Tilda Cobham-Hervey on grief, Hollywood and working with her real-life love, Dev Patel

Australian actor Tilda Cobham-Hervey on her new direction, working with partner Dev Patel and her “terrible” poker face.

Stellar: You grew up in a theatrical family, and were part of an Adelaide circus group in your early years. The clichéd teen rebellion for creatives is running away to join the circus – did you ever consider running away from the circus?

Tilda Cobham-Hervey: I did run away from the circus – I retired at age 19. I wish there was a rebellious phase in my life, but I’ve been verybad at that. I live for a gold star. But it was an amazing experience growing up doing circus. I think everyone around us was like, “This is going to be a disaster …” but it went quite well and birthed Gravity & Other Myths, an extraordinary modern circus company now in Australia and the world. They tour around the world for most of the year.

Stellar; You played late Australian singer Helen Reddy in the 2019 biopic I Am Woman; has the role stayed with you?

Tilda Cobham-Hervey: It was such an honour to play that role. Getting the privilege of playing someone who is a real, living person [Reddy died in September 2020, a month after the film was released in Australia] that you’re able to celebrate and inhabit was such an amazing experience.

It taught me a lot. I was playing someone a lot older than myself at the time; she gets to 40 by the end of the film [while Cobham-Hervey was then in her mid-20s]. I learnt so much through living her story.

Stellar: You just this month put the finishing touches on It’s All Going Very Well No Problems At All, your first feature film as a director. It sounds quite personal, particularly after the passing of your mother in late 2024. What can you say about it?

Tilda Cobham-Hervey: I started the script about five or six years ago, before my mum became sick. But it’s a film that’s exploring life and death. So over the last two years, it became a much more personal story; very personal in the fact that it’s drawing a lot on my early years trying to figure out what kind of artist I wanted to be.

I grew up doing a lot of weird performance art in my bedroom, trying to come up with how to make stuff and how to deal with being very unemployed. [The film] is about an artist struggling to find their way.

She works in a care home as an art therapist and makes friends with a man in his 80s, played by the extraordinary Jonathan Pryce. It’s about their friendship, and how they help each other get to the next stages of their lives, which is him in the process of ending his life and her beginning her life. It’s a film about beginnings and endings.

Stellar; Your long-time partner, British actor and filmmaker Dev Patel, co-produced this film. You met on the set of the 2018 thriller Hotel Mumbai and have since co-directed the 2020 short film Roborovski and you co-produced his 2024 directorial debut, the action film Monkey Man, in which he also starred. How do your skills complement each other?

Tilda Cobham-Hervey: We’re very different in the way that we make, which is really helpful. It means we can really help in the bits where one of us might struggle more. Dev is such an excellent collaborator.

He’s shooting his own film in India so he hasn’t been around for the filming and post-production, but he’s watched cuts and was a big part of developing the script with me, and also pushing me to do it and get it off my computer.

What do you most admire about him?

He’s very bold. He has a great sense of creative confidence and risk-taking, which can take me a little longer to get to. He’s got so much joy about the way he makes. That really inspires me, too.

You star in the new Australian thriller Alphabet Lane, which tells the story of a couple who relocate to the country and then lose control of a joke about imaginary friends. Have you ever had a white lie get out of control?

I’m a terrible liar. I can’t play poker – I get the giggles and go bright red, which I’m probably doing right now.

What drew you to the film?

I got sent this script by producer Lucinda Reynolds, who said, “I’ve just read something. It’s pretty weird, but I think you’re really going to like it.” Which was a pretty good way to sell me on a project. I really loved the playfulness.

There was so much to relate to, through such a unique point of view. I think we’ve all had moments where we’ve felt lonely in a relationship or a friendship or a family; where we’ve had the awkwardness of being an adult and trying to make friends. That’s something we don’t talk about a lot, but it’s incredibly strange.

In your travels as an actor, can you relate to the isolating feeling of being somewhere new and not knowing a soul?

I know that feeling very well. You often end up in unusual places, having a lot of time off and not knowing anyone, being thrust into situations where you’re trying to make friends.

I get excited by the idea of change, of being somewhere new, but that only lasts for a certain amount of time. Then you’re like, “Oh, I quite like the comfort of my people …”