Transcripts – Nikki Webster Press Archive

The Project

Oct 1, 2019Oct 19, 2022 2019, Transcripts No Comments

CARRIE BICKMORE: Please welcome Nikki Webster!

NIKKI WEBSTER: Hi!

CARRIE: Do they superglue those masks on? It looks like it took forever to get your head out of that.

NIKKI: Oh they’re so hard to take off, exactly. Nothing like TV to get it off.

CARRIE: How was the whole experience, did you love it?

NIKKI: I loved it. It was so much fun. Crazy, wacky but just a great time to kind of perform and sing again, and you know, behind a mask where no one kind of, well, no one knew who I was until they heard me sing. So it was a pretty awesome experience.

WALEED ALY: Well officially no one knew who you were but I think a fair few people guessed it.

NIKKI: I think so.

WALEED: What I have a problem with is, right, because Strawberry Kisses was set on a space ship. And I remember this because I was clearly the target demographic for that song. But if you’re gonna be famous for a film clip on a space ship, when they come to give you a costume, could they have given you something other than the alien?

NIKKI: I know, why couldn’t I be the unicorn or something?

WALEED: Yes!

NIKKI: Or the lion? I had my ‘rawr’ ready, I don’t know! I guess it was more about the alien being, people kind of think they know who the alien is but do they really know who they are. So it was kind of that idea.

WALEED: Well it turns out yes, they knew.

NIKKI: They guessed! I’m very predictable, what can I say?

JACINTA: Watching you last night talk about your daughter was so surreal. We still think of you as little Nikki Webster, and now you’re 32 and mum of two kids.

NIKKI: Thanks for making me feel old, but yeah! [laughs] But yes I get older like everyone else, and it’s the best job of what I do, is being a mum. So to make them proud was incredible and watching them watch the reveal last night just made everything well worth it, that’s for sure!

TOMMY LITTLE: Nikki, I’m so sorry about Jacinta’s question. Are you at the age now where we’re not meant to mention your age?

NIKKI: Well never to a lady. That’s it, see I’m a lady now. So never to a lady, that’s for sure!

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Today interview

Aug 15, 2016Oct 19, 2022 2016, Transcripts No Comments

DAVID CAMPBELL: Now, the Olympic Games are well and truly underway. One person who got into the spirit of the opening ceremony over the weekend was one Nikki Webster!

SONIA KRUGER: That’s right, Nikki was just thirteen years old when she was hand-picked to headline proceedings at the Sydney games in 2000, and she joins us now. Good morning to you!

NIKKI WEBSTER: Good morning!

DAVID: Hi!

SONIA: Nikki that is one heck of a phone call to get, isn’t it?

NIKKI: It was! It was a whole audition process. So the audition came up, I went for it, it was months and months of audition, elimination process. I reckon if the reality TV was around back then, it would’ve been a reality show. But it was quite cut-throat. It was intense. And then it was a lot of preparation going into the opening ceremony, but for me, not as much as everybody else that was involved. The directors, the producers, everybody that was doing all the different segments had been working on it for years, and then I was lucky enough to get this role and play the Hero Girl, and bring all the sections together and help create the opening ceremony. So, huge honor.

DAVID: Can we get that photo up again? ‘Cause it’s just adorable. Look at you here. I mean, you’re so… look at you there!

NIKKI: Aww, look at me! Look at me with the pink bows! [laughs]

DAVID: On the weekend I read somewhere that you said that this made you grow up really fast, what did you mean by that?

NIKKI: Um, I think it just… What I meant by that was I was kind of thrown into the limelight. Yes I had been in musical theatre and I’d been in the industry, but not to the extent of what the Olympics catapulted me into, around the world, and it’s nothing that I was prepared for. There was no child star in Australia that had kind of gone through the same process. So I was learning just as everybody else in my team was learning along the way and on the journey, I had to learn it as well, and I also had to make sure that I was being honest about who I was as a child. ‘Cause I was very young and innocent, and you know, that was my upbringing, and very homely, so I wanted to make sure that I stayed the same and didn’t get wrapped up in it. So that’s what I meant by growing up – not in a bad way, I mean it was fantastic. I got to travel the world, I made music, clothing range, makeup – I got to do everything, every little girl’s dream, I got to live out. So it was incredible.

SONIA: You got to meet some amazing people, too, at the Olympics, including your idol, Kylie Minogue.

NIKKI: Kylie, yes.

SONIA: Did she give you any words of wisdom?

NIKKI: She was a huge inspiration to me at that time of the Olympics, we did the bridge climb together, and we had a great connection. So she was really by my side throughout that first couple of years of my career – on the phone, we met at different times, I went and saw her in London get ready for her tour, and just really kind of giving me an open eye to what this industry can be like and where you can take it if you work hard.

SONIA: Yeah, yeah.

DAVID: You’ve been in showbiz since you were how old?

NIKKI: Well, five and a half, actually, doing Aladdin, a pantomime, and then I did lots of musical theatre and was lucky enough to work alongside you, in Les Mis.

