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Kris McQuade is Professor Pip Cartwright
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Professor Pip Cartwright heads the Royal Australian Observatory in the Australian Outback town of Unagatta.
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She's extremely competent and smart, and has been at the helm of the observatory for 15 years. Pip has the unenviable task of wrangling the intellectual rabble she lives and works with, and she does it effortlessly.
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With her husky voice, utter self-possession and impermeable sense of control, she has the capacity to calm any situation: she's equally adept at silencing nit-picking adolescents or bolstering Max's efforts at rage management.
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Everyone is equal in Pip's eyes. She's open-minded and accepting. She's been there, done that and bought the t-shirt.
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Pip is a poster girl for mother figures with attitude.
But Pip isn't all riding crops and wry humour. She has her quirks, and his name is Bill. He's the local mechanic, Aboriginal and many years her junior. It's an open relationship – most of the time.
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Kris McQuade was delighted to land a strong, independent female role.
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"I've played a lot of mothers, and a lot of wives. It's nice to finally play someone who is my age, who is an interesting character and who is a real individual. She isn't an appendage to a son or daughter or husband: Pip Cartwright is running the show.
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"She's a bit like a school mistress who knows how to give her students a bit of rein, let them have a bit of fun, but knows when to hold them back. The difference is, these charges are all geniuses, so they're fairly extreme characters."
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Kris says she identifies strongly with Pip ("I even dress like her – casual, happening, comfortable. My hair's all crinkly, and for once they loved that!").
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She describes Pip as a woman with both masculine and feminine sides.
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"The masculine side to her is all about being a scientist. She can handle that in herself, and in others. But she's very female as well. That's established in the first episode with all the talk of magnificent shafts and black holes. It's an added bonus that she has a love life. He (Bill) is younger, very much a toyboy. Her sexuality is alive and well."
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Comedy is a rare offering for Kris, but she jumped at the role in Supernova.
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"I love that this series is played straight, and the comedy is allowed to sit around it. It has a wonderful British sensibility – Australian comedy is more on the back foot, more languid, where this is incredibly pacey.
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"Kat and I are the straight men in this – you have to rely on the others for the comedy. And to watch Rob Brydon's form and timing as a comedian was amazing."
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In a career spanning almost 25 years, Kris McQuade has appeared in some of Australia's best-loved stage and screen productions.
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Her film work includes the seminal Australian comedy Alvin Stardust, Baz Luhrmann's colourful Strictly Dancing, Gregor Jordon's Ned Kelly and Better Than Sex.
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She received the AFI Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1982 for Fighting Back, one of five nominations she has received for AFIs over the years (Buddies, Two Friends, Broken Highway, Better than Sex).
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Kris' numerous television credits include two series of Boys from the Bush, Wildside, Stingers, A Country Practice, Grassroots, Farscape and Hell Has Harbour Views.
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Her theatre work includes Threepenny Opera, Mourning Becomes Electra (directed by Barry Kosky), The Orestrian Trilogy (directed by John Bell) and national and international tours of the award-winning Cloudstreet, directed by Neil Armfield.
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Her interpretation of the character Dolly Pickles in the latter earned her nominations for a Mo Award and a Robert Helpmann Award, both for Best Actress. Ìý
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