- In my mind, I'm a screenwriter from New South Wales. I live with ataxic cerebral palsy, which affects my fine motor skills and requires me to use a wheelchair on occasion. I'm one of the creators and co-writers of the TV series Latecomers. - Argh. (THUD!) - Aah. - It's about sex and disability and being in your 20s and wanting to meet people. As a screenwriter and storyteller, I get to educate people through the medium of entertainment, which means that people don't actually realise that they're learning. (AMBIENT MUSIC) www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 (GENTLE COUNTRY MUSIC) - I live in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales with my mum Jo and my dad, Dave. Cerebral palsy is a condition in which my arms and legs and speech don't work as they should, and the strength in my hands and legs fluctuates from day-to-day. Just making a banana smoothie. It's one of my favourite things to do, cos I can. It can be quite difficult. Today was really hard getting the maple syrup open. (CHEERFUL MUSIC) (BLENDER WHIRRS) For an average person, your brain sends messages throughout your body to try and get your body to do what it's meant to do. But for me, it kind of short circuits from time to time, which can be very annoying, but also quite entertaining. Depending on what I'm doing. (CHUCKLES) I don't even think about it until I'm doing something so mundane, and then I realise that my hands aren't working as well as they were the day before or even an hour ago. Tomorrow I may need to ask someone for help. (CHUCKLES) (CHEERFUL MUSIC CONCLUDES) - I'm Emma's driver. I'm her chauffeur. I'm her dresser. Cook. Bottle washer. I do it all. (SERENE MUSIC) - Morning. - Morning, chookie. - Mum is one of the most important, if not the most important, people in my life. She's my best friend, my advocate, for my entire existence. - I was in labour for 38 hours with Emma. Then we had an emergency caesarean, and she wasn't breathing when she was born. It was lack of oxygen during birth, and she suffered the brain damage. It was the tiniest little dot on her brain, and it made so much difference. My hands are getting a bit hard. - I guess, I did notice differences in the way that my parents would approach doing things with me rather than the way they would do things with my brother. But I never felt left out. - Hang on. We might have to get you to sit down. - Yeah. This is downright painful. 'My mum was adamant that she was never gonna wrap me in cotton wool and shield got me from the world.' - She's always been a really out-there little girl. She's wanted to have a go at absolutely everything, from the day dot. (TENDER MUSIC) - I went to mainstream school. I've always loved learning, even when I was being horrendously bullied in high school. - High school wasn't the best. You know, she wanted to do Advanced English ` you know, do Shakespeare and all that sort of thing. And they said, 'Oh, no. You'd better go to a class where you learn 'how to count money and work in a little shop.' - They just put me in the too-hard basket. My cerebral palsy affects more my left side than it does my right. And so, things like doing up cuffs on my left side are notoriously difficult. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY, CHUCKLES) I studied a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Newcastle. In the last six months of my degree, I had a storytelling internship with the ABC. And this was an internship specifically for people with a disability living in a regional area who wanted to get into media. Through our internship, I met Angus Thompson, and he's one of the co-creators and co-writers and the actor in Latecomers. (CLUB MUSIC PLAYS) (INDISTINCT CONVERSATION, LAUGHTER) - (CHUCKLES) (MAGICAL MUSIC) - Latecomers is based on my and Angus' real-life experiences and... Our other co-creator, Nina Oyama, is a comedian. And she covered it as a journalist. - We just knew that we wanted to base Latecomers in Newcastle. It's a city that feels more like a small town. Hello. - Hello. Come in. Have a seat. - Vanessa Alexander is a screenwriter. She's written for shows like Vikings Valhalla and The Great. - So, tell me what you've been working on. I know you've been working on some new stuff. - Yeah. - Let's have a chat about it. My role in the writing team was essentially to be a kind of mentor to the team. - And I learnt so much from the experience, and I'm working on my first feature film. - Oh, yeah. That sounds good. The idea was entirely theirs, but no one on the writing team really had a lot of experience writing television. - I've got this idea that this disabled character bought an old, rundown colonial homestead. So it's about physical and situational and social isolation. Vanessa is one of the best in the industry, and I am so lucky to have her as a