Australian actor, Steve Bisley, who starred alongside Mel Gibson in the cult classic film Mad Max, revealed his childhood upbringing in his memoir, Stillways, at Chatswood Library’s Talks@Willougby program earlier this month.
Bisley painted a nostalgic portrait of his teenage years growing up on his farm on the Central Coast: a poetic set of images touching on the search for childhood identity, the tumult of the 1960s, and the tragedy of a broken family.
“I think of my younger years as a bit of a blur. Around 12, this sort of first love, the smell of things, and things changing and things that you’re learning,” he said.
Nevertheless, he still remembers the scene of his farm growing up with vivid detail: “I remember what the light was like in the room when I was eight, I remember what the smells were like now of my mother’s mixmaster when she turned it on.”
Bisley has been a storyteller since he was a kid he said. In his work, he reflects on a simpler time, where children made their own fun without the overwhelming distraction of entertainment today.
He read a passage aloud recalling Christmas at the Bisleys, evoking the atmosphere of a child celebrating, caught up in the fantasy of Santa Claus, one of the rare times his family came together.
After over thirty years of acting, Bisley spent six months last year to penning his memoir. Much like how Bisley’s imagination and observations have inspired his previous work as an actor, he has also drawn upon them in his prose.
“As an actor I get to breathe life into other people’s stories and stories kinda come through you… but with this, it’s yours, it’s resonant.
“I think the similarity between [actors and writers] is that they never lose their child in them,” he said.
Bisley doesn’t see life any differently now, as he continues to reminisce about his teenage years spent at Stillways farm fifty years later: “I don’t see a reason to stop playing all the time either.”
By Amelia Zhou
