It's no lie. Laura Thompson is as surprised as anyone that Shortland Street's Dr Victoria Anderton is still free to wreak her kind of havoc.
"I'm amazed I'm still working on the show," says Thompson.
"I shot someone and a few months ago I tortured a patient. I've done lots of things that warrant me to leave and each week, as she gets more and more stressed and her mask becomes more and more fragile, the lies she's creating are deeper and more desperate. She's in so deep now she can't get out."
To recap, Victoria shot fellow doctor Drew McCaskill (Ben Barrington) and framed Margaret Hannah (Debbie Newby-Ward) for the crime.
Margaret fled Ferndale, leaving Victoria free to move in on her husband Mo (Jarrod Rawiri) and she is now pretending to be pregnant with his baby. But now Margaret is back in contact with her family which puts her firmly in the doctor's sights.
"Margaret should watch the hell out of her," Thompson warns.
The actress scored the role of Victoria straight out of drama school and is as surprised as anyone about just what a villain the high-achieving rich-girl doctor has turned out to be.
"She's always been a very intense personality, a bit contentious and full on but she was never a criminal," she says of Ferndale's latest dodgy doctor.
"I don't think she's psycho. I just think she's a very heartbroken and desperate person," Thompson says.
"I'm not saying she's normal but, for me, when you're playing a character that so many people hate, you've got to be the one that loves your character. So I'm always on her defence, but I'm also very aware that she's done some pretty awful things."
With Mo's son Curtis (Jayden Daniels) the only one suspicious of Victoria, she looks set to continue her villainous ways for some time yet.
"I don't think she will be able to get away with it for the rest of her life. I think when you're holding on to so many lies you're going to crack, especially someone with such an intense personality."
Thompson is making the most of every minute of her time on Shortland Street.
"I love it. She's the most amazing character to play, but she can be pretty exhausting.
"There was a week when she was really intense and paranoid and I had to go and have a massage because my back was like concrete from holding all that character's tension."
Then there's the feedback from fans.
"I was at the gym and someone screamed out 'murderer' and it was like, 'First of all you got that wrong because I didn't actually kill anyone'. The second thing was 'Great', because people care and for me that was me doing my job right," Thompson says.
"Every time I pick up a script it's like, 'Oh my goodness, what are you going to do next?'. I have no control over what she does. I just play it. That's quite fun."
Shortland Street, TV2, Weeknights
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar