Coming from New Zealand and Australia is like a tough pre-school for Hollywood. And having been on 'Neighbours,' even though the agents I met with hadn't seen it, they knew it's where Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce had come from. It was a foot in the door.
'Animal Kingdom' is a lot of things, but it's not heartwarming.
It's funny in the U.K., where I'm not really known because I never did a soap. My English cousins in the Lake District think I'm not a real actor because they've never seen me in 'Home and Away' or 'Neighbours.'
I knew I had to get out. It wasn't a good place to be in. 'Home and Away' is a great place to learn, but it's a machine, and it can chew people up and spit them out.
I love being on Aussie breakfast TV. They like people who speak their mind and tell it like it is.
I think Australia focuses on people that had a big start at home, like 'Home and Away' or 'Neighbours' graduates, and the truth is those shows are pretty white for the most part. The diverse actors go straight to the States because that is where more diverse stories and opportunities are being presented.
'Animal Kingdom' feels like a suburban Melbourne version of 'The Godfather 'to me. It's epic and Shakespearean in its story, and yet you still feel like you can reach out and touch it.
Let me give you a little Mendelsohn 101: I came up in television in the early- to mid- 1980s in Australia.
'Gods of Wheat Street' has been described as an Aboriginal 'Neighbours' or 'Home and Away.' But on set, we were calling it 'Black to the Rafters.'
I was Pippa on 'Home And Away' for nearly a decade.
We need more drama on Australian TV. We've actually dropped the ball on that.
Well, Neighbours wanted to do a song on the show, and they asked me what songs I had. I told them I'd just written this song, called Born to Try, and I had just gone overseas and spoken to some people from Song about it.
There is an old show business saying which warns never to work with animals or children, but nobody prepared me for Molly Meldrum.
Growing up, I was always adamant that I would never do 'Home and Away' or 'Neighbours,' because as an actor you want to set your path as that serious kind of actor.
I didn't do the 'Home And Away' thing.
It's really actually been pretty shoddy and appalling, the amount of local content, Australian drama, on ABC TV.
There's animals like us existing and thinking and giving interviews on Australian television.
