THE PERFECT BLEND: Finn verses Xanthe: A Conversation with fan favourite Neighbours Actress Lilly Van der Meer
It's a TV institution, an essential part of student life, and responsible for launching the careers of some of Australia's greatest exports: Neighbours brings you a daily slice of suburbia and a guilt-free excuse to twitch the curtains on some of the hottest names in soapland.
In our interview, The Fan Carpet’s Marc Jason Ali spoke to Lilly Van der Meer who plays bubbly and fiesta teenager Ianthe Canning on long running soap Neighbours.
We talk about her recent storyline involving the manipulative Finn Kelly and the ramifications of that moving forward and what she’d pitch as a conclusion to that storyline and her on screen and off screen camaraderie with Mavournee Hazel...
Of course for two years you’ve been Xanthe, how’s it been to be working on the show?
It’s been incredible it’s my first professional set that I’ve ever been on and such a fast paced environment, it’s been incredible and I’ve adapted a lot and it’s nice.
You get this sort of comfort of being on a set for so many years that there’s so much room to play on a set like this with a show like this as well so it’s nice to be able to come to the table and be collaborative with everyone on set and it’s nice because different cast members work differently with each other, so every time every day every scene you create this like new dynamic with people, so I’ve learned something everyday on that set whether it’s little or big and I come back the next day with something fresh and a new idea and I’m ready to play and experiment, so it’s been amazing because you don’t get that on many sets.
Yeah absolutely. From speaking to other members of the cast it seems almost like a second family.
Yeah yeah, because we’re there five days a week, 12, 13, 14 hours a day, we know everything abut each other and we spend all year together and we’re at awards together and you’re in each others pockets, it does become like your second family and I guess that’s where the room to play comes from you feel so comfortable in your environment and you feel comfortable with both the cast and the crew that it’s just really nice to have that, it’s definitely like a second family.
Brilliant okay. You obviously have some great on-screen chemistry with Mavournee Hazel who plays Piper, what’s the off set camaraderie like between you two?
Ah. It’s amazing, Mav and I are really close, we’re similar in age so it’s really sweet to have that connection off screen as well as on screen, because I feel that makes the work a lot easier, Mav and I are originally not from Melbourne so we had that to relate to at the start, we’re both really really good friends so it’s really sweet.
Neighbours airs Monday to Friday at 1.45pm and 5.30pm on Channel 5. Catch up NOW on My5
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