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Pia Miranda has long been a beloved figure in Australian film and television ever since her breakout role as Josie Alibrandi in Looking for Alibrandi in 2000 now she steps out for her new role in Invisible Boys.

Now she takes on one of her most different and challenging roles yet playing Anna, a deeply homophobic and traditional Italian mother in Invisible Boys, the newest Stan Australia series based on Holden Sheppard鈥檚 award-winning novel.

Pia sat down to chat with Michael James about preparing for her new role and what it was like creating this ground breaking new show.

A new direction for Pia Miranda in Invisible Boys

This year marks 25 years since Pia Miranda became a household name in Looking For Alibrandi.

Since the iconic film launched her career she has gone on to play a variety of differing roles over the years, including a very successful reality television stint winning Australian Survivor in 2019.

However in 2024 Pia was cast in a new role for the upcoming Stan series Invisible Boys that is a far cry from the loveable Josie Alibrandi we all know and love.

Miranda鈥檚 character, Anna, is the mother of Zeke, one of the show’s lead characters, a young man in an Italian family struggling to come to grips with his sexuality whilst trying to hide it from his over bearing mother.

As the story unfolds, Anna鈥檚 deep-seated homophobia and fear creates a painful and confronting dynamic between the two as she attempts to control Zeke and his identity.

However it is Pia Miranda‘s performance that definitively transforms the character of Anna into one of the most unlikeable television characters we’ve seen in a long time. Steadfast, unreasonable and unflinching every moment of Pia’s performance bristles with the hostility of a woman so determined in her beliefs and set in her ways even the love for her family cannot shift her resolute viewpoint on the world. Pia perfectly captures the frantic energy of a woman desperately trying to maintain control as she feels it slipping away in a performance that will likely define the next chapter of her career.

“You can’t let anyone else play her”

For an actor who has often played more likeable roles, this character was something different for Pia, but something she leapt at straight away.

Not having read the book before being approached for the role, she jumped right in and immediately she was hooked. “It鈥檚 a pretty quick read, so I read the book and then I watched some of Nick鈥檚 work,” she says, referring to director and series creator Nicholas Verso.

“Then I went into the Zoom and just kind of said, ‘You can’t let anyone else play her. Please give it to me. I want to play her so badly.’ I was just so passionate because I love the book. I knew I would have a really good time playing that character, and I really felt like I could give her some depth and meaning.”

It was a big departure from her previous work and the contestant people fell in love with on Australian Survivor, which she argues, not everyone did.

“People were pretty pissed at me on Survivor because it鈥檚 a strategic game,” she laughs.

“But this is different. It鈥檚 a real joy to play someone so complicated, but she鈥檚 also so different to me. Her values are so different. What I really said to Nick in the early stages was, ‘I really want to just find out the why鈥攚hy is she like this?’ And humanise her so that I could sort of… you know, I didn鈥檛 want her to be one-dimensional and just a villain. But there was a line in the book where Zeke says, ‘My mother鈥檚 a monster. She鈥檚 a monster,’ and I just kept that in the back of my head to keep me on track.”

“I knew the character of Anna would be just so exciting and scary to play. I was just听so desperate to take on that challenge. I felt like I could give her something. I really felt like I understood how to play her.”

Playing Anna in Invisible Boys required Miranda to strike a delicate balance between portraying her as an authentic character while ensuring she wasn鈥檛 softened into something more palatable and redeemable. “There was definitely the temptation to try and make her a bit more sympathetic, but I had to resist that,” she explains. “I really needed to stay true to the character and make sure she wasn鈥檛 given an easy redemption arc.”

When preparing for the role, Miranda drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including real-life figures and pop culture. “I always steal a lot,” she confesses. “I definitely will always find something from within myself and then I’ll find or I’ll steal from other characters, steal from books and stories, little bit of a mimic as well” she says of her method for finding the nuances in her character.听

One of her inspirations came from an unlikely place she recalls. “Weirdly, some of the mannerisms from one of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. She鈥檚 not like Anna as a person, but I just liked her she’s kind of up herself and I just loved that sort of character. So I stole a little bit of that and stole a little bit from the Italian people I know.”

“Then I try and create something well-rounded, but what I had to do was find like, how am I going to find something inside me? So what I leaned in to was just anxiety and control, like she just wanted control because if she control things from getting out of control then she’ll get anxious and so I used that as like the energy to push me through in each scene and I feel like hopefully that made her feel real, that there was something else going on and听I add a little bit of comedy in there because I always feel like it’s more fun to play evil when you’re having a little bit of a laugh about it.”

Creating magic on set with Invisible Boys

Part of the magic of Pia’s performance lies in her scene partner Aydan Calafiore who plays her son Zeke. The pair share remarkable chemistry as the mother and son duo, a pairing that Pia thoroughly enjoyed.

“It was a real joy to work with Aiden as well, and I almost feel like when someone’s so opposite to you, it opens up the opportunity to be really brave because you can just dive into something that’s scary and completely different. Not exposing anything of yourself” she says. “Working with him was just a breeze. We just played off each other every time, it was really wonderful.”

However part of the magic also lay in the work with series creator and director Nicholas Verso who she credits with helping her develop her character so well.

