- [At the Logies in 2018]: We are a family on this show, and you all know who you are because we spend every day together under the big roof of the big house, every department... every crew member, every angel in that production office... everyone says their crew is the best. I'm sorry, you're clearly mistaken! Because ours is
- [on Wentworth (2013)] : There was a lot of discussion and research that there was certain protocols and things we had to get right and that we were told that even though it wasn't a documentary we had to get things right.
- It's kind of a double-edged sword isn't it. Because there's kind of a pressure of going into a pre-existing show. But for those who were there from the very beginning there was a pressure of not knowing what we were making.
- I'm the governor and even I don't know.
- Seachange was one of my first biggest TV roles. Sigrid was one of the best.
- I am like Benjamin Button - it's like I am ageing in reverse. I don't think I have ever been as silly as I am now. And luckily, because I don't have kids, I don't ever really have to grow up.
- I think I would be much better off adopting dogs. I have fostered dogs before for the RSPCA. I took in dogs that were injured or in need of some TLC and gave them a safe place to live. Then I handed them back so that the RSPCA could find them a new home.
- [About Wentworth]: It's not always been the easiest set to work on to be honest. That's not because there are so many women on the show, but because there are so many strong personalities.
- I didn't know who else they had cast so when I walked in for that first reading to see Sigrid Thornton, John Howard and Kerry Armstrong, I thought I must have had the wrong room, I still get recognised for that now. It was such a great experience. But it did take a while before people in the industry could see me as anything except the sweet, dumb country girl.
- But it's been great. And we even have the seal of approval of the original cast, who really like what we have done with the characters.
- [Discussing her favourite scene in season 5 of Wentworth]: There's this gorgeous scene where Liz is desperate for Franky's protection. I mean its life and death like it always is at Wentworth, she's so desperate for Franky to stay and then Allie tells her all the reasons why she should let her go. And she walks into her cell and says 'I was having a moment', it was funny because it just totally flipped.
- I didn't like watching the elevator scene, there just horrible scenes to film.
- There's so many times I've picked up scripts and gone "Vera, you're an idiot.. don't do it.."
- For Vera it is consuming for the best part of season 7. Her entire trajectory has been to get in the chair and stay in it.
- [on Wentworth]: They've given the writers the freedom to take risks. We've got to make choices that perhaps in another universe that would've been censored or hobbled and we've really had a big adventure. I can't imagine doing it anywhere else.
- It can be a little frustrating because I am an actor. I was only playing a part. I created that character. She didn't exist before then.
- When you are really counting your pennies, without work and still able to enjoy yourself and have a good time then that's pretty special - without wanting to sound like Pollyanna.
- There's nothing about me in magazines because I don't do anything worth writing about. I have never courted that side of things. I don't even read those magazines unless I'm waiting at the dentist. Even then, I don't even know who half the people in them are. They just seem to be people who go to events, wearing nice clothes. And that's it, they're famous?
- I have had to tell myself, 'Just have some fun with it Atkinson.' So this year I will. But I am not really very good at these things.
- [on Wentworth's earlier seasons]; Things have improved going into the second and third series. There was a lot of pressure on all of us going into it.
- The dictionary definition of bittersweet. You'll hear most cast members say what they'll miss most is their fellow cast and crew. I'm thankful for it, I'll miss people, but by the end of eight or nine series I think I need to leave this funny woman behind and move on. I'm feeling very positive about other work.
- I was in the middle of doing a Master's degree in international politics ,and I'm taking on this role to subsidise my studies. I remember telling my friends, I've just landed this role in a new drama, it's like a remake of Prisoner, I'm gonna have to defer some of my study: I'll do a season, but I don't know if this thing's got legs.
- I'm very thankful to that writing department for setting me challenges and having faith I could pull them off. I didn't sit there and go, ooh, how can I manufacture this transformative character: they gave me material and I responded to it. That lovely osmosis of writing department with an actor.
- Once you've identified yourself as a person that has to look a certain way and live in a certain suburb and drive a certain car, then you have to keep upping the ante. A lot of people, particularly those who want to be someone other than themselves, change how they dress and what they do in their lives, to escape what they think is a 'bad' person to become a 'better' person. But in this case it was a particularly toxic and dishonest version of that.
- [on Underbelly]; I won't assume to know because she's not here and she doesn't have a right of reply, and it's not for me to say I know what she was like
- But I can say I was responding to the script, and it's about a woman who, for whatever reason, wanted to be someone other than she was. Whether that's because she didn't like herself, or whether or not she just had massively narcissistic tendencies that manifested in needing materialistic belongings.
- We didn't create a duplicate of Melissa Caddick; it's a version of her, it's a version of this story, and that's kind of appropriate because everyone had a different version of Melissa. I guess she believed that she was one thing and other people believed she was another thing and everyone seems to have a version of her that they want to believe.
- This is not a documentary, it's not investigative journalism and it's not about saying this is the truth, We all get so attached to the version that we think: did she jump off a cliff? Did she have some kind of underworld alliance? Did she chop off her own foot? Some of the speculation is ridiculous. It's not about saying this is absolutely what happened. It's really about intriguing people with their own notions of what they think happened.
- My friends are all familiar with me going through cycles in my life where I'll say, 'I'm leaving the circus.' I've done that a few times then something always drags me back. I think I've conceded I will always get dragged back into the circus. It's not for everyone but it's a very interesting life.
- She is everything that I'm not. The values and the things that I guess were important to her don't really feature in my life. I lead a very simple life. More than one of my friends quipped when I got this role, 'They do realise you're someone who can barely get herself out of overalls!' I don't wear any make-up and I certainly don't subscribe to the notion that being someone 'important' or 'valuable' equates with the trappings of wealth.
- It's just the unpredictability and vulnerability you feel sometimes. It's the pleasure and the pain of it really.
- [on playing Melissa Caddick];I think fraudsters like to think that if you're fool enough to invest in their project, then that's on you, I don't know if that's the story we are telling but I do know it's the human cost of it. And it wasn't like she was a stranger, she was a friend. So there's a lot of hurt. It's a very human story underneath the ridiculous financial shenanigans
- There's really no footage of Melissa - there are still images of her but there's no moving footage. I don't have to replicate a voice. Obviously we're the same age and similar body type, and my hair was coloured. But we don't have any footage of what she moved or sounded like or anything like that."
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