Miranda Tapsell returned to work just weeks after welcoming her second child to promote her new Amazon Prime Video series Top End Bub, saying she needed to channel her feelings about the state of the world into making the show.
The 37-year-old actress, a Darwin-born Larrakia woman and two-time Logie winner, told listeners on the Something to Talk About podcast that she "basically got straight back into it" because the romantic dramedy — a sequel to her 2019 film Top End Wedding — was "dear to her heart" and had been four years in the making.
Tapsell said she had "brought two children into the world at a very precarious time" and that creating and promoting Top End Bub was a way to deal with "despair" and "frustration at the things that are happening around me and in the world." She added: "I'm so lucky that people are so excited to see it."
She and husband James Colley co-created Top End Bub, which Tapsell described as "popcorn television" she wanted to watch with friends and family. The actor said lack of on-screen representation for people of colour was a motivating factor behind making her own work. "That's the reason I started making my own work," she said, adding that although there has been progress, "there is still trepidation when it comes to casting and writing characters of colour."
Tapsell has returned to publicity for the series while also making time for family life. She posed for a cover shoot for Stellar magazine with her two children, holding her newborn, Vincent, and pictured with daughter Grace, who was born in December 2021. In January she announced she was expecting her second child with Colley.
Top End Bub has been positioned as a return to the world Tapsell helped bring to screens in Top End Wedding, with the actor saying she wanted to create television that allowed "girlfriends, mums and daughters to sit down with a pizza or rosé, and watch these shows." She said she was not willing to wait for others to produce that kind of content.
Tapsell and Colley married at Panorama House in Wollongong in late 2018. Her comments come amid ongoing industry discussions in Australia and internationally about representation and the need for greater diversity both in front of and behind the camera. By leaning into production and storytelling, Tapsell has sought to expand the kinds of roles and stories available to Indigenous actors and audiences while advancing a commercially minded, mainstream approach to inclusive programming.