The role that brought Bella Heathcote back to Australia

It’s just past 11am on a Tuesday when actor Bella Heathcote suddenly appears on screen for our Zoom interview. She lets out a huge sigh as she slumps into a comfortable seat, before her face breaks into a wide smile and she gives a friendly “Hello”.

It’s a stifling 35-degree day in Sydney, and although Bella is dialling in from Victoria, it must be a scorcher down there, too, judging by the deep exhale?

“No, a cool change has come through,” she answers, just as breezily.

“So why the sigh?”

Bella lets out a roaring laugh. “The sigh was me thinking I had time to put a load of washing on and empty the dishwasher because I had seven minutes before this interview. It’s a running joke in the household. I know I should use that seven minutes to mosey on over rather than thinking I can do 15 different things!”

Then she adds, triumphantly, “But it’s handled and it’s 11.01am.”

Bella’s refreshingly non-Hollywood manner is immediately striking along with her large blue eyes and, above all, her newly cropped haircut. It’s a far cry from the long, bleached-blonde hair she’s pictured with here and in her latest role in Netflix’s Pieces of Her.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for years and I was always talked out of it for some reason or another,” she says, running her fingers through her inch-long, naturally brown hair. “I was growing out the fringe from Pieces of Her or trying to maintain it, but it was just giving me the shits. Oh, and trying to grow out that weird colour! I thought, ‘I’m just going to chop it off.’ The irony is that the hairdresser told me I’m going to have to cut it more often now that it is short.”

Not only will this new ’do mean more trips to the hairdresser, could it also impact future roles? “I think that’s why I haven’t cut it for so long,” she agrees. “But if the job is that dependent on the hair, then I hope they can figure it out with a wig. Having said that, I did an audition for something right after I chopped my hair off and I thought, ‘I really wish I had this audition before cutting it.’ ”

But given Bella’s incredible performance in Pieces of Her, it’s highly unlikely her new haircut will stop her from landing further roles. The eight-part drama is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Karin Slaughter. It follows 30-year-old Andy (Bella) and her mother, Laura (Toni Collette), who witness a random act of violence that sets Andy off on a journey across America trying to find the truth behind her mysterious family.

“I would watch this show if I wasn’t in it,” Bella says, laughing. “I know every actor is like, ‘It was my dream job,’ but it really was my dream job. I just loved going to work every day, which is saying something because it’s not like they were easy scenes to shoot. It wasn’t like I was doing a romcom. But it was fun and I loved every aspect.”

It’s a remarkable feat that the series even managed to get made. It was originally slated to be shot in Canada in March 2020, but like so many productions that year, the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way. Production eventually relocated to Sydney at the start of 2021. A move made even more convenient as both Bella and Toni were already here in Australia.

“I’m based in LA but my husband [architect Richard Stampton] and I have a house in Phillip Island [in Victoria], so we go between the two,” Bella explains. “So when I was in Vancouver ready to start shooting, he was here for work. Then the shit hit the fan, so I jumped on the plane thinking I’ll be back in a few weeks. I never anticipated we would end up shooting in Australia.”

Although set in the quiet seaside village of Belle Isle in Georgia, US, it’s the three Australian faces in the lead roles (David Wenham also stars in the series) which will strike a chord with local viewers, even if it is hard to get past 49-year-old Toni playing 34-year-old Bella’s mother.

“I’ve been cast down a few years, and she’s been aged up a little,” explains Bella. When it comes to working with the Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning actor, Bella can’t speak highly enough of her. “She’s such a powerhouse,” she says. “She’s so prolific in the work she does. It was like an acting masterclass. She’s so good and she’s so generous with her offscreen work, which people of her calibre sometimes aren’t.”

“Offscreen work” isn’t a familiar term for those outside of the industry, so Bella explains what she means. “When the camera turns around to me and we’re doing my coverage and she’s not on camera, she’s still in the scene feeding me lines. I’ve been in situations before where that actor has just pissed off and there’s just a stand-in.”

“[Toni Collette is such a powerhouse. She’s so prolific in the work she does. It was like an acting masterclass. She’s so good and she’s so generous with her offscreen work, which people of her calibre sometimes aren’t.”

Seriously? “You should ask actors about that! I’ve had friends who have been in a scene and the other actor is on their phone. Then there will be people who will be in the scene with you but they will hold back because they don’t want to waste their energy when they’re not on camera. But Toni is not like that at all. She gives it everything even if she’s not on camera. It’s rare and it’s awesome, and it obviously really helps you in your performance.”

Bella first moved to the US back in 2010, after appearing in a handful of episodes of Neighbours in 2009 and the Australian film Beneath Hill 60 in 2010. As a recipient of the Heath Ledger Scholarship, doors were opened in LA and she quickly landed a part in another age-defying role as Amanda Seyfried’s mother in 2011’s In Time. “It was based in the future when no one ages,” she says, explaining how she played a mother to the now 36-year-old.

Within a few months she booked roles in David Chase’s Not Fade Away and Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, both out in 2012. Then the work dried up.

“I was just a bit too picky at the time, so I picked myself out of work,” she recalls. “I remember somebody at the time saying you shape your career with your ‘yeses’. But I remember thinking, ‘Maybe I just like to work.’ ”

She soon found a more favourable formula to go by when making decisions about accepting projects. “My friend talks about the top three: there’s money, there’s the calibre of the project and there’s location. And if you’ve got two out of three, then go for it.”

The next role Bella accepted ticked two of the boxes and it’s easy to work out which one didn’t quite hit the mark. “It was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” she laughs, recalling the 2016 comedy-horror film. “I had an absolute blast!”

So is Bella hoping her next role will meet the location criteria and be shot here in Australia? “LA is definitely my main base as I’ve been there since 2010,” she says. “But I guess it might be because of COVID or getting older, I’m realising Australia is a part of me. I grew up in Melbourne and my dad’s here. My husband is Australian. He grew up on the coast here down in Mount Eliza. He’s very much a surfer and he’d like to be near the beach.”

For now, what is drawing Bella back to the US is more gruelling than any role she could take on. “We plan to hike the Pacific Crest Trail – basically from where Mexico and California meet, then up to Canada,” she says. “It takes months and months. My husband is taking a sabbatical and has been working towards this for years. I definitely want to do as much of it as I can.”

But Bella knows planning a trip of this scale can bring unexpected consequences. “As soon as I book a flight or book a trip, then the job will come,” she laughs, adding: “Hopefully season two of Pieces of Her.”

Pieces of Her is out now on Netflix.

To read more from Sunday Life magazine, click here.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.