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Squizzy Taylor’s good girl

Playing a young female in Underbelly usually means being exposed, but Elise Jansen is grateful for Lorna Kelly.

JARED DAPERIS  ELISE JANSENThe Underbelly brand asks a lot of its young female performers, but actress Elise Jansen was grateful to play Lorna Kelly, the one woman in Squizzy Taylor’s life who never strayed from the path of righteousness.

Lorna was Squizzy’s (Jared Daperis) first wife, mother of his children and, unlike many of the characters in his life, a picture of decorum.

“The character that I play doesn’t use her sexuality as currency in the world. I think some people and some characters portrayed in Underbelly definitely do. For example Ida (Pender), who is played by Gracie Gilbert is someone that Les is really attracted to. But Lorna doesn’t trade on that card,” she explains.

“The most that you see of me is my naked back. There’s no breasts.

“There is nudity in the series but not with Lorna.

“We had a bed scene but we’re not having sex. There’s a scene before Lorna loses her virginity but you don’t see them making love.”

A graduate of the WA Academy of Performing Arts, Jansen was prepared for the worst, having been trained in romantic scenes during her time as a drama student.

“Angela Punch-McGregor led classes in love scenes and it was absolutely invaluable. We need to know as actors how to be on a set professionally, knowing what’s ok and how to feel comfortable,” she says.

“I felt very supported by the males in this cast, even the ones I didn’t have scenes with.

Underbelly can be challenging for women but there was a beautiful camaraderie.”

The character of Lorna was an 18 year old waitress when she met Squizzy Taylor, but she remained resolute in her morals, despite plunging into a world of crime.

“If you put her in the world that Squizzy Taylor was in she really stands out as being so different because she had very strong morals and values and I admire the way she stuck to them when she was surrounded by people who were so corrupt,” says Jansen.

“She was a very religious woman and part of the Temperance Union, which was anti-drinking and anti-gambling. When she met Les she didn’t know he was involved in all of that but they fell deeply in love. So I admire her strength of character.”

Jansen, who will also be seen in the upcoming film Predestination, had to undertake her research creatively, given there was next to no information on Lorna online.

“As an actor I feel it’s my responsibility to tell the story as accurately as I can and the only way I can do that is to know what was going on in Australia and women of that time. So I went to the Office of Public Records, but while there’s not much on Lorna the closest I could get was looking at the documents she wrote, like her divorce documents,” she recalls.

“To see her signature was fascinating… to see what she wrote. This was a women who lived at a time when women didn’t divorce men. But after their first child died it was basically 9 months to the day when she gave birth to their second child. Shooting the scenes with the death of the baby, I couldn’t imagine them being physical with anybody in amongst all that pain and turmoil.”

Underbelly is her most profile television role so far, and having previously appeared in Winners and Losers, Neighbours and City Homicide, she has no qualms about appearing in soaps -a view that wasn’t always shared by aspirants at drama school.

“There was a bit of a thing about not doing soaps, but after you come out, let’s be honest –it’s work and there’s not that much around.

Underbelly has been wonderful for a lot of actors. The scripts are really good so if you’re fortunate to land a role on the show you have a great opportunity to tell a wonderful story. Because we’re telling intense stories in such a short amount of time you’re given the opportunity to tell quite a big, emotional range. As an actor that’s a wonderful thing.”

Underbelly: Squizzy airs 9pm Sunday on Nine.

2 Responses

  1. Is it just me or have the producers borrowed heavily from Boardwalk Empire?

    If there’s a scene of Squizzy and Lorna walking along St Kilda pier then we’ll know for sure.

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