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Kate Walsh: Hollywood star says Perth is ‘100 per cent’ home and talks about her fun role on ABC comedy Optics

When STM first spoke to American actor Kate Walsh in 2020, the Grey’s Anatomy star had just made the decision to spend the COVID-19 pandemic cocooned in Perth. It’s been almost five years to the day since Walsh swapped her life as one of many celebrities in New York for the chance to be arguably the most famous person in WA (when Daniel Ricciardo isn’t in town, at least). Many may have assumed the woman who played Dr Addison Montgomery would depart our fair shores when the pandemic passed. She has had every opportunity to leave, travelling extensively around the globe for work and pleasure after the hard border lifted. WA is great, don’t get me wrong, but why would someone like Kate Walsh want to live here when she could be literally anywhere else, we collectively wonder. Speaking to Walsh, the answer to this question reveals itself time and time again as the actor speaks in that particular WA parlance about “Sunday sessions” and “down south”. She’s officially one of us. So, does that mean Perth is home? “Yes, it does. Actually, 100 per cent,” Walsh says with a smile. “A couple of years ago (when I was travelling overseas) I started saying, ‘I’m going home’, (and it made me realise), ‘Oh, OK, this is home’. Home is where the heart is. Home is where the cats are.” And, just like her cats, Walsh is now living her best life in Perth, with her partner, WA farmer Andrew Nixon. Her go-to restaurant? Vin Populi. Although she says Gibney is also “beautiful”, and hopes to secure a reservation at George Kailis’ other buzzy Cottesloe venue, Magic Apple, soon. Just like Bryce Cotton with the Wildcats, Walsh has been an MVP import to the local social scene, with Perthonalities flocking to her like designer-clad moths to a flame. Not even a half-price sale at the Boatshed would set more tongues wagging in the Golden Triangle than when the 57-year-old ditched her signature tresses last year for an edgier pixie cut. As someone who doesn’t court the limelight as much as others in her line of work, Walsh’s appearances at openings and parties held by members of the social elite feel more like a generous gift being bestowed upon us rather than something she personally craves. That said, if an opportunity arose to meet Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, she wouldn’t knock it back. Reflecting on the past five years, the actor says she’s settling into the rhythm of life here. “People here have very specific rituals, like when they travel — school holidays kind of rule the roost,” she observes. She, too, has developed rituals specific to her new life in the world’s most isolated capital city. “I feel very lucky, you know, to live right at the beach. I’m probably a lazy tart by nature so, if I lived even three blocks up, I wouldn’t go. But now I get to go, and I even swam most of the days through winter.” The self-confessed “nature nerd” — technically, a fierce advocate for environmental causes — has one other ritual she can’t seem to kick. “I love the city as well. I love going to the CBD, and another guilty pleasure, I’m not going to lie, is going through that Chanel store,” Walsh admits. “I really love doing it, because I usually wear exercise shorts and my Birks. I go rocking in, and they’re probably like, ‘Is this lady going to rob us’, but then I just like to browse.” The phrase “just browsing” could similarly be used to describe how Walsh has approached her career over the past five years. Which is not to say she hasn’t worked. In 2021 and 2022, she reprised her role on Grey’s Anatomy, shot episodes for her recurring character in the Netflix series Emily In Paris, and also appeared in the US crime comedy series, Sprung. Closer to home, she won acclaim on the stage, first for a finely nuanced turn as a scientist with early onset dementia in Sharr White’s The Other Place, the maiden production of the Fremantle Theatre Company. Then, in 2022, alongside Caroline Brazier, Walsh wowed us again in Perth Festival’s contemporary adaptation of Friedrich Schiller’s Mary Stuart by WA playwright Kate Mulvany. Both shows were the hottest tickets in town during their runs, and though Walsh would strenuously argue otherwise, her presence was a big part of the reason why. Maybe it was PT Barnum that said, in show business, you should always leave ‘em wanting more. Walsh has certainly done that. “I wouldn’t say I’m semi-retired, I think, but just being very selective,” she acknowledges. “I really think it’s a testament to how happy I am here, how much I love my lifestyle, how much I love being here.” By that logic, the ABC should feel very lucky to have pried Walsh away from the west coast for a guest role in Aunty’s new workplace comedy, Optics. Think The Office, with a dash of Parks And Recreation and Utopia thrown in. The show’s creators and stars, Vic Zerbst and Jenna Owen, play young PR gurus, lurching from crisis to crisis as they attempt to maintain the reputation of their firm’s high-profile clients, from AFL players to a powerful and altogether horrid entrepreneur, played by Walsh. The character is a thinly veiled (and hopefully completely fictionalised) riff on Walsh’s own entrepreneurial career as head of the Boyfriend empire of lifestyle products, which speaks to the trust she had in Zerbst and Owen. “They’re so multi-talented, and especially for young women,” Walsh begins. “I say that because they have such an incredible grasp on all aspects of filmmaking and television making and writing, producing, editing, directing, acting, and then, of course, improvising. “I literally don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun, except on stage. “I still contend that I feel like Australian actors are better than so many American actors, and I’m not just saying that because I live here, I promise, and want to survive. “There’s an authenticity … that is not dissimilar to … I would say the British, in the sense of kind of taking the p... out of themselves. “I think Optics is going to be an iconic Aussie workplace comedy.” The experience working with Zerbst and Owen was so enjoyable, Walsh reveals to STM she is developing a new show with them that she hopes to begin shooting in WA later this year. If it gets greenlit and production is delayed, it’s not inconceivable the show could be made at the brand-new Perth Film Studios, which is due to open next year. The synchronicity of such a scenario is hard to ignore, given Walsh became an unlikely player in the WA screen industry’s push for long-awaited studio facilities before the 2021 State election. Who could forget the beaming smile on former Premier Mark McGowan’s face as he got to pose next to Walsh (and Ben Elton and Tim Minchin) to announce his then-government’s $120 million commitment to build a studio at Victoria Quay in Fremantle. Sure, that idea proved to be a terrible one in the end, with the studio project forced to relocate to Malaga at double the budget, but the local screen industry would happily say the ends justify the means. Walsh laughs at the idea that doing a show here runs the risk of doing an Emily In Paris to Perth. For those who came in late, the Netflix series was initially maligned for its depiction of France and Parisiennes, but has since become a cultural force, driving significant tourism. That’s the last thing Walsh wants for her adopted home. “I feel like this is a hidden gem that is becoming less hidden, but that I want it to be still,” she says. “I recall swimming in the net at Cottesloe Beach, like it was sort of going towards winter, maybe May, it was quite cold, and I remember this … guy swam up, and he was like, ‘You’re a Yank, don’t tell anybody about this place’. “I get that (sentiment) because I’m like, ‘I want work, to go travel, and I want jobs, and I want the studio, but I love that, for me, Perth has become a place of respite and quiet’.” With time running out, there’s one final test required to determine how well Walsh has assimilated — Eagles or Dockers? “OK, that’s really tough, because I feel like, before I knew anything here, I got roped into the Dockers,” she says. “But I still can’t decide. I don’t feel like I’ve earned a right to have a team.” All episodes of Optics are available on ABC iview. Kate Walsh appears in Episode 2, which will air on ABC TV on Wednesday, February 5 at 8.30pm.

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Kate Walsh: Hollywood star says Perth is ‘100 per cent’ home and talks about her fun role on ABC comedy Optics

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The West Australian exclusiveKate Walsh: Hollywood star says Perth is ‘100 per cent’ home and talks about her fun role on ABC comedy Optics

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Kate Walsh: Hollywood star says Perth is ‘100 per cent’ home and talks about her fun role on ABC comedy Optics