I grew up in the eighties watching every soap there was to watch. It was the era of glamorous American soaps, Dallas and Dynasty, which nicely juxtapositioned my passion for gritty British soaps; Eastenders, Brookside etc. and then between those extremes was a nice, sunny, middle-of-the-road alternative provided by Australia in the form of Neighbours. So a nice balance, but it’s a wonder I got anything done. But then in those days, my working day (i.e. school) finished at 345pm so there was more time to indulge in soap watching. Plus they weren’t on every day, as many are now.
But it wasn’t until I studied Spanish and went to live in Chile for a year, that I discovered a new breed of soap. The South American soap. Probably closest to American in its glamour, but with that extra fantastical element only seen in later American soaps such as Sunset Beach. These shows can get a lot of flack but many of the plots were quite Shakespearean with identical twins switching places and potions that could make people fall in love with each other. All good, fun, entertainment!
The Soap I made my debut in was called Loca Piel, which means crazy skin. It was going to be called Cuerpos Bronceados (Bronzed bodies) and for many reasons myself and my mother are glad they didn’t. I got the job because at the time, as well as living in Chile, I was blonde and I think the casting team thought this would add some variety. So I was the token blonde girl in any scenes that took place in the drama school that one of the aforementioned twins, attended.
It was fantastic job for me, working on set at Television Nacional de Chile (TVN) once a week, wearing some ridiculous outfits (lime green Lycra cycle shorts and matching crop top – sorry no photos, but see trailer for an idea!) and learning how things worked on set. It only paid about £10 a day, I was only an extra after all but in Chile, at the time, £10 went a long way. As I was eventually leaving to come home to England, I plucked up the courage to ask for a line, and got one! Sadly, it was a noisy fight scene where my line was so drowned out that it was cleaner to cut it. But, still, I get to say I made my television debut on a Chilean Soap, and that’s pretty cool.
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