Carrie Bickmore: “I don’t think you ever get used to it”

In the 10 years that Carrie Bickmore’s star has risen since fronting The Project there’s still some things she struggles to accept: being followed by the paparazzi.

While the Gold Logie winner recognises it comes with being in the public eye, it is also a distinctly different experience for female stars than for male.

“Growing up as a woman you are always told to be aware of your surroundings, who’s following you, whether there is anything uncomfortable happening around you,” she explains.

“You have someone literally going through red lights, or hiding behind a bush, or slumped down in a car outside your house… all those things make you anxious or panicked in the way you’ve been told to think and feel.

“You think ‘Oh it’s just a pap,’ but there is a level of anxiety or panic. I don’t know if they realise that it feels like that.

“If anybody saw someone slumped down in a car outside your house watching you, they’d go to the police.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female paparazzo. Maybe once.”

A lot has changed in The Project‘s decade on air. The Roving Enterprises show initially launched with a team of five: Bickmore, Charlie Pickering, Dave Hughes, James Mathison and Ruby Rose before it settled on a core presenting team of 3.

Early ratings in a half hour edition struggled to make their mark, amid frequent calls for the show to be axed. But 10 stuck with it building up a loyal audience and a voice which is frequently cited as most representative of the network’s DNA.

“I’m so thankful to 10 for backing us”

“I’m so thankful to 10 for backing us. It would have been such a shame, when you look back at all the stuff that’s happened if it had been pulled after a few weeks.

“But I genuinely don’t remember those early years. It’s such a blur. I can’t pinpoint the moment when it was. Early on we were under a lot of pressure, and I don’t think we quite knew what the show was we were making. Each day we tried something to see if it would work.

“It took maybe 6 months to get in a groove about what the show was.

“The show has evolved so much, and as every person left and a new person arrived the show would shift slightly. But there are some elements that are still there: trying to deliver the news in an engaging and entertaining way. We want people at the end of their day to find out what’s happening, have a laugh, maybe learn something and feel passionate about something they saw.

“We did that back then and we do it now, if maybe in a different way.”

Pete Helliar joined in 2014 (now a longer mainstay than his predecessor Hughesy) and Waleed Aly in 2015. Other key presenters include Lisa Wilkinson, Tommy Little, Hamish Macdonald, Steve Price, Gorgi Coghlan and Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann. The “Friday whip-around” was pivotal to the broad success of Kitty Flanagan and while it has attempted editions at 6pm, 6:30pm and 7pm the show has since spawned a Sunday edition and a New Zealand counterpart.

“You want people who do TV to be fearless and speak their mind”

On social media The Project continues to resonate with a youthful audience, while Waleed Aly’s editorials have famously gone viral to millions of non-viewers. While Bickmore’s candid responses to some stories have won her a following, they also now lead to clickbait stories.

“I have a funny relationship with it,” she confides. “I get that’s the world we live in. So to say it’s unfair is pointless.

“However, it’s tricky because you want people who do TV to be fearless and speak their mind. Otherwise it becomes very boring and sanitised. But I think people can forget we have feelings.

“People say ‘You’re on TV you should be used to reading that stuff about yourself,’ but I don’t think you ever get used to it. It’s an uncomfortable experience.

“There have been moments I’ve been genuinely moved by something and thought ‘I don’t want to read about myself crying again on air.’

“How interesting it’s tweaked my decision just being myself on air. But it’s different again for Waleed, Pete, Lisa, or Sam Armytage, Kochie, Karl…

“What’s written can be so far from what happened on air”

“It’s a tricky line to walk and the context of what’s written can be so far from what happened on air, that you have to start laughing at it. You grow a bloody thick skin and say ‘Did you see the latest one?’ rather than ride the emotional rollercoaster.”

This Friday The Project will mark 10 years on air with a 90 minute special from a larger studio.

While it will take the time to acknowledge its achievement, it will still face the reality of a day of breaking news and the production rush to get it to air by 6:30pm.

“The entire day is a moveable feast,” Bickmore agrees.

“Often right until we are about to go to air, or even on air, our rundown changes. But that’s why I love the job.

“It’s exciting.”

The Project 10th Anniversary special airs 6:30pm Friday on 10.