MAY 2017 39
»very good at learning lines. I would sit
inthe make-up chair in the morning
and learn 15 scenes at once and we
would shoot them all in a row.
When I turned up as a 16-year-old I
remember being completely in awe of
the people I was about to see –
Temuera Morrison [Dr Ropata],
Angela Dotchin, Craig Parker [Guy
Warner] and Theresa Healey [Carmen
Roberts]. George Henare played my
grandfather and we did training with
Raymond Hawthorne. I was working
with people who have become some
of New Zealand’s best actors but also
the elder statesman of our theatrical
generation. Since then I have watched
crew members who started off as
trainees on that show become the best
practitioners in our country.
I never thought there would be any
recognition for fame from it because
my role was supposed to be so little.
I still remember the first time I was
recognised at a food court – it was
very strange and confronting. I
remember nodding and smiling and
not knowing what to say really.
TheShortland Streetbuilding works
in a very different way to any other
TV show, it always has – it was a
leader of its time around the world
because of its speed. Most shows film
a whole scene, then the camera moves
position and they shoot that whole
scene again, butShortland Streethas
three cameras on wheels and a control
room that cuts between the cameras
as they are recording.
I think there were probably lots of
teething problems but when I returned
[onscreen] in 1998, it felt like a show
that was on its feet and it was a bit
more like a factory – there were cogs in
the wheel it had to turn and everybody
knew their roles.
The storyliners became famous for
their ability to almost second-guess
what was going on in society. Like the
nurses’ strike. They had written and
shot a storyline about nurses at
Shortland Street Hospital going on
strike and literally as the show went to
air the Auckland Hospital nurses went
on a massive strike. That is not the first
and only time that happened. It really
is the only place we have continued to
see ourselves put on
screen – they are
our stories and the
writers work really
hard to keep them
relevant.
It is all the little things that stand out- the funny things. It’s terrible, but I
smoked in 1994 and then you could
smoke in your dressing rooms! So I
would have all these scenes in a row
and I would go out to shoot one, then
go back to change my costume, light a
ciggy, smoke two puffs, go back out,
then come back and light the same
ciggie – it was disgusting! You could
smoke in all the rooms except the
make-up room and the studio.
I left in 2004 and I didn’t think I’d be
hired on New Zealand TV for a while,
so I became a Pilates teacher, but
gratefully I did get hired again. I did a
couple of TV shows and a play that
year and thenOutrageous Fortune
came along the following year.
Coming back this time, I really
wanted to honour the memory of Nick
and Waverley. I worked hard to make
sure we were giving the audience what
they loved about those characters. The
biggest thing for me when I got those
scripts was that they were funny and I
think the essence of those characters
was on the page. It was cool to be
asked because I guess that means those
characters were popular enough that
people want to see them again, and
that’s a really nice feeling.”Theresa Healeyplayed Nurse
Carmen Roberts from 1993-1995, a
well-loved character who had baby
Tuesday with her beloved partner Guy
Warner. She died of a brain aneurysm
after three years on the show and the
death went down inShortland Street
history as one of its most shocking.
Theresa most recently starred inAgent
AnnaandFilthy Rich.
“WhenShortlandStreetstarted, Craig
Parker and I were performing in
Macbethat the Aotea Centre in
Auckland. They had a TV in the green
room and we
would get
dressed each
night, do our
warm-up, then
sneak off and
watchShortland
Street. It would
end and as we
were about to
go on stage we would say to each
other, ‘We need to be on that show.’
Fast-forward two months and we
both were.
It had been going for about six
months when we arrived on set; it had
definitely hit its straps with the public.
Going to the supermarket was never
the same again.
Being onscreen five days a weekBELOW: Lynette Forday (Grace Kwan) with
Theresa Healey (Carmen Roberts). Injured
Carmen shortly before the character died.“ Goingtothe
supermarket
was never the
same again.”