In her emotional speech after recently accepting a Silver Logie for her performance in the SBS series Homebodies, Claudia Karvan declared it felt like the “most significant and important” of all her Logie wins.

Given that the Aussie star has been nominated 13 times over her career and has won several previous Logies for shows including The Secret Life of Us and Love My Way, the comment revealed a lot about how important the moment was for not just Karvan but all those involved in the show.

“It meant a lot – it was really beautiful,” she tells The New Daily of her best-supporting-actress win, which she dedicated to the trans community.

Homebodies, loosely based on the experiences of creator AP Pobjoy, sees young trans man Darcy return to his regional hometown to care for his estranged mother Nora, played by Karvan, only to find she has been living with the ghost of his pre-transition self.

The story unfolds over six 10-minute episodes.

“It was made on a very low budget,” Karvan says.

“We shot it in two weeks in Oberon and we were up against real heavy-hitters…  so I just couldn’t believe we were actually at the Logies at all, let alone that we won one.”

The actor – who says trans issues have become “a really distressing political football” in Australia – has been overwhelmed by the positive response to both Homebodies and her Logies speech.

“So many people have reached out to say that they’re either parents of trans kids or they’re trans kids and they just felt so seen,” she says.

Nora is a very different character from the smart airline services manager Karvan plays in SBS’s new drama The Airport Chaplain, which premiered last week, yet both shows delve into intensely human stories with warmth, empathy and humour.

Hugo Weaving – who Karvan previously starred alongside in 1999 rom-com Strange Planet – is airport chaplain Tobias, a kind of fixer whose unorthodox and empathetic approach to daily airport crisis puts him on a collision course with his new boss, Mira (The Pitt’s Shabana Azeez).

“I’m lucky enough to have never had a crisis in an airport where I have required the help of an airport chaplain, but that was the whole spark for the show,” Karvan says.

She recounts how The Airport Chaplain’s co-creator, Jude Troy, found herself stranded after she left her handbag on the backseat of an Uber while on her way to Melbourne International Airport.

“the person who helped her through this crisis… and was the superhero to the rescue, was this man in a high-vis vest emblazoned with the words ‘Airport Chaplain’.”

Karvan says she loves the show’s humanity, and how it explores the role of someone who “helps people of all faiths or no faith in an environment that we’re all very, very familiar with”.

But asked what drew her to the role of airline employee Cath, part of the show’s large ensemble cast, she reveals she’d put out a request to the universe to play a character that had just one uniform.

“It was really set off by Kitty Flanagan – I love Fisk,” she says, referring to the unofficial uniform of a frumpy brown suit that Flanagan’s lawyer character wears in the popular ABC comedy.

“I thought that was genius!”

Cath’s look in The Airport Chaplain is certainly more polished – including a sprayed-on hairline, not-so-subtle make-up and impressive nails – but having just one costume for the entire eight-part series still streamlines the wardrobe process.

“And I do love my uniform – the cravat and the badges and my walkie-talkie,” Karvan says, laughing.

“It’s just a one-stop shop, basically… and it’s fun. It’s fun to have a very clear identity.”

Hugo Weaving and Claudia Karvan, rocking her Airport Chaplain uniform. Photo: Ben King

The early reviews for The Airport Chaplain –  the first SBS Original drama to stream on Netflix – have been glowing, highlighting its bingeworthy nature but also its “subtle social commentary”.

Asked if she believes shows like this one and Homebodies can help encourage empathy in a time when communities are riven by polarising politics, Karvan reflects on the power of storytelling.

“It’s the only way we can connect with each other, understand each other, have patience for each other, celebrate our differences, celebrate our commonalities,” she says.

“It think it all comes down to storytelling. Even if you’re a politician, it’s about storytelling.

“It’s about making things personal and relatable, so I believe we carry a huge responsibility, but having said that, we can’t be didactic, either. We’ve got to bring an audience along with us and entertain them and not beat them over the head with our beliefs or our ethics or our morals or whatever… they have to be embedded in really compelling story.

“I think The Airport Chaplain does that really elegantly, and so does Homebodies.”

The Airport Chaplain is available to stream on SBS On Demand now, or watch on SBS from 8.30pm Wednesdays. Homebodies is also available to stream on SBS On Demand now