Rebecca Gibney talks about her tragic childhood making her the woman she is today Actress Rebecca Gibney. IN two weeks Rebecca Gibney will be on canteen duty at her sons school. The thought makes her smile, not for the obvious incongruities but because she loves being normal mum, Mrs Bell. "It's all incredibly normal," Gibney says. I get up and make the sandwiches and take him (son Zach) to school. We have Ku-ring-gai National Park on our doorstep so on weekends we grab the mountain bikes or go hiking or go to the beach. "When I was working on Rafters I would be gone at 5am and not home until 7pm so it's nice to have more time to be a normal mum."" Gibney's work schedule may have freed up slightly since Packed to the Rafters finished earlier this year but for one of Australia's most loved and popular actors, there are plenty of offers. Details are still under wraps but she is developing and co-producing a telemovie for Channel 7, which she is hoping will be in production by the end of this year. She is presently also travelling around Australia as the ambassador for skincare brand Olay Regenerist. Rebecca Gibney, Hugh Sheridan, Erik Thomson, Michael Caton in the final episode of Packed to the Rafters. Work for Gibney, 48, is much more than new acting roles and she is also much more than an ambassador for a skincare company. She is also an ambassador for healthy, beautiful ageing. Among her peers, she stands out for shunning too many minders who control everything she says and for being courageous enough to have opinions that others would avoid. She even speaks her mind when it comes to politics, admitting to still being undecided about how to vote at next weekend's federal election. "I'm a big Malcolm Turnbull fan because he's a Liberal with a touch of Green, which is just what we need,"" she says. I listen to the way he speaks and he has great vision. "People say he's already successful so he just wants to lead the country because he's interested in power but I see his success as a positive thing and it proves he wants to lead Australia to make it the best place it can be."" Rebecca Gibney with her husband on the Logie Awards red carpet in 2009. Gibney's battles against the Gunns pulp mill being built near her former home in Launceston are well-documented, along with her honesty about anti-ageing interventions such as Botox. If she has any concerns about turning 50 next year, she doesn't show them but admits she's drifted in and out of Botox use over the years. She doesn't completely discount surgical options but, for now, is not convinced cosmetic surgery is a viable option. ``No surgeon has said to me, "I can make you look the same but younger,""" she says. "I don't want people looking at me asking, "What has she done with her eyes?" I actually think I'd get in trouble with people if I changed myself radically. I'd much rather be a woman with lines but ageing well. Still, I never say never. If they were to invent the non-surgical facelift I'm sure I would try it, but I think most women look like they have been "done" when they've had surgery. If you mess too much with your looks, there is a slight desperation about you and it shows. I don't mind tweaks but when you start looking radically different it's like you're trying to hang on to youth."" Actors Rebecca Gibney and Jess Marais played mother and daughter in Packed to the Rafters. Whether the lack of acceptance in ageing is self-determined or market-driven is open to debate but Gibney has certainly not been disadvantaged in work opportunities because she is maturing. Her acting is better than ever as she continues to grow as a person and in public admiration. So, she is able to grow into the ageing process rather than go into battle with it. "At what point do you let it go?"" she asks. For me, I just want to look after myself and recognise there is nothing wrong with ageing. What all this is really about is that we don't look after our elderly. We don't celebrate age and wisdom. Sometimes I wish I paid more attention to those things when I was in my 20s and 30s but instead I spent so much time wishing I had thicker hair or skinnier thighs. Rebecca Gibney with her mum Shirley at the Logie Awards in 2012. Picture: Nicole Cleary Now I look at myself and my neck is wobbly but I have nice eyes, a smile and good teeth. I'm not going to be 65 looking back at this age wishing I hadn't focused so much on what was wrong with me. "I'm incredibly content and that means everything to me."" Gibney's confidence runs deep so it is not superficial or determined by external factors. It comes from certainty in her marriage to artist Richard Bell, joy in their nine-year-old son Zach and gratitude for the life they have built together, especially when it looked like a mirage when she was younger. "I always had a feeling that I was pretending when I was younger,"" she says. Rebecca Gibney and Jane Hall from TV show 'All together Now' in 1991. I was completely self-conscious, self-aware and worried. I'm so different now. It's partly maturity but also being in a comfortable place with my husband, who I know is 100 per cent behind me. I'm probably even happier in my marriage now than I was was this time last year. I'm in a great place. I'm also very contented in myself. I'm a good person. I'm a kind person."" They are qualities she quickly attributes to her mother, who raised her six children with an alcoholic husband and endured 15 years of beatings. Despite the trauma, Gibney says her mother is without judgment or bitterness and the actor is clearly full of gratitude and admiration for her. Actors Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson in a scene from 'Packed To The Rafters'. "It has helped me - my childhood was nothing compared to my mother's,"" she says. We have all had some tragedy and it's up to you to deal with it and move on. Mum's attitude has helped a lot. She would constantly tell us it was not our fault and she shielded us so that when Dad came home he'd beat her up. I'd hear it but never see it. Sometimes she had to sleep in the car but she always took it. In those days there was no help or shelters. You couldn't just leave. Besides, she saw that alcoholism was the disease. When he was sober he was a kind, gentle person. Since knowing more about his own childhood, I understood and I also understood why, in my teens and 20s I gravitated to strong father figures because I grew up without a strong father figure."" Jane Hall, Rebecca Gibney and Kerry Armstrong at the premiere of film 'Mental'. But Bell changed all that. It has been a relationship that flowed from the start. The couple are well-synchronised with their approach to parenting, their choice of holidays, their spiritual practice and their lifestyles. Gibney can't imagine finding those layers of connection with someone else. They are even both shy. Even though she is an actor and a generous personality, she much prefers to rely on a script. "I've always been happier in the background and my husband is really shy,"" she says. It's interesting because Zach is incredibly confident and integrates well with anyone. His teachers say that, too."" He may not have a 6ha property to play on any more but Gibney loves their Sydney lifestyle, living just over a block away from Zach's school with friends and beaches nearby. Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson play Julie and Dave Rafter at their on-set house. They take great holidays together at least once a year. Zach has already travelled the world - Canada, Malaysia, Dubai, Venice. "While he's young I want him to experience the world,"" she says. When I was a child, a holiday for us was to go to the river and have a sausage on a stick. I'm in a position to be able to do that for him even though we should be paying off the mortgage but I think it's more important to remind him that the world is a big place and there's so much on offer. He has a real appreciation of life, different cultures and he wants to learn. I'm the same. I wake up every day and say thank you for the life I have.""