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Hollywood is a harsh place – just ask Antonia Prebble. Earlier this year, the Westside actress was doing the rounds in Tinseltown, trying out for a tonne of TV roles, and even though it was her third time on the audition circuit, she was finding it tough.
“Just being in LA can be tricky,” confesses Antonia, 32. “It’s a bizarre world that you have to navigate over there and it’s quite isolating. The competition is fierce as there are just so many amazing actresses who do what I want to do. It can feel like a very high wall to scale and it’s easy to get swept up in things.”
Fortunately, the Winter and Anzac Girls actress had two LA-based friends, who were also on the audition trail, to support her in her quest for US stardom – her Westside co-star Hannah Marshall and Super City funny woman Madeleine Sami.
Watch Antonia answer our quick fire questions in the video – story continues below
“My girlfriends brought me back down to earth and reminded me I’m OK,” smiles Antonia. “We’d have cups of tea while we’d debrief and laugh about the cosmic joke of it all just to keep each other sane. It made it so much better.”
As well as Hannah and Madeleine, the Auckland-based beauty also counts her Westside co-stars Esther Stephens and Sophie Hambleton among her close friends. And then there’s her Outrageous Fortune gal pals Siobhan Marshall, Aidee Walker and Michelle Ang, plus fellow actress Beth Allen.
“I rely heavily on them,” Antonia tells. “There’s nothing like a female friendship where you can confess all the things you’re going through. I really value them.”
Meanwhile, the hard yards in Hollywood have paid off for the star – she’s landed a big role in a “quirky, dark comedy” TV series. “It depends on timing and there are a few other things in the mix, but I’m hopeful and if it all works out, I’ll be back in LA in July,” Antonia reveals. “My fingers are crossed, but I’m not holding my breath!”
The actress is currently on our screens as Rita West in the second season of the hit TV3 series Westside. And just as Antonia has realised the importance of her female friends, so has her character.
The star explains, “After 18 months in prison, Rita has a whole new appreciation for the women in her life. They were long-suffering friends she found challenging and annoying, but she missed them in jail, so she’s a lot more open to having fulfilling relationships with them. She’s also become more of a feminist. She used to be totally after herself, but now she really wants to help other women.”
Antonia’s favourite scene to film was a heart-to-heart conversation between Rita and her former nemesis Ngaire Munroe, played by Antonia’s real-life friend Esther.
She recalls, “It was a three-page scene of two women talking exclusively about women’s things – matters of the heart and the roles of women in marriage and society. It’s not something you get very often and it felt like a real gift. It was the same kind of discussion Esther and I would have over a bottle of wine and a block of cheese.”
And there’s more exciting career news for Antonia. Last month, she jetted to Europe to uncover her ancestral heritage for a top-secret episode of the TV One series DNA Detectives. And she recently spent time in Invercargill, Auckland and her hometown of Wellington to shoot a role in the reboot of classic Kiwi film Goodbye Pork Pie with her Westside co-star Dean O’Gorman.
“Dean and I go way back and we had a lot of fun working together,” tells Antonia. “Plus I had a ball being back in Wellington. I’m a Welly girl and it’s just the best city in the world – as they say, you can’t beat it on a good day! I wandered up and down Cuba Street with delight, looking at all the amazing things going on.
“But the best bit was getting to hang out with my oldest friend, who has just given birth to identical twin girls. They’re ridiculously cute and I got to help her look after them for a few days. We’ve been best friends since I was five, and I think the world of her and can tell her anything. Thank God for girlfriends!”
Watch Antonia’s bestie Esther Stephens take on our quick fire questions challenge in the video below.
