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Jan Newman Interview Transcript from an Aussie Radio Show
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Transcript of Jan Newman Radio Interview
Host: Angela Catterns - ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corp.
http://www.abc.net.au/sydney/stories/s701609.htm
Download radio interview - you'll need RealPlayer
http://www.abc.net.au/sydney/stories/m482676.ram
ANGELA: "This morning's expat is named Jan Newman. She joins us from her home in North Vancouver in Canada. Jan, hello, and welcome to you."
JAN: "Hello to you, Angela. Good morning, Australia. Good morning, Elizabeth and Ruby."
ANGELA: "Elizabeth is your niece I understand. She's the dobber inner this morning. She's the one who dobbed you in."
JAN: "That's right, she dobbed me in. Good."
ANGELA: "Good. Well, let's get to the bottom of it all, Jan. We want to hear all about you. What are you doing there? What took you there? First of all, you sent us a beautiful picture of your house covered in snow. Is that where you are at the moment?"
JAN: "That's where I am at the moment, Angela. It's a gorgeous autumn day here. Blue skies. Temperature is 15 degrees. The leaves are changing. It's very beautiful."
ANGELA: "Ah, so the snow is still up ahead. But it looks like a nice house in a nice kind of neighborhood. Can you describe it to us Jan?"
JAN: "North Vancouver is sort of like a small city. It has a main street with lots of wonderful restaurants and shops. But right across from my deck I can see downtown Vancouver. I can see the mountains of Vancouver Island. It's just a beautiful place to be and the neighborhood is very quiet, lots of children. Lots of trees."
ANGELA: "Now you grew up in the Blue Mountains here in Sydney, didn't you?"
JAN: "Yes, I grew up in Blaxland, in the Blue Mountains. I went to the one room Blaxland school in those days. I went to High School in Penrith. And after High School, I attended the nursing school at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. The whole four years."
ANGELA: "And then did you go on to be a nurse at all?"
JAN: "I nursed very briefly as a special nurse and then I wanted to be an air hostess right from the get go. So, I applied to Ansett ANA and was hired on in October after I graduated. And flew for three years."
ANGELA: "Of course Ansett doesn't exist anymore. I supposed you know that."
JAN: "Yes. Unfortunately, I'm well aware of that. My family kept reminding me of its demise".
ANGELA: "So you then left being an air hostess and you're a make up artist now, aren't you? Tell me how that came about."
JAN: "Well, I came to Canada on a working holiday and met my husband Art. And I volunteered in theater while I was nursing. I did my obstetrics at the University of Alberta Hospital in Alberta. And volunteered in Opera and Theater with my friend Jenny Demand. And it evolved into a television and film career in make up. And I haven't looked back since."
ANGELA: "So Art is Canadian, is that right Jan? That's why you ended up living in Canada."
JAN: "Yes, he's Canadian. I met him actually at Lake Louise, a very romantic place in Alberta. So he was a tow driver when he was at University, putting himself through University."
ANGELA: "June, who works on Breakfast Team, and has been speaking with you and e-mailing you to line you up for this segment, is a big fan of "Stargate." And she tells me that you're head of the Make Up Department for "Stargate." Is that right, Jan?"
JAN: "That's right. I have the wonderful pleasure of being the department head for any where from two to ten make up artists. We have a great time. We have a wonderful cast and wonderful crew. And it's lots of fun. I enjoy it every day."
ANGELA: "Do you? And of course make up is a big star in Stargate isn't it?"
JAN: "Yes it is! (laughs)"
ANGELA: "Those things on the forehead, you know. It's like sort of a seal isn't it, a wax seal on the forehead."
JAN: "Actually what it is, is a tattoo that Teal'c has. It's kind of embossed into his forehead at puberty. We put it on every day though, so that Christopher doesn't have to walk around with it on his head."
ANGELA: "Do you do aliens too, Jan?"
JAN: "We do some of them. We have a wonderful prosthetics make up team that we work with. As a matter of fact, we have just been nominated for a Gemini Award for our make up. Which, I guess is the equivalent of an Emmy Award for make up. So we have a great team. All Canadians, a couple of them are Americans that come up from time to time."
