A blast from the sexual liberation past

Brenna Harding may not be a child of the 1970s, but while she acknowledges the universal themes in Puberty Blues she recognises some attitudes from the era have been well and truly left behind.

“Whether you grow up in the ’70s or grow up now you’re going to face a lot of the same issues. Fighting with parents, the movement of friendship groups, all these first experiences, learning where you’re placed in your friendship group, within the world and your family,” she says.

“There are slight societal things that are different of course than the 1970s and the values of the characters are different.

“I think it’s a universal story.”

One thing that has changed since the ’70s is changes in teenage acceptance of gays and lesbians.

Harding (pictured left), who plays teenager Sue Knight, has been raised by same-sex parents. She is active in the Wear It Purple, a youth organisation that supports sexual diversity.

“It’s about accepting diversity and supporting the people around you. It’s about wearing purple to show support, especially for young people who are struggling with being accepted for their sexuality or gender diversity,” she says.

“I’m the head of the advisory committee and I run a day at my school where everyone wears purple and there are purple events, like Purple Hearts, a photo booth, and we had a purple police car last year. There are a whole lot of other events for community awareness.

“I became involved because I’ve always been around the gay community because I have lesbian parents, and I really like this organisation because it’s all about positivity.

“It’s about showing that you can just support someone by wearing a colour, uploading a photo or telling somebody about it. So I really liked that it was such a small thing, but if everybody did it then it would make the environment so much better.

“Homosexuality was definitely less accepted at least in teenage circles, but comparing my teenage circles in terms of diverse sexuality, gay and lesbian kids, bisexual kids, compared to what it would have been like if Sue came out and said ‘I think I’m gay,’ the reaction she would have had, I think, would have been much, much harder.

“My mum said she didn’t really know that (being) lesbian was a thing she she was first coming out. It wasn’t really talked about.”

In Puberty Blues Harding’s character Sue comes into contact with sexual issues touching upon everything to teen sex, abortion and The Joy of Sex. Filming of sex scenes hasn’t been a problem in part due to the mechanics of the scene, and because care is taken when shooting them.

“It’s treated so well because everyone is so supportive and understands you’re still young. We talk everything over and I understand everything that’s going to be happening. It’s a closed set so everyone is out of the room except the people who really need to be there. So it’s much faster because there’s not all these people,” she explains.

“So it becomes quite efficient and ends up being just another scene, really. We’re just going through the actions and it becomes about the dialogue or where I’m looking. It doesn’t ‘feel’ sexy. That’s the idea with Puberty Blues. It’s never supposed to be sexy, especially in the first season. The boys are just machines and the girls just lay there and sex is like homework for them. So I think it would be harder to do a consensual scene, but I haven’t had to do any of those.”

Puberty Blues has been a game-changer for Harding, with her first major role landing her award nominations and critical praise.

“The major craziness for me was that I was in high school, working a quite-demanding job with a lot of hours and figuring out all the terms, the slang, and what everyone’s jobs were. I’d learned names but what did they do? What’s a Grip do? So I guess that’s what made it so mad,” she admits.

“But it was also so well-written with such an amazing vision. The directors were so passionate about what they were doing, so it was much bigger for me to take on all their work to step up.

“I think what got me through that was having Ash (Cummings) around because she had been around and became a big sister to me. There were so many people looking out for me, because I was the baby of the set.

“I guess what’s changed this season is because I understand everything I’m really able to step up and start exploring character and play with the storylines.”

Indeed this season sees the show move away from the original plots of the Puberty Blues novel, allowing the writers to explore new ideas for her character.

“There’s a bit of separation between Debbie and Sue and you can see how that affects each of them separately. In Sue it begins to liberate her a little bit from that childhood relationship and she’s starting to now explore her place in society,” says Harding.

“You see at the end of the first season they start rebelling a little bit. They go surfing, they don’t really care what the boys think, they go and rescue Frida and I think you’ll see an extension of that where (SUE) starts to challenge the things around her and she cares less about the people trying to hold her back with those societal things. She also starts a really strong relationship with her mum and starts to learn from the people around her whereas previously she didn’t. Like Cheryl and Vicky who she’s spending a lot more time with.

“She makes her own way and makes her own decisions and becomes independent in this series.”

Puberty Blues returns 8:30pm Wednesday on TEN.