Conversations

Richard's Most Memorable Conversations — Magda Szubanski

Dec 22, 2024
Magda Szubanski, an award-winning Australian actress and comedian beloved for her role in Kath & Kim, discusses her compelling journey of self-discovery shaped by her father's secretive past as a wartime assassin. She reflects on the challenges of migration from Britain to Australia, childhood anxiety, and identity transition. Magda also shares poignant insights on the intertwined themes of family dynamics, comedy, and trauma, culminating in a heartfelt exploration of acceptance and connection to her Polish roots.
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ANECDOTE

How Her Parents Met After The War

  • Magda describes her family’s escape routes and meeting her Scottish mother in Scotland after liberation by American pilots.
  • Her father trained to be parachuted back into Poland but the war ended before deployment.
ANECDOTE

Discovering Wartime Photographs

  • As a child Magda found a wrapped book, Dniepowskanya, showing Warsaw Uprising photographs and a dead body.
  • She was fascinated and haunted, and her father dismissed her questions about it.
INSIGHT

Dissociation Passed Between Generations

  • Growing up with a parent who dissociated taught Magda to cut off feelings like fear and weakness.
  • She later had to relearn to feel and reintegrate those emotions through therapy.
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