A great article on Deb
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Deborra-Lee: The good wife Sandra Lee
Sunday Magazine
November 10, 20126:00PM
Deborra-Lee wears: Giorgio Armani blouse; Ann Demeulemeester tie. DEBORRA-LEE Furness is making a conscious effort to enjoy some r&r on home soil while Hugh films his next blockbuster.
For a self-confessed Type A personality for whom inertia is an aversion, Deborra-lee Furness has embarked on a personal challenge with her superstar husband, Hugh Jackman, that can only be described as, well, entirely out of character.
"We're trying to master 'The Hang'," she says, almost purring the words while pushing her hands out to the side like a maestro in front of an orchestra. "Richard Marx, the singer, taught us. He said, 'You guys need to do The Hang,' I suppose because Hugh and I are such Type A personalities - we do this, we do that, we're always on the go," she says, clicking her fingers.
"We're ridiculously busy and, frankly, the kids are, too, with school and homework and after-school activities. So, on weekends, we do The Hang; we go to the beach and then," she pauses for effect, "we hang."
Furness has chosen the perfect place to learn to chill. In July, the family returned to Sydney from New York, where they live in a Greenwich Village apartment Furness recently renovated - interior design and art are both passions. Nearing the end of Jackman's five-month stint shooting the latest $100 million instalment in the X-Men franchise, The Wolverine, the family is nestled in the Eastern Suburbs. They traded their Hudson River view for one of Sydney Harbour, and the kids - Oscar, 12, and Ava, 7 - go to local schools.
"They love Australia. They love being part-Australian. You know what? I've lived most of my adult life as an expat, and there's something thrilling about coming home, seeing pavlova and Vegemite and vanilla slices," she says, laughing with childlike enthusiasm. "Seeing family, catching up with friends and barbecues - we love it."
Weekends are key to mastering their new pursuit. Saturdays are especially dedicated to immediate family, the tight-knit Jackman Four. The day starts with such verve, though, you can't help but think The Hang might be out of reach. "Up and at 'em!" Furness says. "Bathers on, wetsuits in the back of the car, down to Bondi Beach, Aqua Bar for a spectacular breakfast - the breakfasts in Sydney are the best - and surfing at Bondi. Then the beautiful local produce market, with all the people who come from the country to sell their produce, kids playing and The Hang. Back at the house, we might play a game, jump on the trampoline. It means you don't have a plan and you see what evolves. The kids enjoy it. My kids don't slow down, but they like to hang just with us, with mum and dad. They play with us and we play, too.
"The kids think we're wacky," she adds. "Mum and Dad are in showbiz - they don't know any other way. They've grown up travelling all over the world and are getting a worldly education. My son is 12 and he can speak eloquently on religions and cultures."
We're talking in a cavernous studio at the end of a four-hour photoshoot for sunday magazine which began with a 7am hair and make-up call. At 56, Furness's laugh lines reveal a life well lived, but the years have treated her gently. Her cheekbones are perfectly chiselled, her eyes piercing blue.
Being a Type A personality, she's brought her own clothes and shoes, and prefers to wear her hair her way (swept back and up, chignon style), despite having a leading hairdresser on hand - although she does concede to letting her hair down for just one picture. As a graduate of the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Furness knows how to work a camera. She moves fluidly without instruction and commands the scene. Yet, for all that, she's no diva. Indeed, she's the very opposite: a nurturing woman comfortable with herself.
Furness and Jackman met on the set of the acclaimed ABC drama Correlli in 1995, and married a year later. She had recently returned from LA for another role, before she landed the eponymous gig of Louisa Correlli. A critically acclaimed actor, she was the unequivocal star with a string of film and TV credits to her name, including Fire, Halifax FP, Shame and The Flying Doctors. Jackman, by contrast, was an unknown entity straight out of acting school and 13 years younger.
"There he was, my future husband. Pretty damn spectacular," Furness recalls. "We were two beads that met; we were meant to meet at that juncture in time."
I ask if Furness knew Jackman was 'the one' straightaway.
"Nope. He did," she says with brio. "It took me a while. I think I knew when I started to think, oh, damn, there's not a scene with Hugh today."
Jackman, now 44 and something of a traditionalist, proposed in the Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne and visited Furness's single mother, Fay Duncan, soon after to seek her support.
"He said, 'I've just proposed to Deborra-lee and I'd like your blessing,'" Duncan recalls. "I think he thought I'd go, 'Yay!' and, on the inside, I did, but I made him sit down. 'This is my daughter you're marrying and you have to look after her,' I said. I made him promise to love her forever, never go to bed on an argument and that he had to be the patron of [our] Fight Cancer Foundation.
"I'm blessed to have her as happy as she is. Hugh loves her as much as she loves him; they're beautiful together. I think that's all any mum wants - for her kids to be happy."
If you watched the broadcast of the 2012 Tony Awards in New York, you would have had a front row seat to their love. Furness parked her nerves and dislike of public speaking to surprise her husband by presenting him with a Special Tony Award for his humanitarian work. (She told him she was popping out to "go to the loo".)
