Radha Mitchell opens up about Disney drama Last Days Of The Space Age, set in Perth in 1979
The year is 1979, the city Perth, Western Australia.
In the early hours of July 12, residents in the South West are woken by bright light and loud sonic booms, as NASA’s first manned space station, Skylab, disintegrates on its way back down to Earth, scattering debris across almost 4000km.
When a US technical team comes to investigate, their first stop is Perth’s Entertainment Centre, to authenticate a big fragment that is to feature later that week in a worldwide TV broadcast of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, being held outside the US for the first time.
It is a fascinating chapter in the city’s history and the chance to explore it was one of the drawcards for actor Radha Mitchell when she signed on for Disney’s new series, Last Days Of The Space Age.
In the lead-up to filming the show, which, though set in Perth, was shot on the east coast, she watched old footage and read news stories about Skylab and how it played into the dramas that unfolded, including at the famous beauty contest.
That event, with its hastily authenticated chunk of Skylab in attendance, now lives in infamy — shortly after Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela was crowned Miss Universe, the wooden stage famously collapsed with the beauties standing on top of it.
Camera IconMiss Universe 1979: the stage at the Entertainment Centre famously collapsed during the pageant. Pictured (from left): Miss Costa Rica, Miss Scotland and Miss England. Credit: Unknown
As much as the chance to play a nuanced, complex character and to spend time in her beloved home country of Australia, it’s fair to say the bizarre events of the time piqued Mitchell’s interest too.
“Such a surreal situation,” she says incredulously, before inquiring whether the story is still talked about here in Western Australia.
It is, as a very interesting video piece posted on The West Australian’s website shows.
“(In the series) it’s this surreal backdrop to things that seem almost mundane; the everydayness of life,” Mitchell says.
“I was introduced to (what happened in real life) through the show, and we watched a bit of archive footage about what was being said at the time, and the Miss Universe stuff — it all seems so innocent and ridiculous, but that was the perspective. I thought it added a bit of wackiness to the show, kind of a bit of obtuse insanity.”
Camera IconA piece of Skylab on display at the Miss Universe contest in Perth in July 1979. Credit: naa.gov.au
It’s been quite some time since expat Mitchell, 50, has called Australia home. For years she’s been based in LA, crisscrossing the globe to places far-flung, wherever her roles require.
And there have been plenty. In the past year alone she has travelled everywhere from the mountains of North Carolina to London and beyond. She says she had hoped Last Days Of The Space Age might give her a chance to make her way to WA again.
Back in 2021, Mitchell, known for her breakout role in the 90s flick Love And Other Catastrophes, followed by high-profile parts in features Finding Neverland and Woody Allen’s Melinda And Melinda and dozens of others since, spent an extended period of time in Western Australia filming the locally produced Blueback.
She fell in love with the State, including the area around Bremer Bay where the film was shot, and has been eager to return.
“I love WA,” she tells STM enthusiastically, over a video chat from her US home. “(When I got the scripts for this) I thought maybe we’d be going back. But no, we were shooting in Sydney.”
Talk about bad luck!
“Well, actually, it was also kind of cool,” Mitchell admits, adding she loved that it meant she was able to spend “quite a bit of time” back in Australia.
The eight-part Disney comedy drama tells the story of three families traversing a period of great change, both in the world and within their own walls.
Camera IconJesse Spencer and Radha Mitchell in a scene from the show, which is set in late-70s Perth. Credit: Joel Pratley/Disney Plus
As the official series synopsis details, “It’s the end of an era and everything is about to change. A global beauty pageant is converging on a small town, and for three families, the drama unfolding on the world stage is nothing compared to what they’re going through.”
Perth hosting the Miss Universe pageant — the first time the competition had been held outside the United States — was part of celebrations marking 150 years since white settlers arrived to set up the colony.
Along with anxious preparations for the Skylab debris landing, after the groundbreaking space station was damaged beyond repair and became destined to fall out of orbit, then the arrival of international camera crews to film the fragments (including some that landed at the Nullarbor roadhouse in Balladonia, population 14), it was a strange time.
