CLAUDIA KARVAN, PRESENTER: Hi, I'm Claudia Karvan, currently appearing in the new TV series Puberty Blues. When that classic Australian movie came out 30 years ago, parents were mortified, but a generation of kids loved it. The two teenage girls who starred in Puberty Blues looked set for big careers on screen. Tonight's program reveals the bittersweet story of Nell Schofield and her co-star, Jad Capelja.

NELL SCHOFIELD: I'd like to show Miles the beach where Jad and I walked up the sand all those years ago. Where she was happy, where she was optimistic about life. I'd love to tell Miles that his mother was just this wonderful person, this giggly, free-spirited, happy, joyous young woman. He might not have known her like that.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: I definitely wish I could have seen her back then when she was young and sort fresh and healthy and vibrant and see what she was like, because I sort of think when I was 16 and I think, could I have done that? Or could I have handled that stress? I think I'd be very proud because I don't think I could do the same thing at that age. She was very mature for her age, definitely.

NELL SCHOFIELD: I'd like to show him some of the locations maybe where we shot the film. It's about 32 years since we made the film, and it has been with me all that time. I call it my albatross because it's always there. It's the first thing they mention. Nell was in Puberty Blues. Anything I've ever done in my life has been totally eclipsed by Puberty Blues and probably always will be. Puberty Blues changed my life. I mean it's so crazy when you do something so crazy at 17 and it's still with you when you're nudging 50! I had no idea the film was going to be as popular as it has turned out to be. I mean it's an Australian cult classic.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: I was in high school and we actually had to watch it for sort of like a sex education class, which was pretty interesting. One of the girls actually in my class turned around and sort of said to me, 'gosh she looks like you.' And I was just amazed. I was like, are you serious? Are you asking me that question? She was like, 'yeah'. And I'm like 'yeah that's my mum.'and she's like 'my God,' and that stirred the class up a bit. And that's sort of when the whole sex education thing for me got a bit awkward.

NELL SCHOFIELD: It's fantastic that there's this new series of Puberty Blues, and that these issues, these stories, these ideas are being circulated again. But there is one person missing from the story.

(Excerpt of Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey as the 'Salami Sisters' - ABC TV, 1979)

KATHY LETTE AND GABRIELLE CAREY (singing): Well I had spoof all over my jeans. My mother asked me if I dropped my ice cream. I said, "No Mama, I'm a big girl now." She won't believe me, no she won't believe me. She treats me like a kid and she's giving me the puberty blues."

(End excerpt)

NELL SCHOFIELD: The Puberty Blues movie was based on the book by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey.

(Excerpt from Nationwide, ABC TV, 1979 plays. Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey walking along the beach)

REPORTER: Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey don't aim to shock. They say their novel, like their weekly newspaper column, is based on accurate reporting. But what they say is bound to shock many of their parents' generation.

KATHY LETTE AND GABRIELLE CAREY (alternating): When we were 13, the coolest things to do were the things your parents wouldn't let you do. Things like have sex...

... smoke cigarettes...

...nick off from school

...go to the drive-in

... take drugs

... and go to the beach.

(End excerpt)

NELL SCHOFIELD: I first heard of the book Puberty Blues when I was at school. A friend of mine gave it to me and I read it and it was sort of like, oh, cripes the secret's out. It was kind of like an expose of beach culture that we thought we had under wraps. Yeah, I was very promiscuous. I had lots of boyfriends in my teenage years and lots of under-age sex. It was great! (laughs)

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: I was waiting for a bus in Miller Street in North Sydney. So I went into a newsagent and I thought I'll get a paper or something to read, and I saw this book on the desk, on the shelf, 'Puberty Blues. I thought: that looks interesting. I got on the bus, and read the book immediately, it's very short. I think by the time I got to the end of the bus ride I'd actually finished the book. And I thought 'I've got to make a film of this.'

NELL SCHOFIELD: I think the fact that I was a surfer gave me a special connection to the story. I started surfing when I was 13 down at Bondi Beach. My friend and I were hanging out watching the guys go out and get all these waves, and we thought why can't we go out and do the same thing? Because back in those days there were hardly any women surfing at Bondi, some guy from Sea Notes got wind of it and came along and interviewed us for this magazine. It's quite ironic because underneath the photo it says, 'we're going to be actresses'. We wanted to be famous, like a lot of young girls. I think the first thing I heard about the film being made was when I got a phone call from the casting agent saying 'would you like to come along and try out for this role? A friend told his mother, who happened to be one of the producers of the film, that they might like to trying me out because I surfed. At that point they'd already cast the other character Sue, the other main character. And she was a young girl, a child of Czechoslovakian parents called Yaranka Capelja, Jad Capelja. So I went along to the audition and I met Jad for the first time, and we got on like a house on fire. And I remember at the end of the audition I said something like, 'oh you know I'm going to go for a surf this afternoon, do you want to come?' And Bruce Beresford's face just dropped. He said 'you surf?' I said 'yeah'.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: Oh I was thrilled to find that she could already surf, yes. And she could too, I saw her. So I finally had the two. She and Jad really stood out from all of the girls who auditioned for the roles. They handled the dialogue effortlessly. Also they had a nice physical contrast. One was dark, one was fair. You know they looked good together.