Jackman was shocked, elated and, mostly, moved - nearly to tears. "As I hold this [Tony Award] in my hand, there is something I hold in here which is the real reason why I am here today, why any of
this is possible and why any of this means anything," he said, tapping his chest over his heart and urging Furness to "Come here, baby". "And that is because my incredible wife and kids support me. I love you, with all my heart."
And with that, the man People magazine once named Sexiest Man Alive planted a big smacker on his wife's lips.
Furness was touched, but quickly adds, "That's who we are. Our lives are together; both of us feel connected. We're with our partners to share this life. But it is lovely when your partner says something in public, I suppose. He raises the bar."
Furness remains a sought-after actor and will choose one or two of three Australian movie offers to shoot at home next year. But her "number one priority" are Oscar ("My baby, an extraordinary child") and Ava ("A mini me, make 'em lafffff, a mini Ethel Merman," she belts out, Broadway-style).
"Ava is very outgoing and loves to dance and sing. She's always doing cartwheels. She says she want to look after all the animals in the world," the proud mum says. "I think Oscar will be an artist - he's talented. People already want to buy his paintings. I have his art hanging up at home and people ask, 'Who's this?' and I say, 'Oscar Jackman'."
Furness is a hands-on mother, and those who know her well, such as renowned Australian photographer Russell James, are impressed by "how few layers there are" between her and others. "Of all the amazing attributes about Deb, her greatest is her dedication to creating a normal life for her kids and family," he says.
Furness sums it up thus: "I'm a stage manager."
It seems an appropriate trait given her vast commitments: motherhood, family, acting and then, of course, her time-consuming involvement in a string of charities, not the least being her high-profile role as the founding member of National Adoption Awareness Week.
"There's an overall anti-adoption culture [in Australia]; it has no energy, no enthusiasm. It needs an overhaul," she says, firing up the passion a couple of notches.
"We have one of the lowest adoption rates in the world and so many resources. This is why I started talking, because I have two [adopted] children and people would come up to me and say, 'I'd love to, but it's too hard.' I didn't expect to be sitting here, five years on, and still be talking about this and trying to change it."
Furness believes a "one-door policy" should be introduced to streamline adoptions and make them less complicated on all levels, within Australia and internationally.
"You show up and jump through all the hoops, and pass the accreditation, and you don't say, 'I am on the Ethiopia program, I am on the Thai program, I am on the Parramatta program.' You should show up, say, 'I want to parent a child,' and they match a child with your profile - whether that child comes from Parramatta or Nigeria."
Her own children see Furness's commitment to the issue as part of their mum's work. "The other day, Ava said, 'Mum does adoption' and I thought, wow! I was really proud because they've heard me talk about it, but I never thought they were paying attention - you know, 'Mum and Dad just do their thing.'"
The husband and wife team also promote Nomad Two Worlds, a charity and business founded by James that raises awareness of indigenous cultures around the world through the arts. Then there was Jackman's promise to Duncan, which sees the couple promote the Fight Cancer Foundation.
If that's not enough, Furness, Jackman and their kids are ambassadors for World Vision. They travelled as a family to Cambodia in 2008 and Ethiopia in 2009 with the charity's Australian chief executive, the Reverend Tim Costello, to learn about poverty first-hand. Costello says it was a "tribute to them" that they wanted to go without any media or attendant publicity.
"There are no airs and graces; they're a breath of fresh air," Costello says. "There's no doubt that no matter where you come from, once you're a celebrity, people start to act and behave like celebrities. They have stayed who they are."
When I ask Furness if life just keeps getting better, she looks a little askance. "It's the same as everyone's experience. It's not a Disney movie. But do I love my life? Yes." And guess when she's most happy? "Doing The Hang."
A LIFE OF CHARITY
National Adoption Awareness Week
Furness founded the organisation in 2008 and will launch the 2012 campaign tomorrow. "People say I'm an adoption advocate; I'm not," she says. "I'm a child advocate when adoption is right. Let's do it the best, most ethical way we can. And that means community development, trying to keep families together first." Visit
www.adoptionawareness week.com.au.
Nomad Two Worlds
"Last year Deb, Hugh and the kids went to Berlin to host the opening of Nomad Two Worlds in Europe," says founder Russell James. "It's one thing to turn up at an event in your home town; it's a whole other to cross countries to support it." Visit
www.nomadstwoworlds.com.
Fight Cancer Foundation
In 1989, Fay Duncan and her friend, John Opie, whose daughter had leukaemia, set up an Australian bone marrow transplant register. Since then it's helped more than 2200 cancer patients around the world. "My mum is a remarkable woman who gave up a high-flying job to create the bone marrow registry," says Furness, a foundation patron. Visit
www.fightcancer.org.au.
World Vision
"The public can be cynical when a celebrity adds a good cause to their CV on publicity advice," says World Vision CEO Tim Costello. "That's absolutely the opposite for Deb and Hugh. They were committed about wanting to understand. They're well informed and have been terrific in representing us." Visit
www.worldvision.com.au.
Read more:
www.news.com.au/news/deborra-lee-the-good-wife/story-fnejnq21-1226513669798#ixzz2Bnpg7Jtk<<<