ANGELA: "And so is it shot there in North Vancouver?"
JAN: "No, it's shot in a place called Burnaby. Which is a suburb of Vancouver. And we have four studios, two in Burnaby and two in Coquitlam."
ANGELA: "I didn't realize it was Canadian made. Is there a big film industry there?"
JAN: "It has been, Angela. It's dying off a little bit now, since the September 11 catastrophe and the loss of our tax break here in British Columbia. But I'm thinking it will come back. We have great crews here. Very experienced crews. And great locations, so I don't think we'll have a problem with the film industry here."
ANGELA: "So tell us just a little about some of the other jobs you've worked on in the business, Jan, as a make up artist. Many other movies or TV shows?"
JAN: "Yes, actually I started with Richard Dean Anderson on "MacGyver." So, I came back to "Stargate SG-1" at his request, and that was quite wonderful. I had been doing feature films and television movies prior to that. I did "Little Women" with Gillian, it was made here in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, which was a wonderful experience. We had quite an international crew working on that. That was good. Lots of TV movies. I did "Intersection" with Richard Gere. And movies that probably have never quite made it to Australia. It happens unfortunately. Great Australian movies don't come to Canada very much either."
ANGELA: "That's a shame, isn't it? So do you go to many movies in your spare time, Jan?"
JAN: "Yes, I do. I try to. When I'm working, the nine months of the year that I actually work, I have very little time to myself, because I'm usually breaking down scripts and what ever. I try to go. We rent movies or discs or DVDs that I can enjoy. My son or my daughter take me off to movies all the time if they can get me out of the house."
ANGELA: "So Jan, it sounds like a very pretty part of the world where you live. Are there mountains nearby? Is there wilderness nearby?"
JAN: "Very much so, Angela. In fact, I'm looking out my kitchen window and I can see the mountains to the north of North Vancouver. Behind that is Whistler, the big ski resort. And almost - maybe 5 kilometers from here is wilderness area. We have lots of hiking trails and biking trails. Places where people can actually get into the backcountry close to the city."
ANGELA: "Oh, it sounds beautiful, absolutely lovely."
JAN: "It is beautiful."
ANGELA: "You handle the winter okay? I imagine they can be fairly severe?"
JAN: "Well, in North Vancouver they're not so bad, we get a lot of rain here. But when I lived in Alberta, it was pretty brutal. Minus 40 degrees in the middle of the winter. But here, if we get minus five degrees that's probably all we would get in any given winter. But very little snow actually. The picture we sent was kind of a late winter snowstorm. We don't get a lot in North Vancouver."
ANGELA: "Now Jan, are there things that you still miss about Sydney or the Blue Mountains, or Australia?"
JAN: "Well, I certainly miss all my family. I'm one of nine, there's twenty-seven nieces and nephews, and forty-one great nieces and nephews, and even a couple of great greats. So, it's a very big family, we're very prolific in the Dawson (sp?) family. What I miss, I think, is my family and my friends. I miss the sound of the Currawongs and the Kookaburras in the morning. We don't have any songbirds around here. So, that's one of the things that I miss. The sunny weather. It's beautiful today, so we can't complain."
ANGELA: "Well, I have to tell you, it's pretty extreme here. I'm sure you've heard that we're in the middle of a terrible drought. At the moment, there's a very high, extreme fire danger, and we're in for a hot, hot day today. And it's just springtime. It's 31 - 32 degrees today."
JAN: "Oh my goodness, oh dear."
ANGELA: "It's very hot."
JAN: "We're having a very similar drought that you're having in Australia on the Canadian prairie. A lot of cattlemen have had to sell off their cattle because there's no feed for them. I guess it's a worldwide phenomenon."
ANGELA: "Jan, a delight to talk with you. Thank you so much for being our expat. And thanks for sending the photos; we'll put them up on the web site a little later on this morning. All the best and bye-bye."
JAN: "Thanks a lot, Angela."
ANGELA: "Bye-bye."
ANGELA: "Jan Newman, our expat this morning. Joining us from her home in North Vancouver in Canada."
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