friend and mentor. - So is it a horror? - Yeah, horror/psychological thriller. It's kind of like rural Australian Gothic horror. - Oh, OK. - Yeah, so... - Yeah, that` Yep. - Vanessa said to me once, producers and creatives are looking for writers with a disability to speak to the community. So I'm trying to be that person. (BIRDSONG) (GRACEFUL MUSIC) - Well, I come out here when it's a nice day. It's just a bit more quiet, and the dogs can sit with me, and you can kind of hear the birds and everything going around. So it's quite peaceful. Nice to do some writing. - When she first wrote something, she said, 'What do you think?' And I did actually question who wrote this, cos it was really good. (CHUCKLES) And she said, 'Well, you know, I did.' And I thought, (GASPS) 'Wow.' It's been inside all that time, but hasn't been able to be expressed. - I'm interested in why people do what they do to each other and what goes on in their own psyche. But as the whole, I like using my writing to educate the public about the realities of living with a disability. - When I first read the scripts for Latecomers, I was really excited. So, we've got Hannah who plays Sarah, mainly number one. And then we've got Angus... ...playing Frank, Patrick playing Elliot, then me, who's playing Brandi. Working on Latecomers, it was definitely the first time I've ever acted with people who have disabilities. I found it really confronting initially. I was really shocked at how little I'd had to do with people with cerebral palsy in my life. The first time I met Emma, met her at the famous Mereweather Baths. - So, what we're looking at is a key location for the series. I hadn't set foot on the beach in over a decade. - Cos she's so driven and intelligent and she was just so excited. - Action. (CHUCKLES) It was bizarre, actually, having a 50-person crew on the beach filming something that had never been done before. There was this moment of 'pinch me, I'm dreaming'. (SYNTH MUSIC) - I suspect that the thing that was the most important to Emma and Angus is to have a story told that hadn't been told before. And I think they probably rightly feel like that their experience isn't reflected back at them in any of the content that they see. - I always talk about struggling to be seen as a woman, in the truest sense of the word, because as much as I try to make myself look feminine... I'm subsequently stripped of my gender entirely because of my disability. And so, I wanted to explore it from that angle. - The thing that I learned is that sex and relationships are really hard in the disabled community, and I had actually never thought about that before. But as a human, I understand how much we need that in our lives. And to not talk about that, to not be able to speak about people's sexual needs and emotional needs is really devastating. - It's this human desire to be loved by someone in a non-platonic way. It's not about sex. At the end of the day, the thing I want is just to be able to find that connection with someone that... that accepts me for who and how I am. - I don't think someone without a disability could have written Latecomers as well as Emma, Angus and Nina. - (CHUCKLES) - It was important that it had comedic elements in the show, because if it was just a drama, I think it'd be really depressing. (CHUCKLES) And I think that, like... You know, if you can't laugh at the harder, more confronting aspects of life, then then you're just going to end up crying. What I love about Latecomers is it just goes there. It goes there unapologetically. - This is real. This is gritty. This is real. It's awkward. It's uncomfortable, but it's life. And we need to normalise it enough to see more of it, to build greater empathy out there. - Writing Latecomers, I ended up joining Bumble, and I went on three dates, and then decided to just forgo everything, because the first guy asked me if I could have sex before our coffees arrived. The second guy said that he didn't care that I was in a wheelchair but he cared that I was a size 12. And then the third guy was a recently diagnosed schizophrenic with two pet pythons and refused to blink for the hour that we were together. (CHUCKLES) - Trauma makes for great entertainment. (CHUCKLES) (BIRDSONG) (ALARM CHIMES) - (MURMURS) I found this video, and it's a great analogy of my day-to-day life, essentially. (SLOW PIANO MUSIC) When you're playing a video game and you start as a character, and you have that big energy bar across the top of the screen, and that's your lifeline. An average person will wake up, and their energy bar will be completely full, whereas when I wake up, my energy bar's already three quarters empty. In order to kind of function to the fullest of my capability, I have to pretty much power up and have a two-hour sleep in the afternoon. I'm an ambulant wheelchair