On its premise, one might think that Homebodies, starring Claudia Karvan and Luke Wiltshire, is a ghost story. But it’s actually a charming, heartfelt exploration of family dynamics, identity, and love.
Premiering on SBS, Homebodies follows Darcy (Luke Wiltshire), a trans man who returns to his regional hometown to care for his estranged mother, Nora (Claudia Karvan). But Nora isn’t alone. Living in her home is Dee, the teenage ghost of Darcy before his transition.
“It’s not a familiar story that we’ve seen on Australian screens,” says star Luke Wilstire. “Using the trope of a ghost story to tell a trans story is very interesting and captivating.”
Haunted by our past
Dee’s inclusion, played by Jazi Hall, is a striking, almost surreal device. But what could easily veer into the abstract is grounded in something deeply human: the experience of being haunted by your former self.
“She’s a lovable ghost,” Luke says with a smile. “Friendly ghost.”
And that’s exactly what makes Dee so disarming. She isn’t a horror trope; she’s familiar, vulnerable, occasionally mischievous (maybe at times a little more aggressive, but hey, she’s a teenager!) and impossible to ignore.
For Luke, the story’s emotional core is unmistakable.
“I think for me the main themes of the show are mainly about family and growing up and how your relationship with your parents changes. It is about accepting not only yourself, but also each other and about how Darcy and Nora can find a way for both of them to see who they are and make space in their lives for each other.”
Claudia agrees, but brings it back to something even more instinctive: fear.
“And I think one of the greatest themes for me that spoke to me as a reader and also embodied Nora was just…fear. A lot of the missteps she makes are around being fearful of rejection, really. And also having expectations about what her relationship with her child is going to be like and what her child is going to be like. So, letting go of expectations and not giving in to fear.”
The conversations we avoid
If Homebodies lingers anywhere, it’s in the silences, the things left unsaid, the misunderstandings that calcify over time.
Claudia hopes the series might gently disrupt that.
“Every journey is individual, but hopefully it will open up the conversation. We all need to talk to each other about how we’re feeling and our fears.”
“But also, I hope it can show that we can all move past our and other people’s ignorance or shame or regrets. If we can at least talk about it and share it, then let it go.”
Luke echoes that sentiment, particularly when it comes to representation.
“I think it opens up a lot of doors that maybe haven’t been opened before. I think showing parents that it’s okay to feel confused or to struggle to try and wrap your head around the future that you thought your kid was going to have, and how that changes. And same for Darcy; it’s okay to give your parents a second to get on board, and just very commonplace things, I think, for queer kids that we don’t see a lot of representation for. So I think hopefully this show can speak to normalising a lot of things.”
It’s a delicate balance, telling a story about identity without turning it into a lesson. And that’s something Luke feels the show handles with care.
“What’s wonderful about a show like this is that it’s not trying to change your mind. It’s not trying to push a political standpoint. It is just inviting you to come on a journey with these human people, and you can think whatever you want to think, but I’m sure will not get to the end of the show and not have found something of yourself in it.”
Playing opposite your past
For Luke, one of the most unusual challenges of the role was acting opposite Dee, a younger version of Darcy himself.
“It’s very interesting. It’s a very fun challenge as an actor. Jazi and I did a lot of work together to make sure we were portraying the same person. We had a lot of like mannerisms that we decided on. It was really interesting to decide how Darcy would hold himself now and how that’s changed, and things that Jazi does that have evolved to the way that I would do.”
But beyond the technical challenge, there’s something psychologically revealing about it.
“Acting opposite yourself forces you to confront a lot of things that otherwise maybe wouldn’t get said. There’s a lot of subtext that could live in your head or conversations that the character can avoid addressing his past, but Darcy has no choice but to address his past constantly. So you get to see exactly how he feels about himself and how he feels about his past self and how he feels about other people seeing this version of himself as well.”
In particular, how Darcy’s mother cares for the ghost of his past.
“Jazi and I often said it became almost like we were rival siblings trying to compete for our mum’s affection,” he adds.
Claudia chips in, “It’s actually a bizarre love triangle, isn’t it?”
“I approached it like there’s one person I’ve got a relationship with who’s familiar and then there’s a stranger who’s arrived who’s judging the relationship and threatening to break the status quo,” shares Claudia about how she approached acting opposite her son and her son’s ghost of his teenage past. “So a little bit like playing favourites a bit.”
