Claudia Karvan has spent much of her career winning audiences through her portrayal of layered, loving mothers. Yet none of those roles quite prepared her for the emotional reckoning that came with playing an estranged parent in the new SBS drama Homebodies, premiering later this month.
The Australian acting veteran is no stranger to complex family dynamics on screen. Over decades of television and film work, she has made a habit of bringing quiet strength and genuine vulnerability to roles that centre on motherhood. But the role of Nora, the estranged mother in Homebodies, follows a trans man returning to his hometown to care for his mother, alongside other supernatural and transitional challenges. The character carries the weight of unresolved relationships and the particular loneliness that comes with a child grown distant.
The shift from nurturing figures to a parent grappling with absence struck something deeper. Karvan described the experience in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, indicating the role had moved her to tears in ways her previous maternal performances had not. For an actor who has built trust with audiences through her willingness to explore motherhood in all its complexity, this latest character appears to have found a new register of emotional truth.
Homebodies will premiere on SBS in late March, having been selected for official competition at Series Mania. The series was developed through SBS's Digital Originals initiative in 2023 and is supported by Screen Australia and Screen NSW, and was created and co-written by AP Pobjoy and produced by Mad Ones Films.
The timing of the series is noteworthy. Karvan recently created the series Bump with Kelsey Munro, in which she starred as matriarch Angie, and the show concluded its run after five seasons. The transition from a long-running family dramedy to a story explicitly about estrangement and return suggests an intentional artistic choice; an exploration of what happens when the active phase of parenting ends and new questions emerge.
For viewers who have watched Karvan navigate maternal roles across shows like Love My Way and The Secret Life of Us, Homebodies may feel like a natural, if more melancholic, evolution. The character of Nora is a portrait of the middle-aged parent facing both loss and the possibility of reconciliation, a story that speaks to the particular vulnerability of becoming an empty nester. In finding tears in that role, Karvan has tapped into something real and difficult; the work of acknowledging what disappears when children move away.
For more information about the series and its premiere date, viewers can check SBS's official schedule.