There is a new face in Summer Bay, but she is certainly not new to the Australian TV landscape.
Rachael Carpani, 44, best known in Australia as Jodi from McLeod’s Daughters, is set to add some drama on Channel 7’s Home and Away.
Those who know Carpani as the sweet-natured Jodi may be surprised by her upcoming role, Claudia Salini, who is “introduced in a sort of a negative way”.
“My character kind of lands in the bay by accident — pun intended,” she tells 7NEWS.com.au.
“She literally has a car accident and breaks her arm and finds herself with her arm in a sling for six weeks, which really affects her professional and personal lives.”
Claudia is a customer of Justin’s (James Stewart) garage — and the garage in question did a dodgy repair on her car, with the failing brakes causing her car accident.
Justin wishes to hide the truth of the repair job from Theo (Matt Evans), who did the work on the car, and so strikes up an agreement that is set to “kick up some dirt in the Morgan household”.
“She blames Justin. And of course, that affects Leah and Theo as well,” Carpani says.
“So she’s introduced in, sort of a negative way. She comes blasting in with a bit of an attitude, but as you would if your brakes failed and you ended up with a broken arm.”
The actress hopes fans of her work are “surprised” by the character, as she is very different from other roles Carpani has taken on.
Home and Away scripts had landed on her desk for decades, but she was waiting for a complex character before taking it on.
“It took me a few hours to say yes,” she recalls.
But ultimately she realised the decision was an easy one to make, given the depth of the character.
“This is a really interesting character on the surface, she’s a little bit of a villain and very easy to judge, but I think this will be a good exercise in playing a very flawed human being.
“And it’s possible for someone to be a good person who makes bad choices.”
Carpani hopes audiences can see past her actions and instead see it as a fun storyline where she “does cause a little bit of damage”.
‘Welcome to the family’
Arriving on the Home and Away set in a guest role, the actress “did not expect people to even sort of stop and blink”. But the opposite occurred.
“They literally rolled out the red carpet for me, they were all just like, ‘Rach! Welcome to the family’. Like every department, the cast, the crew.”
She said co-star Ada Nicodemou was “so welcoming and just lovely”.
“Ada has the most insane amount of energy and the most gorgeously positive attitude, even at 5am.
“She was lovely, she had so much time for me.”
This role marks Carpani’s first major return to Australian TV since her McLeod’s Daughters departure in 2009.
Wrapping up the show, the actress made a move to the US to “deliberately put a gap in my Australian work”.
Wanting to protect her privacy and not be known as “Jodi from McLeod’s Daughters,” the US move made sense to maintain some sense of anonymity.
Returning to the Australian TV landscape, she says things have improved for female performers.
“It could only change for the better.
“There was so much about it that was stuck in the past in terms of safety, nudity causes, lack of intimacy co-ordinators, and power structures created.
“And on a personal note, I — as most young girls who were brought up in the ‘80s and ‘90s — we were people pleasers.”
However, fast-forward to today and this has “all changed for the better”.
“It really happened across all industries for all women,” she says adding that it was simply the entertainment industry that was “heard the loudest”.
“Walking onto the Home and Away set was a very different feeling, obviously,” she says.
“I’m a lot older and I’ve done about 30, 40 more projects since I’ve walked onto McLeod’s.”
“(Home and Away) was really a great experience, but they work hard.
“I was in awe, especially of the younger cast. And they’re learning huge amounts of lines and prep, and they’re shooting so many different storylines from this.”
She jokes that filming was “sort of like boot camp, it kicked my butt”.
