An unlikely policewoman

Press, 19 April 1989, Page 18

An unlikely policewoman

“Everyone laughs like a drain when I tell them I’m a cop,” says Felicity Soper, who plays Constable Susan Miller in “Richmond Hill” (screening tonight at its earlier time of 7.30 p.m. on Two).

“They all say I’m too skinny. “But I like the part and I like getting dressed up as a policewoman becaause it makes me feel like I’m efficient.”

Soper did not have far to go when it came to researching her role for the series.

"I live near a police station and spent a fair bit of time watching them,” she says. At one stage I went in and spoke to them but they seemed very suspicious. I kept trying to tell them that I was about to play a policewoman in a television series and they said: “Oh yeah, sure!”

“They didn’t believe me — they probably thought I was casing the joint.” Learning to cope with public recognition is part and parcel of the job, as the 25-year-old actor is discovering. “We had a promotional day just before the series

began in Australia and when I went to the 100, about 15 kids came rushing in after me asking for my autograph. It was all very bizarre. ‘I suppose I found it all a bit of a shock really because it was my first taste of what was to come.”

Despite her desire to remain in the background, the writers have bigger things in store for her character, and tonight’s episode marks the beginning of an onscreen romance between the policewoman and the real estate agent Roger Lawson (Peter Kowitz).

Before she joined the “Richmond Hill” cast, Felicity Soper concentrated mainly on theatre. She graduated from the Ensemble Acting Court in 1985 and has been in a number of productions, including "Look Back in Anger” and “The Miracle Worker,” where she played Helen Keller. “When I told my parents I was going to the Ensemble to study acting, they thought it was another of my ‘stages,’ ” she says.

“It wasn’t until quite a few years later they realised I was serious and now they think it was the best thing I’ve ever done.” For Soper, there has been no looking back. She has had guest roles in "A Country Practice” and “Neighbours” and a number of small film roles, but it is “Richmond Hill” which has really established her as en emerging young talent in Australia.

Ultimately, though, Soper would like to do some more theatre.

“Being in a soap is tempting because of the security but I couldn’t stay in it for years on end.”