DAVID: We did Les Mis. She was nine.

SONIA: I didn’t know you did that together!

NIKKI: I was Little Cosette, and I think I had a big crush on David. [laughs]

DAVID: No!

SONIA: You were only about 41 then, weren’t you?

DAVID: I was really young.

NIKKI: Very young. We used to play in the dressing room, we used to play board games, remember? When we had scenes that weren’t on. So I’ve been lucky enough to do some incredible things.

DAVID: Michael Jackson, you worked with Michael Jackson on the HIStory Tour.

NIKKI: I did!

DAVID: What was that, what were you doing on that tour?

NIKKI: So I met him, when he had his movie [premiere], and then we all kinda got trampled on by a lot of fans, and we went back to his hotel room, and then he asked me to come up and sing with him, Heal The World, on stage, and he gave me a jacket of his that says “Especially made for Michael Jackson”. So incredible, and I actually got told that he remembered me, by a mutual friend of ours, when he saw me do the Olympics, he remembered meeting me.

SONIA: What was he like? What were your impressions of him?

NIKKI: I absolutely adored him. He was such an honest artist. Of course being kids we asked him to do the moonwalk for us; that’s what you do.

DAVID: Did he do it?

NIKKI: No! He actually said, “You’ll have to wait until you see me on stage because I’m really shy,” as in just in front of people, but get me on stage and that’s where I come to life. And I kind of relate to that ’cause I guess I’m a little bit the same. On stage I feel at home, and one-on -one I get a little bit nervous and shy.

DAVID: What about like… People don’t know that you actually moved to the States for a while. Why did you do that? Was it just too much here after all that Strawberry Kisses and all of the Olympics and everything?

NIKKI: Yeah, I think it’s about growing up. I was 18, I was like, “I need to find out who I am,” who Nikki is. There was a lot of management, a lot of people trying to dictate, you know, me doing the sexy thing, me doing – whatever it was, where my next career was gonna be. So I said to mum and dad, “I’m off! I’m going to L.A.” And I wrote music for the first time and went to Nashville, spent time in Nashville, which I love, and met incredible people that knew of “Nikki Webster” but didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas of me. It was pretty awesome. I grew up very quick and I got very homesick, ’cause I’m an Aussie girl at heart, so I came home pretty quick!

SONIA: And you now have a gorgeous two-year-old daughter, Skylah.

NIKKI: I do, yes.

SONIA: So does she know about mummy’s amazing career?

NIKKI: Well she does know Strawberry Kisses, and that’s from my dance studios, ’cause the kids do it. So she knows Strawberry Kisses and she can pick me out in pictures. I guess I’m waiting for the right time to sit down with her and show her the Olympics where she can really understand it, and things like that. I mean she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, she’s incredible and I enjoy every moment with her.

SONIA: Look at how gorgeous that bubba is.

NIKKI: She’s cheeky as!

SONIA: Is she? Bit like mummy.

NIKKI: Yeah. Loves the stage.

DAVID: We’re just proud of how well you’ve turned out. I don’t mean that as… I am older than you, I’ve known you since you were nine and I’ve always admired how well you’ve handled yourself and you still do, and you’re such a great example for people out there that you can get through the industry and be fine.

NIKKI: Yeah! It is a tough industry but it’s also an incredible industry. There are so many different avenues you that can take – radio, TV and movies – and I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of it, and will continue to. I want to get back into musical theatre and more acting, and also music.

DAVID: It’s a shame you’ve lost your drive.

NIKKI: [laughs] No, I’m very driven!

SONIA: Thank you so much, Nikki.

DAVID: You can check out Nikki’s performing arts studios in Sydney, visit dancenikkiwebster.com.au.

Child Stars – The Kerri-Anne Show

Aug 2, 2011Oct 19, 2022 2011, Transcripts No Comments

Kerri-Anne was joined by former child star Nikki Webster on the back of her advice for AGT contestant Jack Vidgen.

Kerri-Anne: Well he’s the favourite to take out Australia’s Got Talent, the final, but now 14-year-old singing sensation Jack Vidgen is receiving very disturbing death threats via Facebook, which I guess begs the question, why are we so quick to criticize people who’ve enjoyed some success?

Nikki Webster grew up in the spotlight, knows all too well how brutal people and the media can be. Now she’s offering Jack some sound advice to help him avoid Australia’s tall poppy syndrome. She joins me to discuss how challenging it can be growing up a child star. Nikki, great to see you again.

Nikki: You too, you too. Good morning.

Kerri-Anne: It was interesting your remarks and advice to Jack Vidgen. You suggested that he leave the country, what’s behind that remark?

Nikki: It wasn’t so much ‘Get out of Australia.’ I love Australia, this is where my career started and I’m so grateful and blessed to have had the opportunities that I’ve had, and I wouldn’t change anything for the world. But I was asked to give Jack advice, and it was more the fact that the media can get quite vicious – and I hope it doesn’t for his sake – but they can get vicious, and it can affect his passion to perform and entertain, and if that’s gonna happen then he needs to go overseas and travel the world and make music throughout the world, and then Australia’s always gonna be here and we’re always gonna love him. So that was the context, that I was saying it to him.

