activist and ‘latecomers’ actor hannah diviney chats about representation of disability on screen

Hannah Diviney is best known for her work as a disability and women’s rights advocate (and for recently calling out Lizzo and Beyoncé for using ableist slurs in their lyrics). Now, the 23-year-old can add actor to her bio, too: Hannah stars as the super-cynical but loveable Sarah in Latecomers – the new SBS series that explores sex, disability and everything in between.

Created by Emma Myers, Nina Oyama and Angus Thompson (who also stars as Frank), Latecomers draws from Emma and Angus’s lived experience of cerebral palsy. The romcom is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, and will premiere on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand this December, on International Day of People with Disability. Ahead of the show kicking off, we had a chinwag with Hannah about playing Sarah, and why Latecomers is so important for diversity on Australian screens.

Why should people watch Latecomers? I think people should watch the show because it's pretty ground-breaking. There's been nothing like it on Australian television ever before, and I think it's really going to open up some amazing conversations about disability, relationships, identity, sexuality and all those incredible things that aren't often connected by society. Including disability in those sorts of conversations is often considered quite taboo. Having the two main actors in the show have cerebral palsy, and having it be created by people with cerebral palsy, is a really important step for representation.

Congratulations on your first acting role. What has the experience been like? It was something of a happy accident. It only happened because I got an email from one of our wonderful producers, basically just asking if I, as a disability advocate, would be interested in coming and reading the script. It was just in the context of a writing workshop, so that Angus, Nina and Emma could hear their words in other people's voices, and then know what they had to do to the script before it went to production. I absolutely wasn't expecting that the part of Sarah would even be on my radar.

I loved drama as a kid and could generally be found near a stage if there was one, but I never really thought that acting professionally – as weird as that is to say – would be on the cards for me. The experience of being on Latecomers was one of the best experiences of my life. The crew really worked to make it a safe, fun environment and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to work with, because it was a pretty challenging script; it pushes a lot of different boundaries.

It's amazing that you filmed a sex scene in your very first role. What was it like having the crew around you when you were really vulnerable? That was quite intimidating, but it was made easier by the fact that we had an intimacy coordinator on set, which is basically someone who helps choreograph what the scene should look like so that the actors know what they're doing at all times. It's definitely the best way to keep actors safe and I think, moving forward, intimacy coordinators should be the industry standard. I couldn't imagine having to be that vulnerable without someone helping us set the framework.

I'm really lucky that the person that I got to do that scene with made sure I felt safe and respected. The both of us understood the enormity of what we were doing because, as far as we could find, there have been no other sex scenes on Australian television featuring disabled people. It's not something that we took lightly and we all very much wanted this scene to show you exactly what was going on and doing so in a really beautiful, tender, body positive way.

What were your first thoughts when you read the script for the first time? I laughed a lot. I cried. My jaw hit the floor. I kind of punched the air and was so excited to see this on television because I never imagined that I would be playing Sarah.

I couldn't believe how progressive it was of SBS to take a chance on the script. I'm so happy that they did and I hope that this opens up the doors for so many other projects. What Angus, Emma and Nina have created is an incredibly poignant, hilarious, thought-provoking show and I'm very excited for people to see it.

The Australian film and television industry is pretty small, but I think in recent months, particularly with the success of Heartbreak High on Netflix, we've seen how much representation matters and how much Australian television can be embraced by us and the wider world at large.

Did you have any input on how your character was represented? I was really lucky because the creators of the show have cerebral palsy, so they were coming from lived experience when they formed the characters. But when it came to me, I did get to tweak a few things and make sure that there were certain elements of my disability there, because cerebral palsy affects everybody differently. There were also a lot of similarities between Sarah’s feelings about the world, the way she views things and the things that she's insecure about, and my own, so it was a pretty powerful process.

Most people have had an awkward sexual encounter or dating experience and we've seen countless depictions of that on screen. And yet, Latecomers is the first Australian show where those stories are told from the perspective of disabled characters. Why do you think it's taken so long? I think it's because it makes people uncomfortable. I mean, the narratives we have about disability are very much tragedy-focused, unfortunately, or they're at the other extreme end of the spectrum – Paralympic glory and success – which is very much framed in terms of someone overcoming their disability. We don't often see disabled people who are happy while being disabled, or who are thriving while being disabled. And I think that comes down to the fact that we still live in a world where society isn't super-accessible for people with disabilities. So, people don't necessarily see us out and about, living life and doing normal things, but with mobility aids or whatever it might be.

A lot of the big issues in the show centre on self-worth and the way Frank and Sarah see themselves. This is a bit meta – but is part of the reason why those characters have those views because there's such a lack of representation on screen? Absolutely. And I think it's also because, for the majority of society, expecting and accepting that people with disabilities have the same wants, needs, desires and interests is still a really foreign experience. It's not something that people know how to comprehend and that all comes down to representation. Hopefully, there will be fewer disabled people in the future who can relate to storylines like that, because they would’ve seen Latecomers and other things that might’ve been created off the back of it.

I would love to get to a point where the representation of disabled characters on screen is normalised and their stories are normalised. I would love to get to a point where we get to tell other parts of our story, and we just happen to be disabled. Obviously, it will always influence the things characters value and the things they care about, but I think if we can get to a point where disability or ableism itself isn't a central speed bump in the story, that would be great.

A refreshing aspect of the show is that the drama comes from what the characters are thinking and feeling, as opposed to the usual external forces that are explored, like discrimination. Absolutely. And I think it's really interesting that the writers, Emma, Nina and Angus, decided to make sure that none of the able-bodied characters in the show make Sarah and Frank feel like they can't have what they want. That either comes from themselves, or from honest discussions between the two of them, because both of them understand what it is to be disabled.

Latecomers has loads of comedy. What was the funniest moment for you on set? There's a scene where Sarah gets vomited on and the process of filming that, having it kind of thrown at me and having to react to that, was probably one of the funniest times I had onset. The vomit was made from a combination of custard, biscuits and blue Powerade.

What impact do you hope the show has on the Australian audience and the wider global audience? Hopefully it will encourage disabled people to feel seen, first of all. The value in that is almost immeasurable. It will hopefully encourage anyone who’s able-bodied to consider their own feelings about disability and the intersections of all of those things. Beyond that, maybe it will mean that able-bodied people start to see disabled people, in general, as potential romantic partners. For the film and television industries at large, I hope it will be an encouragement that you can cast disabled actors, you can tell disabled stories, and our representation does work.

Latecomers will premiere on Saturday, December 3rd, at 8:30pm AEDT on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.