Invisible Boys: Mercy Cornwall takes on a ‘morally grey’ character in TV show based on Holden Sheppard’s book

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Invisible Boys: Mercy Cornwall takes on a ‘morally grey’ character in TV show based on Holden Sheppard’s book

Mercy Cornwall has stood at the crossroads more than once, deciding which way to turn.

At high school in Perth, she loved acting but when the time came to choose a university course, she followed the path to becoming a lawyer.

She dabbled in modelling, and her singing talents took her on a detour to the east-coast auditions for The Voice Australia in 2017, but when she graduated from the University of WA in 2019, Cornwall again found herself with a choice to make: practise law, or pursue acting.

She chose acting, and moved east.

The significance of that fork in the road was on Cornwall’s mind as she spoke to STM ahead of spending Christmas 2023 with her family in Subiaco for the first time in four years, before shooting the TV adaptation of WA author Holden Sheppard’s acclaimed novel, Invisible Boys.

Sheppard’s debut novel, which was released in 2019 and follows three 16-year-old boys coming to terms with their homosexuality in small-town Geraldton, has won multiple accolades, including the WA Premier’s Prize for an emerging writer, the Kathleen Mitchell Award, and the City of Fremantle’s Hungerford Award.

When the audition brief dropped into her inbox — a challenging role playing one of the boy’s girlfriends, on a project helmed by award-winning director Nicholas Verso, exploring complex issues and filming in WA — it “sounded too good to be true”, Cornwall admits.

Camera IconMercy Cornwall will appear in the upcoming series Invisible Boys, set in Geraldton and based on the book by WA author Holden Sheppard. Credit: David Dare Parker/Photograph by David Dare Parker

“I put down a tape and hoped for the best, and I was really excited that it worked out,” she says.

“I really wanted to be a part of it.

“I think there are some really important themes and messages in this show, especially around the topic of men’s mental health, which is something that has been quite taboo. I really hope that this can potentially open up discussions.”

Cornwall, who recently appeared in a guest role on Home And Away, has seen her profile lift steadily in the past few years.

As well as appearing in several local productions, including the Perth-produced series The Heights, she also appeared in

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’s Dive Club as well as the Christmas flick Mistletoe Ranch, and had a minor role in the big-budget flick Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.

But Invisible Boys, shot in Perth and Geraldton last year, felt different.

“I love that it celebrates the LGBTQI community in a really important way,” Cornwall says.

“And to have the most empathetic and wonderful creators behind the scenes to put that out to the world and to celebrate and shine a light on it is fantastic.”

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As Verso, the director behind the 10-part series, was looking for someone to play Rochelle, the girlfriend of Hammer, played by Zach Blampied, he came across Cornwall’s taped audition.

“It sounds like a cliche but honestly, once I saw Mercy’s audition for Rochelle, I knew I didn’t have to watch any more tapes,” he says.

“Rochelle on the page can be tricky, because it would be easy for her to just become cartoonish comic relief and stereotypical, but there was no fear of that with Mercy. She’s so in command of her skills as an actor that she could easily move between delivering on the comedy, which absolutely needs to be there, flip it into a place that’s formidable and almost chilling, but still ground it all in an emotional truth.”

Verso, who won a Logie for his work on the ABC teen series Crazy Fun Park, knew he wanted to cast emerging talent in the main roles (although well-known actors Pia Miranda and David Lyons appear as supporting characters).

The four central characters are played by Joseph Zada (Charlie), Aydan Calafiore (Zeke), Blampied (Hammer) and Joe Klocek (Matt).

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“I’ve worked with casting agent Marianne ***** at Maura Fay Casting for years and she knows how much I love to find new faces because they come fresh, without any cynicism or baggage,” Verso says.

“You think back to some of Australia’s most iconic screen characters, like Toni Collette in Muriel’s Wedding, Paul Mercurio in Strictly Ballroom, or our dear Pia Miranda in Looking For Alibrandi, and I think part of the reason those characters connect so much with audiences is because they had never seen them before and truly believed in them.”

Verso hopes to strike a chord with modern audiences, remembering the “shot of adrenaline” he felt as a gay teen in 1998, when director Ana Kokkinos released her film Head On, starring Alex Dimitriades as a young man in Melbourne grappling with his homosexuality.

“I’ll never forget the importance of that, so I think every generation deserves their version of that experience,” he says of his decision to adapt Sheppard’s acclaimed novel for television.

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Cornwall says she relished the chance to sink her teeth into her own meaty role. While Invisible Boys is centred on its male protagonists, it has plenty of well-drawn female characters.

“I think (Rochelle) is the first character that I have played who is a bit more morally grey, in terms of whether you like her or don’t like her, or whether you agree with her intentions or you don’t,” Cornwall says.

“But I really had to find her truth, and to ground her in as much reality as possible, despite the fact she’s a bit of a dramatic character. She has been a lot of fun to play.”

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It’s been a highlight in a career that started back at that post-university crossroads when Cornwall, despite enjoying her studies, realised she just couldn’t see herself spending her life as a lawyer.

Acting hadn’t seemed like a viable career either until that point, but she decided to roll the dice.

She got an agent and started auditioning, moving to Sydney and picking up her first role, in the

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series Dive Club. The show didn’t last but the exposure from appearing on the streaming giant, and the passion it sparked for acting, did.

“That was very early on in my acting journey, which is an interesting way to start,” Cornwall says. “It started out super promising, and then we had the pandemic, and I didn’t realise how rare it is to actually book a role.”

She persevered and other parts eventuated, including the internationally distributed Mistletoe Ranch (set in a Colorado winter but shot in Queensland in the summer, Cornwall laughed as she thought of the “movie magic” required to make it look realistic).

But even for an actor who has had parts in these relatively big productions, Cornwall is keeping her options open.

Asked if she had considered moving to the US, she admitted it played on her mind, as it did with a lot of international actors.

“You want to put yourself in a position where you are most likely to work, and that is the epicentre of the entertainment industry,” she says.

“But there is a lot happening in the world right now, and it’s not as easy as just buying the ticket and moving over anymore. There are visas to process, and all the bureaucracy that comes with living internationally.

“It would need to be in the right conditions (but) it is definitely something that I am working towards.”

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For the time being, Cornwall is based in Sydney and although acting is her priority, she’s also hoping to do a Masters degree in Museum and Heritage Studies. She even went as far as enrolling — before having to defer to film two projects, including her stint on Home & Away.

“I hope to get back to my studies really soon but acting has taken the front seat for now,” she says. “However, it’s always such a gamble. Whenever I enrol, I always seem to book something and whenever I don’t enrol, I might not be working as an actor for months. This has meant I had to look for other ways to fill up my academic cup; I have a part time job at a museum as well as constantly reading and listening to lectures and podcasts.”

Something tells us she may not need the fall-back.

Invisible Boys premieres on Stan on February 13.

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