May 2009

Shining Stars

As we celebrate Jetstar’s 5th birthday, we speak with five celebrities about their road to glory, five years after their journey to success began

WORDS UTE JUNKER

Lisa McCune

From stage to a buoyant career: The all-singing, all-dancing actor is still stretching her boundaries.

One thing that Lisa McCune doesn’t believe in is standing still. Four years ago, the four-time Gold Logie winner had just had her second baby, and was also performing live on stage in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s Urinetown. “Late nights with work and early mornings with babies… it was a bit of a blur,” she laughs.

Five years on, she’s had another baby and is back on stage, appearing in Guys and Dolls at the Capital Theatre in Sydney. She’s also recently completed a third series of Sea Patrol: Red Gold. The one constant in her life is change and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“As a performer, I’m constantly working with different people in new places, and I love that. I travel with my family, and we have such a great time together. With Sea Patrol, we spend four months away from home each series in Queensland, but it’s the best part of our year. ”

As for the future, McCune doesn’t believe in looking too far ahead: “I wake up in the morning and look forward to the day ahead.”

Rove McManus

From small talk to talking big: The Gold Logie winner is still Australia’s favourite talk show host.

This year, Rove McManus notches up a decade in television. His show Rove, which lasted just one year on Channel Nine in 1999, has since become a staple on Channel 10, and McManus has garnered an enviable collection of Logies, including the three he won in 2004.

It was the second year in a row that he took a clean sweep — Most Popular TV Presenter, Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program and the Gold Logie — but he says it didn’t really sink in until the next day. “I lined them up, and thought, ‘That’s quite good’.”

Five years on, McManus feels the show is better than ever, and is thrilled at the way his career developed. “In 2004 we were getting international guests like Alexei Sayle and Justin Timberlake, and I was thinking, ‘It’s not going to get better than this’. Fast forward to this year, and I’ve been invited on The Tonight Show in the US three times. It’s a huge thrill just to step into the house that Johnny Carson built.”

As for the future, while he’d like to slow down a little, McManus’ other goals are simple: “I’d love to be able to keep doing the show, but that’s not my call, it’s whether people keep watching.”

Leisel Jones

From Olympic champion to Swimmer Of The Year: Even beyond her Olympic success, breaststroker Leisel Jones is making waves.

At her second Olympics, Jones may have come home from Athens with three medals — a gold, silver and bronze — but what she remembers most about 2004 is that, “I learned a lot about myself”.

“I had a lot of problems with self-confidence that year,” Jones confesses. “I didn’t perform to my own and other people’s expectations at the Olympics. Since then, I’ve learned to think differently and, looking back, I see I did the best job I could.”

On the upside, Jones says that she really enjoyed the Athens Olympics. “Sydney in 2000 was quite overwhelming, but in Athens

I let my hair down a bit, did some sightseeing and really enjoyed the experience.”

Jones is still making a splash in the pool — she scooped up another two golds and a silver at last year’s Beijing Olympics — but also has her sights set on the future. She’s training as a beauty therapist and hopes to open a spa with Thalgo in the future. She says her greatest achievements are related to her personal growth.

“I’m proud to have finally learned to step outside my comfort zone.”

Shannon Noll

From farmer to Australian idol: The runner-up in the first series of Australian Idol has carved out a stellar music career, becoming the only artist ever to have 10 consecutive top 10 singles in the ARIA charts.

2009 is set to be a huge year for Shannon Noll. Having already toured Australia at the beginning of the year, he’s about to tour Europe in the musical The War of the Worlds, before recording his fourth studio album later in the year. This was not something he could imagine five years ago, when the down-on-his-luck farmer fronted up for Australian Idol auditions.

“We had the farm, but we’d gone from having 4,000 sheep to around 175,” he remembers. His main income came from irregular jobs shearing or crutching sheep.

Although Noll was beaten out by Guy Sebastian for the Australian Idol title, he’s gone on to have a hugely successful career. A personal highlight was being named MTV’s Male Artist of the Year three years in a row.

This year, Noll is focusing on trying to break through internationally. “We’re not extravagant people — we’ve a nice home, we drive a Ford ute. The best thing about success is being able to get the kids the things they need, and some of the things they want.”

Hugh Evans

From saving kids to ending poverty: The former Young Australian of the Year has a new passion — fighting global poverty.

There’s no way Hugh Evans will ever forget 2004 — he was named Young Australian of the Year in recognition of founding the Oak Tree Foundation, a youth-run aid organisation to help young people in the developing world.

“I had to make my acceptance speech in front of 40,000 people,” Evans remembers. “It was a windy day and my speech blew away — I had to do it off by heart.”

His words clearly struck a chord. “By that night, 30,000 people had logged on to our website, and our server self-destructed.” Evans went on to do a national schools tour over 10 days, gaining 700 volunteers.

Evans turned 26 and resigned from Oak Tree last year but has kept busy, co-chairing last year’s Youth 2020 Summit, launching his latest book, The Future By Us, and an ambitious new project.

“The Global Poverty Project is based on what Al Gore did for global warming. We want to create the best communications tool on how to end poverty, and take it around the world before filming it.”

Thanks to funding from the Australian government and the United Nations, the project is already underway.