NELL SCHOFIELD: I was 17 when I got the role and Jad was 16. Jad and I became friends on the set because we were working so closely every day and doing such intimate material too. I think Puberty Blues strikes such a chord with Australians, young Australian girls in particular, because it reveals a very raw and true side of their - the ritual of growing up.

ANNE SCHOFIELD, NELL'S MOTHER: Oh well I had read the book. I was aware that it was controversial, and I thought it was great because it sort of brought out into the open this behaviour that was going on, on the beaches. I thought it was really important to get the subject of sex, contraception etc. out into the world.

RICHARD MUECKE, JAD CAPELJA's EX-HUSBAND: Jad came from a migrant family. Her parents, Stephen and Maria had emigrated to Australia when Jad was about five. I don't think they were at all comfortable with the idea that Jad was in such an edgy movie.

NELL SCHOFIELD: When the film came out it was quite a phenomenon. There were people queued around the blocks, they were putting on extra sessions. It was pretty much an instant hit. And we want on a huge publicity tour around Australia, Jad and I. we were instant stars and I guess it went to our heads. We went to Manila and met Imelda Marcos at her film festival and it was just a lot of craziness for two young teenagers. To look back at us back then, we were two confident happy, successful young girls. And there was no hint whatsoever to look at Jad at that time that she might have been headed the way she did.

LEVERNE MCDONNELL, ACTOR AND FRIEND: Jad when I met her was a force to be reckoned with; had ideas, artistic ideas and creative ideas all the time, wanted to be out trying things, either filming things or writing things. And she actually wanted to go to NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts). She wanted to go to NIDA and study acting seriously, that's what she wanted to do.

NELL SCHOFIELD: She went on quite quickly after the film to make another feature film called 'Freedom'. So that was like, whoa Jad's off and running, you know. Hang on, wait for me. I couldn't get a leg in. So I decided I should go to NIDA and learn how to act, not just do it through instinct. So I teamed up with another guy who had just done a film himself, the same age and he was Baz Luhrman. We created Strictly Ballroom, as a small little theatre piece. And that of course went on to become a phenomenon. I've earned more money from that then I have from Puberty Blues. I introduced Jad to a lot of my fellow actors in the class, and then she did a couple of episodes of Country Practice. She tried to get into NIDA, didn't get in. Maybe did a few commercials. But then it all dried up, and I think that was really tough for her.

RICHARD MUECKE, JAD CAPELJA'S EX-HUSBAND: I'm a recording engineer by trade and Jad came in representing some friends of hers who were playing in a band. But I'd recognised her as the actress from Puberty Blues so I was pretty excited really. Certainly wherever we went, whether we walked into a pub or a club or some sort of event, eyes would turn. So there was no doubt that she had that X-factor. When I first met Jad she was doing auditions, but for all the auditions that she went to, after that there wasn't that much success. So she was pre-occupied with getting to the bottom of it, who was keeping her from her acting career, who was paying who to stop her from getting to her rightful place in the acting world.

NELL SCHOFIELD: It was probably very hard for her to accept that she wasn't going to have a career as an actress, that she wasn't going to be as famous or as big a star as she was when she was 16.

RICHARD MUECKE, JAD CAPELJA'S EX-HUSBAND: She was becoming more and more psychotic. And in the early days I had said to a few friends, 'there's something going wrong here.' And I think people were going, 'no, not Jad.'

LEVERNE MCDONNELL, ACTOR AND FRIEND: Who knows what tips you over into paranoid delusions, but that certainly seemed to be a bit of a theme. She was accusing people that I had great respect for, and she knew, and she was accusing them of vandalising her car.

REV. BILL LAWTON: I came across Jad in my first year of being an Anglican priest at St John's in Darlinghurst, Kings Cross. In that first year I baptised Miles, her son. When I first met her it was obvious to me that she had some sort of mental illness. That became clear in conversation where she changed from moments of excitement, almost hilarity, into moments of huge depression.

NELL SCHOFIELD: You know a lot of people would come up to me and say 'what's happening with Jad, she's kind of going off the air, she's ringing me all the time. And, you know what's going on?' It's like she sounds mad, she's not making any sense.'

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: My dad broke up or left mum when I was two I believe. I grew up with my mum and we were living in the Cross for that whole time. For a very long time, mum's illness was unknown. I think as sort of technology advanced mum was diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia. And I think definitely a combination of marijuana and alcohol were the cause of her imbalance. Every single day brought drama. We'd be walking through Kings Cross and she'd be causing such a nuisance, having such an episode, yelling screaming about who knows what. And it was so difficult for me to see behind what was coming out of her mouth, and the fact that she was a sick person and it wasn't her saying these things. It was hard to deal with at a young age. And yeah there were quite a lot of times I saw her get taken away in a paddy wagon which is not nice, you don't want to see that. She's not a criminal.