A mother caught in time
For Claudia, Nora’s resistance to Darcy isn’t born from cruelty, but from something more recognisable: fear, guilt and a sense of inadequacy.
“I think she also feels rejected. She feels inadequate. And she just can’t say or do the right thing. So, she’s a bit lost and feels judged. So yeah, she’s a bit prickly and awkward. Not the best version of herself.”
At its heart, Nora is stuck.
“Yes, she’s trapped in the past and trapped in a place where she thinks that the past is bringing her comfort, but actually it’s sabotaging her life, and it’s isolating her and alienating her.”
And in that way, she isn’t so different from Dee, or even Darcy.
“All three of them have to reconcile the past with the present, and then they can find a resolution and closure and move on. Having seen each other, then love can blossom again.”
The space between them
Throughout Homebodies, there is a lingering question of how Dee came to be. Was she conjured by Nora, who was missing her daughter and confused by her choice to transition? Or was she conjured by Darcy, a manifestation of the past he was leaving behind? But for Luke, he reckons it’s deeper; she exists in the gap between them.
“I think that she’s created by the meeting of both Darcy and Nora,” Luke says. “I don’t think it’s really one of them not being able to let go. She’s come out of the gap in their relationship, like they’ve left this space and this thing that’s not being spoken and now it’s physicalised into Dee.”
Claudia agrees. “They’re both responsible for conjuring her. But they’re blaming each other.”
“And it’s going to require both of us to reach across this very scary gulf and be vulnerable and see each other. Then there won’t be a reason to conjure up this person that’s personifying their unfinished business.”
The landscape of memory
Set in regional New South Wales, the fictional town of Torwoo becomes almost a character in itself.
“It’s very like it’s very integral to the story that it’s set in this remote part of the world,” Luke explains. “Especially as Darcy has found some sort of footing for himself prior to the show in Sydney. And then he comes to this isolated house with his mom.”
The isolation intensifies everything.
“The pressure of a small town, the pressure of people talking and of how quickly news can spread. It feels almost sometimes like even though there’s this vast landscape, you are, it really feeds into that trapped feeling, and like you can’t get out of what’s happening right now and right here.”
Claudia describes the house itself as a kind of time capsule, one which Nora is stuck in.
And yet, there’s beauty too; the sweeping landscapes contrast with the emotional claustrophobia.
Looking back with tenderness
Perhaps the most resonant question Homebodies asks is a simple one: what would you say to your younger self?
For Claudia, the answer isn’t straightforward.
“Depends on what day! There are days for my younger self where I’d go, ‘Oh my God, stop being so arrogant, stop being so self-absorbed’, and then there are other days where I’d be like, ‘Stop whipping yourself, stop being so self-flagellating and stop undermining yourself’.”
Luke’s answer is gentler.
“I think I feel in some ways similar to Darcy, that it would be quite confronting, but I think I would probably give a little me a hug and, cliché, but I’d tell him that it’d be all right.”
And then, quietly, he adds something that captures the essence of the series.
“If I had seen a show like this at that age, if my younger self had seen a show like this, it really would have changed everything for me and would have made a lot of my life experience a lot easier. And it would have helped me to feel a lot more normal and like there was nothing wrong with me. So I think I would show my younger self this show and say, look, there you go, there’s nothing wrong with you.”
“He’s a highly evolved human,” Claudia says of her co-star.
A story for everyone
While Homebodies centres a trans experience, its emotional reach is far wider.
“There’s so much like there’s so much everyone can find in this show,” Luke says. “It’s like intensely relatable. Even if you didn’t want to find something, I would challenge you not to.”
Claudia agrees. “Oh, yeah. They’re really well-rounded humans, and they’re vulnerable, and they’re grappling with things in a very relatable way.”
Because ultimately, this isn’t just a story about identity in the traditional sense. It’s about the many versions of ourselves we carry, the ones we’re proud of, the ones we’d rather forget, and the ones we’re still becoming.
And perhaps, like Darcy and Nora, we all have a little unfinished business with who we used to be.
Homebodies premieres on Saturday, 28 March at 8.25 pm on SBS and SBS On Demand. Homebodies will be available to stream free on SBS On Demand as 6 x 10-minute episodes. It will air on SBS as a single hour-long program.
Watch the trailer:
