Aussie star Lucy Durack has revealed that her Neighbours character, Rose Walker, has had a bit of personality change since we last saw her in Ramsay Street!
The ditzy housewife-turned-personal-assistant brought some much needed fun back into boss Toadie Rebecchi’s life after he hired her last autumn.
So, it was a bit of a surprise when she quit Erinsborough after only five weeks to get back together with her estranged husband James.
With the chemistry between them clear, we were sure that Toadie and Rose would get together. But Toadie put aside any personal feelings he had to help repair Rose and James’ marriage.
It wasn’t long after her departure that he struck up a passionate new relationship with his replacement PA, the fiery Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowden).
Now Rose is back, but with a whole new agenda...
“When we saw Rose last time she was going to give her husband another chance but it didn’t work out. She and her husband James split up,” explained Lucy.
“She’s returned under the guise of being a PR manager for the Shorts and Briefs film festival but she’s largely there to see Toadie!
After her spell as Toadie’s PA, Rose also had a short-lived job as a beautician in the Day Spa. She seems to have a quick turnaround on the job front!
“Rose is pretty good at fitting into different careers,” agreed Lucy. “When she saw an opportunity to get back to Erinsborough and hang around she did a short course in PR!”
All of Ramsay Street has been throwing themselves into preparing for the ‘Shorts and Briefs’ film festival but Toadie’s mind has been consumed with work and relationship woes.
He was left in shock when girlfriend Mel was publicly confronted by Dr Anna Buke (Fiona McLeod), the irate wife of Mel’s old boss Justin Buke, who she had a steamy affair with!
After news gets around, Toadie loses clients left right and centre. Enter Rose, who says she can get him back on track, whilst plotting at the same time to split him up from Mel…
“She’s very keen on Toadie, but when she arrives she realises that he’s involved with Melanie,” shared Lucy.
“Although it seems she’s missed her chance with him, she doesn’t really take no for an answer and as the plot thickens she gets more and more devious.
“There’s a lot of drama between Rose and Melanie. It’s quite funny because in real life Lucinda and I got on so well.
“Every time we have to have a scene where we’re yelling at each other we’re like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’d never say that to you in real life!’”
With Toadie about to be stuck in the middle of a very explosive love triangle, does Lucy think the lawyer is better off with Mel or Rose?
“Toadie and Rose are a good match but I also think he and Melanie are a good match. I was actually pleased to see them together. I think she brings a lot of fun into his life,” she insisted.
“He’s had such a hard time with his character journey with sadness and grief so it’s great for him to have some pure fun. Melanie, even though she’s fiery, she has a good heart.
“Rose ends up being more manipulative than I would have liked her to be. Rose is a lot of fun and smart and sassy and brings a lot of vivacious energy into Toadie’s life but she ends up getting a bit too sneaky!”
Sadly for Rose fans, Lucy admitted that her latest appearance will be fairly fleeting, although she’s not saying whether Rose will manage to do permanent damage to Toadie and Mel’s already shaky relationship.
“Rose has a fairly short jaunt on Ramsay Street but she packs quite a lot in!” Lucy teased.
The busy actress and entertainer, who is married to Aussie musical theatre actor Chris Horsey, now has other projects in the pipeline.
Lucy posed on her instagram in her Fiona costyme from the musical Shrek with her 'mini-me' daughter Polly.
Best known in Australia for her stage roles in Wicked and Shrek (which unfortunately had to close early last year due to the pandemic), she’s also been a judge on Australia’s Got Talent and appeared as ‘Cactus’ on The Masked Singer Australia, as well as starring in Netflix drama Sisters.
“They work so hard on Neighbours! It's an incredible crew of people, as they pump out so many episodes each week. I’ve never done a soap before, so I hadn’t had that experience,” commented Lucy.
“It’s one of the only places in Australia where you can really work all the time either as a long-running actor or crew. It really has that feeling of a family.”
Well, ‘everybody needs good neighbours’, after all!
Neighbours airs weekdays at 1:45pm and 5:30pm on Channel 5.