“Working with Nick was really great because I really needed someone to collaborate with me about how to pitch her correctly. And he’s such a great director and such a great collaborator that I could, you know, experiment and sort of let him know, I’m just going to throw something out there, I think it’s too much, but tell me where I should pitch it from that point. He definitely helped me find the right tone.”

Telling authentic stories for the LGBTQIA+ community

Despite playing such an unlikeable character, Miranda was eager to be part of a groundbreaking queer-led Australian story, something she feels has been sorely lacking. “I haven鈥檛 really been in anything that is such a great coming-of-age story, especially one that centres LGBTQIA+ experiences,” she says. “And I don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e ever seen a queer story set in rural Australia like this. That鈥檚 a story that should be told and needs to be told. I have family who live in rural communities, and mental health in those communities is a little bit of a forgotten need. Hopefully, this show will do good for people who are feeling isolated.”

As a long-time ally of the LGBTQIA+ community, she feels deeply connected to the themes of Invisible Boys.

“I grew up surrounded by friends and family who were part of the queer community,” she shares. “I’m someone who’s grown up around people that have had very different experiences. growing up in the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, that’s a long span. I鈥檝e seen so many different experiences鈥攁ctors who had to stay in the closet, people coming out later in life, friends who didn鈥檛 know how their parents would react. This show speaks to all of that. It鈥檚 so important that we keep telling these stories because representation is still evolving.”

“I think it it sort of highlights the fact that these stories need to keep being told and they need to keep being told in a human and wonderful way because sometimes there’s a little bit of an idea that after marriage equality passed it was like, well, we’re done. But听no, we’re not. We’ve still got a long way to go and so I think if we can keep telling these stories and听always tell stories about minorities,听it’s so important for young people to see themselves reflected back on screen when they’re still hearing that stuff.”

Reflecting on the current political climate in America makes her even more determined to keep our voices heard, with the current statements hitting home for her and her family as well.

“People say it doesn’t affect us [here], but even me as the child of a migrant, some of the rhetoric sort of makes me go, ‘oh gosh.’ I went back to those little feelings I had in the 80s. So that stuff hurts. So it’s good to counteract that stuff with positive, beautiful art.”

“I’m excited to be in a story that represents my friends and my family and people I’ve grown up with.”

Pia feels connected by her friends and their experiences and the stories they have to tell the world. “I feel like I’m surrounded by lots of friends and family who are part of the queer community and I guess I just feel part of that community and I’m excited to be in a story that represents my friends and my family and people I’ve grown up with.”

“Everyone’s had their own experiences, like my best friend and his his partner, they had a daughter together, so they’re raising our kids at the same age and seeing them beautifully raising a young daughter as a queer couple in a supportive environment it’s so exciting and wonderful, but also sad for the people like 30 years ago who didn’t get that opportunity.”

It’s these life experiences that help motivate her to ensure we are still showing our queer stories to the world.

“I think there’s sort of that element of do we need to tell these stories? Yes! we absolutely do. Because it’s always evolving when it comes to people who are part of a minority and we need to just always be supportive. So yes, absolutely. I couldn’t be more of an ally for the community and听I’m really proud to be a part of this show.”

She also notes the significance of the show鈥檚 portrayal of queer adolescence, particularly in a rural setting as particularly important. “A lot of the time, when we see queer stories, they鈥檙e set in the city where people have found their tribe,” she explains.

“But this is about these isolated teens who haven鈥檛 found their tribe yet. Watching them come together is incredible. And seeing those awkward sex scenes? That was really special. Because sexuality when you鈥檙e young is really awkward. It’s not like the sort of stuff that’s often represented on screen. It鈥檚 complicated, It鈥檚 messy. And I think that鈥檚 a really important story to tell.”

“It can kind of be confronting to see your mom as a young person”

Speaking of adolescence, Pia is now mother to two children, her eleven year old son and fifteen year old daughter, who she reveals aren’t terribly interested in her on screen career. So much so her daughter has yet to watch her in Looking For Alibrandi.

“I think she’s a little nervous in the sense of it can kind of be confronting to see your mom as a young person” she reflects.听

But what does she think about her teenage daughter watching Invisible Boys?

“My daughter is pretty savvy and I think this young generation, young women and young men are just so on to things,听they’ve grown up in a world, in an environment where it’s very different to what we’ve grown up in, so I don’t even know if she’ll see it as a “queer” story. Like we watched Heartstopper together and she just saw it as a love story. I think that’s an amazing thing and makes me very emotional.”

“She was really excited when I told her the storyline of this” she gushes “She’s going to love it. I’m so excited for her to watch it.”

She does reveal the one show her family did watch was her time on Australian Survivor. While she’s busy introducing the word to another new character many have been clamouring to know if they’ll get to see Pia return as herself on the hit show.

She reveals she’s already been asked to return and the answer is a firm no. “I’ve said no way, suckers” she laughs. “You have one chance to snuff my torch. And you blew it” she says of her time on the show.听

“I just feel like as a winner, no-one’s gonna fall for my nonsense twice with me pretending that I didn’t know what was going on, except like a core group of people. So I can’t play that game again.”

All ten episodes of Invisible Boys are now streaming on .