Creative Careers: Liv Hewson

Posted on 24 December, 2019

A writer. An actor. A dancer. A singer.

They’re the professions that many of us spend our childhoods aspiring to—but what is the reality of life in the spotlight?

Sarina Talip finds out for HerCanberra’s Summer Magazine: Shine.

LIV HEWSON

Liv Hewson is the redheaded beauty who starred as Drew Barrymore’s daughter Abby in the Netflix zombie dark comedy Santa Clarita Diet. The 24-year-old Canberran lives in Los Angeles, and has experienced the highs and lows of a career in the arts.

Coming out at 16, Liv also identifies as a non-binary person—someone who identifies as “they” rather than “he” or “she.”

By all accounts Liv is successful, but demurs, “I guess I don’t think about success as a place that you’ve arrived at. I think success is only something that you realise has happened to you in hindsight.”

Liv realised early on that acting was it. “I never had any other plans.

“Acting was always what I wanted to do. I was in my first school play when I was nine and from then it was like, ‘Alright, I’m going to keep doing this forever and hopefully someone pays me one day’.”

The Hughes local attended Alfred Deakin High School, but it was star turns with the Canberra Youth Theatre, where Liv really honed their acting skills.

It was “bittersweet” when Santa Clarita Diet was cancelled just after three seasons, which is “always a possibility” when working in television.

“The writers gave me such a gift with Abby. She’s so brave and funny and the real pleasure in playing her was being able to come up with these zingers.”

Working with Drew Barrymore was also a fantastic experience.

In dealing with a cancelled show, it helps that Liv has two films coming out soon—one the Netflix romantic comedy Let It Snow, in which Liv plays a lesbian, and the other, the ensemble drama Bombshell, about Roger Ailes and the women who brought the sexual harassment allegations that forced him to retire from Fox News.

“Let it Snow was a real high for me, just getting to play a gay character, someone like me, in a romantic comedy.”

Working alongside Charlize Theron in Bombshell was also “pretty special,” especially during the #MeToo era.

But Liv is well aware that the work does not always appear.

“What’s unavoidable about this industry is that it ebbs and flows constantly and there is no long-term security…

“The lows do come in those moments when you’re trying to find work: ‘What if nothing ever happens again?’ Every actor goes through that, every person working in the arts, and indeed in some fields outside the arts, people who freelance or work in the gig economy.”

Liv tries to keeps expectations realistic, and when stuck in a “darker place” stays calm about the worse-case scenario.

“OK, what if I never work again? OK, well if you never work again, you could, I don’t know, go back to Australia and do some theatre, or write something, or make an indie film with your friends, or go travel… But you’re not going to die. The world’s not stopped turning. It’s going to be alright… So I try to be gentle with myself.”

As for other Canberrans dreaming of creating, or performing, or writing, Liv says: “Don’t wait for an imagined future in which you are allowed to do it: do it now… Make a habit out of making things if that’s what you want to do.”

Photo: Tommy Garcia. Image supplied.

This article originally appeared in Magazine: Shine for Summer 2019/20, available for free while stocks last. Find out more about Magazine here.

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