When Lisa McCune was nine years old, she wrote to the producers of US family sci-fi series Lost in Space asking if she could be on the show. She recalls dressing up in silver outfits before school to watch the extra-terrestrial adventures of the Robinson family. Doctor Who was her after-school staple.
Flash forward to 2024, and the four-time Gold Logie-winning actress, who still has that letter her mother never sent, has at last scored a sci-fi role. Ezme, from the planet Astorad, in ABC ME’s Planet Lulin, is also McCune’s children’s television debut, and marks her first time playing a grandmother.
Lisa McCune’skooky wardrobe was inspired by British fashion figures Trinny Woodall and Vivienne Westwood.
“It was so funny because [former Blue Heelers producer] Pennie Brown was worried about posing the idea of playing a grandmother to me,” says McCune, laughing. “But it’s lovely that they didn’t make her into the kind of grandmother that wears thick stockings and heavy shoes. She’s dynamic, and she has to wear gloves all the time because she has so much power that she will blow things up if she’s not careful.”
The eccentric matriarch, who has a thing for garden gnomes, cares for her granddaughter Lulin (Nina Gallas), a half-human, half Astoradian 12-year-old, whose mother was taken by an evil force. Trying to fit in on Earth, Ezme concocts a kooky wardrobe (courtesy of costume designer Kate Camilleri). For inspiration for the character, McCune looked to two British fashion icons.
“This is going to sound really bonkers, but I knew Ezme was going to go down this outrageous road of building her own outfits,” says McCune. “So I started watching a bit of Trinny [Woodall]. The other inspiration was Vivienne Westwood. Ezme builds things from nothing. She finds something in a kids’ playground and uses it as an outfit, so she spends her time being crafty in a really magical way.”
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The story, by Melanie Sano, follows Lulin’s bid to win the school science competition, just as her mother once did, battling bullies and alien invaders along the way. The adult cast includes Aunty Donna’s Zachary Ruane and Virginia Gay. The most established of the child actors is Cassie Robb, who starred in The Clearing and who fills several alien roles.
“The stars of the show are the kids,” says McCune. “They are phenomenal and they had a genuinely beautiful time and went down the creative road in a way that you really do believe. They were spectacular to work with.”
Some heavy themes run alongside the intergalactic adventure.
