Jenni Baird searches for silver lining in The Twelve

Foxtel drama viewers will remember with salacious delight the performance of Jenni Baird as the villianous Regina in A Place to Call Home.

There were tirades, histrionics and big frocks.

Not so in The Twelve where she plays Diane, the grieving mother of missing daughter Clare (Coco Jack Gillies).

While the courtroom drama is necessarily intense, Baird concedes it was an emotional shoot, with little levity for her role.

“You draw upon your job on your own pain, sadly. It’s not an easy thing to talk about interviews because you want to be up and light…” she told TV Tonight.

“It’s quite a traumatic thing, but actors kind of sign up for that, when they do roles like this. You have to sit in that dark place.”

For Baird, who can be wickedly funny with fellow cast and crew, The Twelve was not without its challenges.

I usually love having fun on set with the crew and I really couldn’t for this one. So when the wrap party was coming, I was thought, ‘This is gonna be the party where they all get to know me.’ And then I got Covid.

“So there was no actual joy, just that I was working.

“It was tough because some things in my own life were coinciding with the filming.

He said something else coming up. That’s a bit brighter.

“But this the only industry where you can say ‘This difficult thing that I’m suffering from, I will be able to use for the greater good.’ To draw on your reality. So that was the only silver lining.”

The Twelve continues 8:30pm Tuesdays on FOX Showcase.