RICHARD MUECKE, JAD CAPELJA'S EX-HUSBAND: She had no insight into her own illness. She firmly believed that she was living in the real world, that there were certainly people out to get her. She would spend days decoding the Sydney Morning Herald, recoding it and coming out with 'somebody's gonna kill me.'

NELL SCHOFIELD: I was worried about what was going to happen to her, I was worried about what she might do to someone else, including myself. She did focus in on me. There were very threatening messages on my answer machine. And I'd got to the point where I was scared. I got to the point where I went to the police. I said look I just want you to listen to this so that if anything happens to me (breaks down). It's really sad.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: From time to time I used to get odd letters from her. And one time a big box turned up, oh that high (indicates height of box to be just over shoulder height), from Jad. And I thought 'what can this be?' And it had Jad's name on the side to me and it was full of confetti.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: When I was about 10, my dad was granted custody of me. Dad was trying hard to get her treatment, and he always wanted to see her better. Obviously he loved her..

RICHARD MUECKE, JAD CAPELJA'S EX-HUSBAND: We thought she was getting better, she was finally on a treatment program. Then two years ago, out of the blue I got a call from Miles. He just said mum's committed suicide. He burst into tears and hung up. And I was driving a campervan and I lost it as well. So immediately I just went oh my God. And my heart went out to Miles.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: I went into immense deep sadness and depression and cried and got angry. But even going through that process I knew that it was sort of like a relief because I knew she wasn't suffering any more.

RICHARD MUECKE, JAD CAPELJA'S EX-HUSBAND: Jad's funeral was difficult for me. I would never want to see anybody go through what we went through, what he went through, what Jad went through. I wanted her to be better for Miles' sake and that in the future perhaps that we could look back and go well, we created this person, and what a wonderful thing. And share in the pride of being a parent of a child like Miles, or having a man like Miles.

NELL SCHOFIELD: There is a happy ending to this story in Miles. I think the fact that Miles is just powering out there as a young man, this is such a wonderful thing and I think Jad would have been so proud. She's managed to produce through all her trials and tribulations a beautiful son. And her spirit will live on in him.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: I think life makes you who you are. I've been headstrong since a young age to get out of that sort of situation. And for me, law was the career that I wanted to pursue. I have nearly finished that now, and I've got a great job with some great people. It's just the way that life's gone for me.

NELL SCHOFIELD: I haven't actually acted since 1988. I guess what happened for me is that I really got bored sitting around waiting for the phone to call. So I started volunteering at a local radio station, and I learned how to broadcast. I call myself a writer and broadcaster now. I've worked for the last 14 years as a film reviewer and presenter on Showtime, interviewing film people, actors.

BRUCE BERESFORD, FILM DIRECTOR: I think Nell not having acted is a bit of a shame because I always thought she was very talented. She's a lively, bright, vivacious funny girl. I think she could have had an acting career if she really wanted it and I guess she didn't really want it. I think she probably just did other things.

NELL SCHOFIELD: I bought my property on the western side of the Great Divide back in 88 on the proceeds of my last acting gig. And it's been just the most wonderful thing for me to have that place as a retreat. I had, you know, several boyfriends when I was young, and then when I was 21, when I was at NIDA, I had my first girlfriend. It wasn't such a big thing for me discovering that I was gay. I just think whoever you love is who you love and that's a wonderful thing and we all should respect each other's love lives really. Puberty Blues is a social phenomenon. I have had to carry it as a responsibility, as a public figure for all those years. It's something I have to talk about, I have to deal with, I have to live with, and it's something that I am proud of too.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: To meet Nell for the first time was like I'd known her forever; heard about Nell a lot of times. We got on extremely well, and just like you'd expect. Maybe she saw a bit of mum in me or something like that.

NELL SCHOFIELD: I met Miles there at the funeral and he was such an incredibly big strapping young man.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: It's definitely going to be good for me to go back to all the places that mum went to, to shoot the film and a lot of places that featured in the film with Nell.

NELL SCHOFIELD: I think what makes the film so epic and memorable and enduring really is this triumphant moment at the end where the girls just reject the cool gang, and they go their own way and they pick up a surfboard and they go surfing. And this is just this wonderful moment of triumphant feminist power I guess.

MILES MUECKE, SON OF JAD CAPELJA: When mum passed away I somehow felt obligated to share my story. And a lot of people don't understand what schizophrenia actually is. It's still portrayed as a taboo topic. For me it was just something that I really wanted to get out to people and educate people. I hope people can learn from my mum's journey, and life experiences. And if it helps one person, then my job is complete (laughs).

END CAPTIONS:

Nell Schofield recently stood for election to Sydney City Council, but was unsuccessful.

Miles Muecke will graduate from law school next month.

For help or information about mental illness and suicide prevention:

Lifeline - 13 11 14

SANE - 1800 18 SANE (7263)