Muses of Media

In case you don’t know her well yet, Claire Lovering is an award-winning Australian actress whose career spans film, television, and theatre. Lovering trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and started her acting career in theatre, performing with major Australian companies including Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, and Griffin Theatre Company.

During her acting journey, Lovering created a one-woman show that allowed her to showcase her skills not just in acting but also in writing and producing. Lovering told me that it was “the most fulfilled” she’s ever felt as an actor. 

Most recently, Lovering can be seen in the action comedy Play Dirty, alongside LaKeith Stanfield, Mark Wahlberg, Keegan-Michael Key, Rosa Salazar, and Chukwudi Iwuji. Not only did the movie reach number one worldwide on Prime Video earlier this year, but it also gave Lovering another opportunity to flex her comedic acting chops as Brenda (who is easily one of the best characters in the movie).

Outside of acting, Lovering can be found watching a plethora of reality shows (can’t say we blame her, they can be pretty addicting!), and I was happy to chat with her about some of her favourite reality shows!

Watch the full interview with Claire Lovering below:

When we first started our convo, I had to ask Lovering about her most recent project, Play Dirty, and what it was like for her to get the call that she’d be part of the movie.

Lovering said, “I do actually remember. And thank you. I was in my house, and I got a call from my agent at like, I think it was like, maybe 8:30 at night, so definitely an after-hours call. And it was one of those ones where I had both of my agents on the phone. So that’s always a good sign, when you hear ‘I’m just going to patch through someone else,’ and, yeah, they said that I had the role, and they didn’t want to keep me waiting any longer, so that was why they called me after hours. But yeah, I remember being kind of in shock and very excited. I always say that, like, the best time as an actor is when you find out you got the job, but you haven’t started the job yet. That’s like, the perfect time when, like, it hasn’t really sunk in, but you’re just really excited.”

Why Lovering Enjoys the Comedic Genre So Much

In Play Dirty, Lovering plays Brenda, and the character is super funny! As the movie isn’t the first time Lovering has tackled a comedic role, I wanted to know what about the comedy genre speaks to her so much. 

Lovering shared, “Yeah, I really love comedy. It comes very naturally to me. I know some actors, some dramatic actors, say that comedy is the hardest thing. But to me, the thought of having to cry on set with 100 people around is way more tricky to me. Like dramatic – that accessing emotion is kind of – it’s a bit harder to kind of pin down. It’s sort of, for me, it’s more intuitive and emotional. It depends on how I am on the day. But comedy is something that I’ve always kind of found easy, for want of a better word. It’s like, I know how to make people laugh. It’s something that is really fun for me, and I found myself, yeah, getting cast in a lot of comedies and playing a lot of roles where I am very close to myself, and I kind of come in and do is just try and make people laugh and bring a bit of lightness and humour.”

Creation of One-Woman Show and Being Fulfilled as an Actor

In addition to acting, Lovering is also a writer and created her own one-woman show after theatre school. Lovering shared her experience with me about making the show and how fulfilling the experience was.

Lovering said, “Yeah, so I wrote this play because I felt that I wasn’t getting my foot in the door in the theatre scene in Sydney. I moved after drama school, and I was kind of ready to, you know, act. And I found it really – I was like, kind of knocking on doors and not getting many opportunities. So I was like, I’m just going to write something that is going to showcase what I can do so that people can see what I can do, because no one’s giving me the opportunity. So I just created my own opportunity. But it ended up being this really fulfilling experience where I wrote this. It was a one-hour character monologue, and she was quite different from me. And just being able to kind of hold an audience’s attention for an hour and be in complete control, but also having the autonomy of being the producer and funding it, and being the writer as well. So when I came out afterwards, you know, when people would say, ‘Well done,’ or, you know, how much the work meant to them, or had it affected them, it was quite a poignant piece. So a lot of people would cry. I just felt, really, it’s the most fulfilled I’ve ever felt as an actor.”

Lovering’s Boundless Passion for Reality TV

Of course, one always has to make sure they leave some time in their schedules for a bit of fun. In this instance, the fun comes in the form of reality TV. As an avid fan of reality TV, Lovering told me about her favourite shows and what she would recommend to those taking their first plunge into the genre. 

Lovering said, “So, my favourite reality show recommendations would be Laguna Beach, which is the OG MTV show. I mean, you, you’ve got to do The Hills, because that’s the spin-off. But I also love The City, which was the Whitney Port spin-off. And then I’m going to throw in Siesta Key, Newport Harbor – I’m giving you lots now. And you got to do Very Cavallari, which is Kristen Cavallari, it’s three seasons before she got the divorce. Oh, and you’ve got to do Vanderpump Rules. What’s the season – what do they call it? The Scandoval season!”

Not only does Lovering watch various reality shows, but when I asked her what kind of reality TV series she would create and pitch, she had a fantastic answer. 

Lovering told me, “I think you could definitely do a really good TV reality show set at a drama school, because drama school training is pretty cool. In that regard, there’s a lot of high stakes. It’s kind of like a competition. Also, there’s a lot of interrelationships, parties and that sort of stuff. I recently watched an Amazon Prime show called Dance Life, which was about the dance school Brent Street in Australia, which I thought really did a good job. But I also would love to see a show about Aussie actors coming to Hollywood. I think that would be interesting. There was one show called Next Stop Hollywood, which did one season, which I really loved. But I think something that kind of followed people a bit longer would be cool.”

In addition to Play Dirty, which is streaming on Prime Video, you can watch Lovering next in the upcoming series, The Season, which is currently filming!