‘Neighbours’ friendly show—star

Press, 2 December 1989, Page 11

‘Neighbours’ friendly show—star

By

PATRICK McLENNAN

“Neighbours” star Elaine Smith believes the Australian soap opera is internationally popular because people relate to the characters as friends.

“People like to identify, they become friends. People talk about Daphne like she’s a real person,” says Smith of her character in the show. Unlike the bleaker British soaps such as “East Enders or, at the other extreme, the high glamour and gloss of the United States shows, hits the middle of the spectrum. It is easy to watch, she says. Smith, aged 27, finished playing Daphne 2>/ 2 years ago. It is like deja vu when she visits countries such as New Zealand where her character is still playing. She created a stir of recognition yesterday at a special assembly at Papanui School.

She is in Christchurch for five days opening supermarkets, meeting fans, and enjoying a part of the world she has not seen before. In Auckland she launched a New Zealand branch of the Variety Club. Smith is grateful to the regular work “Neighbours” provided because previously she, like other cast members, had been a struggling actor. But she asked to be written out of the series. "I couldn’t go any further with her, and I didn’t want to get to the point where the story lines just went around in circles. I wanted to go out on a high point.” Daphme meets a grisly end in “Neighbours,” but it had to be that way, Smith said. Since leaving the programme, the Melbourne-based actor has been involved in theatre, her first love, in her home city and London. She worked on a mini-series called

“Flair,” and just after Christmas will start work on another mini-series, "The Paper - Man,” a British-United States co-production, in which she plays a “ruthless journalist.” It had taken her a lot of time and effort to prove that she was a serious actor, and that Daphne was not her only role. Like her “Neighbours” co-stars, Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, she can sing. “But no, I’m not going to release a single. I’m more of an actor who can sing.” Smith says she is pleased with the huge success of Jason and Kylie. “They got into an area they really wanted to, it’s just great, and they went out and did it against tremendous opposition,” she says. “Kylie went through hell — there’s an incredible tall poppy syndrome in Australia, and she got a lot of unfair treatment. Now she’s laughing all the way to the bank.”