried that mindset with me throughout my life.
“Being told ‘no’ helped me strategise,” she said. “When they say you can’t do that anymore, I’ll go: that’s all right. I’ll find something else that I want to do. It just helps you become more flexible and more open to adapting.”
Her condition, however, continues to have an impact on her physical health. Parker now has an 80-degree curvature of the spine and has undergone a double hip replacement.
“It’s something I have to deal with every day, and it’s ongoing,” she explained. “I can’t say it hasn’t been difficult, but I wouldn’t change it.”
Now, as she approaches her 60th birthday, Parker looks at her diagnosis as something that has not only defined her professional journey — but also shaped her views on resilience and ageing.
“I’ve never felt weird about getting older,” she shared.
“There seems to be a whole different rhetoric around men ageing and women ageing. But it all means the same thing. We all end up in the same place.”
“You can get too caught up in your head about how you look,” she added. “That’s the last thing you want to be doing as an actor. You just don’t want to be thinking about how you’re looking.”
Touching on her personality and the traits of some of her most famous on-screen characters over the years, Parker said, “I’m naturally enthusiastic, or as [Home And Away co-star] Ray Meagher would say, exuberant.”
“Lucy in A Country Practice was quite eccentric,” she said of her first role in 1988. “Terri [of All Saints] was the good girl who tried to save her whole family by becoming a nun. She was a really interesting character, very different from me. I just loved finding her.”
And Roo Stewart? Parker described her as “a rough diamond”, adding that her long-running role in Home And Away (since 2010) feeds her need for creativity, while still allowing her to balance family life (Parker is mum to a 24-year-old daughter Holly, who she shares with her husband, screenwriter Steve Worland).
In an interview with Women’s Day, Parker previously talked about how juggling a demanding career with motherhood proved challenging.
“I got married [in 1999, to writer Steve Worland] and had just become a mum when I won the first Gold Logie,” she told TV Week in a past interview. “I was split between a lot of things — it was a very stressful time, while also being a very stimulating time.”
Parker returned to the All Saints set just 17 weeks after giving birth.
“The struggle I had was that I’d never chased that kind of success, so when I got it, I was doing it more because I wanted the show to succeed. It [the success] also pivoted around my character, so I felt responsible. If that meant I had to put myself out there, then I had to do it.”
Speaking of her work family at Home And Away with Stellar, she shared, “I love the crew, many of whom [worked on A Country Practice and] I’ve worked with since I was 22. It’s a very happy, tight-knit family, and that makes it incredibly enjoyable.”
Looking forward, Parker maintains that her condition — which can become progressively debilitating — is not going to slow her down.
“I just do what I can, and when I can’t do what I’m doing now, I’ll change what I want to do,” she shared. “My mum has just turned 90 and Dad is 94, and they defy what it is to be any age.”
“It really does come down to the person.”