user. About 85% of wheelchair users can actually walk to a certain degree. Obviously, it depends on the individual's condition. I have ataxic cerebral palsy. Now, ataxia is a form of CP where my entire body is floppy. So my legs are pretty much like noodles that just don't have the strength to hold me up for long periods of time. I have the freedom to walk around my house. I rely on my wheelchair to bridge the gap. - Flour. We need one-and-a-half cups of flour. There's the one. - I love cooking, but it takes twice the amount of time for me to make something as it would for Mum to make it. So I want to create a cookbook for people with dexterity issues. So, I have to hold it underneath, cos otherwise I'm going to tip whatever I do out the mug. This isn't just for people with disabilities, but it's also the elderly who don't have the strength that they used to. - Straight in the bowl. - It's anyone, from people who have arthritis or carpal tunnel or weakness in the hands of any sort. (CURIOUS MUSIC) Yep, you can eat that. (CHUCKLES) Ingredients don't need adapting. It's how you actually go about doing it. For instance, I can't hold spoonfuls of oil. It'd go everywhere because I can't hold it still. But... (METAL RATTLES) ...if I'm putting it in there, all of the oil, it's being caught. - We're just trying to adapt things so Em can just do everything all by herself, but in her own way. (CHUCKLES) If your dexterity is challenged, short of having to eat frozen meals for your entire life, you have to learn to cook. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) We are getting Emma ready to move into a place by herself. It's time for independent living. - My parents and I are buying in a new apartment complex. - Em can buy one apartment, and we'll buy another. So we're still close-ish to her, but she can be doing her own thing. - So I'll have my own apartment. It'll be a two-bedroom apartment, but I'm planning to make one of them a home office. And when the next world virus comes, we can all sing from our balconies. - Yes. - (CHUCKLES) - 'We are close, but sometimes I do say I don't wanna know everything that you do.' - (KNOCKS) Hello. - Hello. - How you going? - Good. - Hi. - The group of friends I have now are the best friends I've ever had. How was your day? - Yeah, good. - Mainly my friend Bella. We just hang out and talk about anything and everything. I've had a wardrobe clean-out. - Yeah, it's nice. I like the flowers on it. - Very pretty. 'Disability can be quite isolating. 'It can be quite daunting and difficult to make connections with people my own age.' I'm sure that'd be fine on you because you've got more room to kind of move around. - How would I look in high-vis? - And it's only recently that I feel that I'm wanted... cos I've found this really great group of people who I can go out with. - PA: Which following artist sang this 1970s number one hit song? Who sang this song? (LAUGHTER) - PLAYFULLY: Quick. Press it. Press it. - (CHUCKLES) - We make a habit of going to the pub on Wednesday night to have dinner, catch up and play trivia. - Get in there, nice and quick. - Oh, wait. You're Flag Girl. 'I feel like the average 20-something-year-old...' - It is true. - '...who gets to have that normality about life. I feel accepted. I feel normal. (BRIGHT ELECTRONIC MUSIC) Hello. Recently, my co-creators and I went over to France for Series Mania, which is a big TV festival that Latecomers was nominated for. I think that was when it hit me that nomination will be attached to my name forever. And that in itself is just remarkable. - Tell me where you're up to with where you're going at the moment. - I received a call yesterday inviting me to join the Gender Matters Taskforce. - Oh, that's fantastic. It'll be really great. You'd be great on Gender Matters. 'I feel like Emma has already become a screenwriter, 'because once you've written your own show, that is what you are, right?' So I don't think there's really a question whether Emma or Angus our screenwriters. They are. And I think the challenge for any screenwriter is ` where to from there? - I'd love to meet someone from BBC Studios or ITV, Television International. 'I really, really, really want to create an international writing career.' There's so many more stories to tell. I have two documentaries, so that's kind of my main goal. - I am so excited for Emma Myers' future because she is unstoppable. (CHUCKLES) It's like the horse is out of the gate now, and all I can say is I cannot wait to see what she does next, and I hope I can be part of something with her again. - I've always wanted to work in the entertainment and media industry. And so, the fact that I can now call myself a legitimate screenwriter is so... I can't explain it. I never thought I'd end up doing a job that I love. (FUN ELECTRONIC MUSIC)