For Mitchell, who plays a working mum in the show, it was an irresistible backdrop against which she could sink her teeth into a meaty role.
“Certainly the drawcard was coming home, but the show is also so unique,” she says. “It’s gentle, it’s compassionate, and I really liked the tone and messaging.”
Mitchell’s character, Judy, is an interesting woman — she’s mum to two teenage daughters and married to Tony, a worker at the local power plant (played by another Aussie expat actor, House star Jesse Spencer).
Tony is spearheading a union strike for better conditions, and when times get tough on the home front, Judy is forced to step up in her own administrator’s role at the plant, eventually becoming her husband’s new boss. Needless to say, it makes for a thorny new dynamic in their marriage.
For Spencer and Mitchell, it was also an opportunity to reconnect.
“We were trying to figure out whether me and Jesse actually worked together before,” she explains. “And we had: we were both on Neighbours in the same sort of period.”
That period was the late 1990s, when Spencer famously played Karl and Susan Kennedy’s youngest child, Billy. Mitchell was also residing on Ramsay Street, popping up as “a strong-minded and opinionated student”, Catherine O’Brien. Both saw their profiles sky-rocket in the years following.
Camera IconRadha Mitchell stars in the Disney series Last Days Of The Space Age. Credit: Diana Ragland
Mitchell says she was thrilled to reconnect with Spencer in the stacked cast, which also includes established names like beloved Australian actor Deborah Mailman, Game Of Thrones alumnus Iain Glen and Heartbreak High’s breakout star, Thomas Weatherall, who plays Mailman’s grandson.
“I had always wanted to work with Deborah Mailman,” Mitchell explains. “She is just so talented. I also became good friends with Linh-Dan Pham, who plays a French-Vietnamese woman in the series.
“We are often in the same continent by coincidence — she is living in a few different places, too — and it’s been so nice to catch up with her.”
Mitchell, who scored her first on-camera role aged just 11, says she was also impressed with the younger members of the cast, particularly Mackenzie Mazur and Emily Grant, who play her on-screen daughters.
“I can see them working a lot in the future,” she says.
The timing of the series in the late 1970s was also an opportunity to delve into social issues that persist today. Mitchell’s character confronts sexist stereotypes as she climbs the corporate ladder and issues of racism, First Nations identity and misogyny are also delved into.
“I love that about the show — that it’s a mirror to our history,” Mitchell says.
“Globally, if you look at 1979, there was a lot of interesting stuff going on politically. I don’t know whether it was the stars or if there was something specific about 1979, but a lot was happening — and certainly some great music came out of that period.”
Camera IconA piece of Skylab at the Balladonia Roadhouse museum. Credit: Mogens Johansen/The West Australian
It’s certainly fascinating as a viewer to spend some time back there, and for many local audiences, it will likely feel familiar (notwithstanding the decision to shoot in Eastern States stand-in locations means the series feels less like Perth than if it had been filmed here).
“It’s interesting, I kind of saw a lot of my grandmother in (my character),” Mitchell explains.
“She was early (into the workforce) and she came out of that stay-at-home, domestic expectation. So I was thinking of her a lot. (She wore) those nylon outfits, too, so I styled myself on her, basically.”
Those nylon blouses Mitchell talks about are truly something to behold and help to evoke the era.
“Somewhere between an aberration and an inspiration,” Mitchell laughs. “I took some home, actually — but I haven’t worn any of them.”
It all adds up to an interesting vignette of families — and a city, our city – on the brink of great change.
“I am interested in this feeling that we have that we are always on the brink — that there is always an overwhelming fear of things going too fast or changing,” Mitchell says.
“The character of Judy is someone who is reluctantly forced to evolve, against her will, and who finds herself moving out of the home and the whole domestic world into the work world. She sort of finds her stride there, without expecting to or wanting to.
“I thought that was an interesting journey.”
And a journey Mitchell can relate to — she knows well that feeling of constantly being on the brink of something new and unexpected.
“But I think that’s the thing — we have been in that mood forever,” she says.
Last Days Of The Space Age is streaming on Disney Plus from October 2.
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