Kerri-Anne: Are we still in the era that we appreciate our people more when they’ve gone away, done the big stuff, and come back – are we still in that era?

Nikki: You know, I think we are still in that era. When I look at the history, you know Kylie Minogue’s gone overseas, Danni’s gone overseas, there’s a lot of stars that’ve had to go overseas.

Kerri-Anne: And they’ve copped their own. Kylie: the singing budgie.

Nikki: Horrible, yeah.

Kerri-Anne: They’ve been [through] some really tough stuff. But what was is that affected you so much? You talk about how brutal the media and people can be, what do you mean by that?

Nikki: Um, I think it was more the fact that I was a 13-year-old girl who represented my country, had a wonderful opportunity, created music after that, all my dreams were fulfilled. Got to about fifteen and all of a sudden, media personalities who I thought I had a good relationship with were making me the brunt of their jokes and, you know I was sitting at home and they weren’t letting me on their show, and I was always the punch line of jokes. And I couldn’t really work out what was going on, and I’d go to school and people would say to me, “You’re this diva,” or this, that, the other, and I was like, “But you know me, we’ve grown up together.” And people were believing what they were reading and hearing more than the relationship I had with them.

Kerri-Anne: Why do you think people turn, in Australia? Is it very much the tall poppy syndrome, an Australian thing to go through?

Nikki: You know, I think it happens all over the world. I think we do put people up on a pedestal and then we kinda need to let them get a little bit rocky and give them a hard time and see if they can fight through. But I think in Australia it happens more so with our child stars – not our sports stars, we do support our sports stars – but with performers it does happen. Yes, everyone knows I went through it and I’m not crying out saying I want an apology. It happens.

Kerri-Anne: What was the most hurtful thing you remember, when you were fifteen or sixteen?

Nikki: [laughs] I think it was something where I was, I think it was on the Rove show, and they actually blew me up or something and, they had like a fake character of me and they blew me up. And I thought that was just a little bit inappropriate.

Kerri-Anne: It’s very hurtful to be constantly the butt of people’s jokes.

Nikki: And it does hurt your passion, as a child.

Kerri-Anne: And that’s what you think may happen to Jack?

Nikki: It could happen; I hope we’ve learnt and I hope we support him. He’s an incredible talent and I wish him all the best and you know I hope that we can watch his journey grow, wherever it may go musically.

Kerri-Anne: On the weekend Toddlers and Tiaras, a lot of hoo-ha about this sexualisation of young kids. How have you viewed that?

Nikki: I think we need kids to be kids. We’re only kids for such a short amount of time, we need to nurture kids, and when I opened my dance studio three years ago, it was for that reason. It was to nurture young performers, to share my experiences with them and to guide them, and protect them. You know, they’re so innocent and beautiful.

Kerri-Anne: Aren’t there parents who are just way too involved in a kid’s career?

Nikki: I think there are two sides. There are parents who live through their kids, and their kids aren’t really enjoying what they’re doing, and there are parents whose kids actually have talent, and would give up everything to make sure that kid has the best opportunity possible, to fulfil their dreams.

Kerri-Anne: Nikki, if you hadn’t been the big star you were from the Olympics, do you believe you would have had a better career and a better life?

Nikki: Not at all, not at all. My whole life has been performing. I started performing at the age of five and you know, I was doing musicals and TV, and performing and dancing. It was my dream! The fact that it came true at thirteen is just a blessing, and I wouldn’t change anything. It’s allowed me to open my dance studio, my talent agency, you know I’ve made music, I’ve done records. I’ve travelled the world and what more could a 13-year-old ask for?

Kerri-Anne: We’re just sorry for all those brickbats. Quite undeserved. But thank you.

Nikki: Definitely! Let’s support our talent and get behind them, because it’s a great thing we have incredible talent in this country.

Kerri-Anne: Well said. Nikki Webster, thank you.

Nikki: Thank you, so good to see you!

Source: Kerri-Anne
Watch the video here. View screencaps here.

Good Morning Australia

May 31, 2002Oct 19, 2022 2002, The Wizard of Oz, Transcripts No Comments

BERT NEWTON: Nikki Webster and Nancye Hayes. Don’t want to make this an unabashed plug for the show, but I just thought it might be interesting. I made the comment that it’s a big show for a director. Now from people away from, from theatre, they might say is big simply the number of the cast or the size of the set? What do you mean by big?

NANCYE HAYES: Well there’s a lot of elements involved. As I say there are things that we have to make happen that are much easier to happen on film than they are on stage. As we know, the witch has to melt, and we have flying involved, the witch flying, and you flying in the balloon and all those things. We have a, a little Toto that has to do so many things and be with Nikki the entire time.

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