Melanie Zanetti is part of one of Australia’s most successful TV shows – but you probably wouldn’t know it if you saw her on the street. She voices Chilli Heeler, the mum of Bluey in the incredibly popular ABC children’s animated series. You’ll probably recognise her voice before you recognise her face.
“I love being incognito when you pass a big family who are all decked out in Bluey gear and being like, you have no idea,” Zanetti says.
Outside her work in Bluey, Zanetti’s acting career has taken her around the globe. And on every flight, she packs a pricey tube of hand sanitiser that she says is well worth the money. Here, the actor and voice artist tells us about that travel essential, as well as the stories of two other important belongings.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
A box of letters, cards and drawings I’ve kept from when I was very little. I’m a words of affirmation girl and this box is full of every lovely thing that’s been written to me by people I care about, and stuff from people who are no longer here. It’s got trinkets and mementoes, plus drawings from my sisters when they were aged two and four, inviting me to fairy tea parties.
It’s funny, I’m a streamliner in so many ways. Most of the time, unless it’s practical and aesthetically pleasing, it goes. I travel so much for work that I’ve had to cut everything right down, but this is the one thing I’ve held on to that is not practical but precious.
My most useful object
Very bougie Aesop hand sanitiser. I’ve been travelling so much lately that it’s become my go-to. With regular hand sanitiser, my hands would absolutely dry out from lathering it on so often. This one doesn’t dehydrate my hands and make them look like they’ve aged a thousand years every time I use it, but still keeps me safe. And it smells great.
The item I most regret losing
A little caveat: this was the item I most regretted losing at the time. When I was about eight years old, I was travelling with my family in Malta. My favourite toy was a stuffed blue bunny, and I left him behind in a hotel room. I was devastated.
Then years later, we were out somewhere and someone started singing the folk song My Bonnie. I thought they were saying “bunny” and I burst out crying. So that was a great heartache. I never loved a stuffed toy again afterwards – Bunny was my one true love.
Melanie Zanetti appears in The Sign, a 28-minute episode of Bluey which will air on 14 April on ABC and ABC iView.
