Though she looks as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, Brooke Williams is ready to show her dark side. New Zealanders are getting a double dose of the gamine 28-year-old as she appears on TV in Shortland Street and The Almighty Johnsons at the same time – but her characters couldn’t be more different.
On Shorty we’ve seen her good-girl character Lana overlook her own happiness to help her beau Daniel (Ido Drent) recover from a brain injury.
Meanwhile, on The Almighty Johnsons, her character Eva/Hel – goddess of the underworld – lets loose on any woman that competes for the affections of her husband Ty/Hodor, god of winter and darkness (Jared Turner). Brooke says that although she’s nice by nature and can relate more to Lana, she does have a naughty streak.
“The reason I can play both characters is because I flick between [good and bad],” she says with a devilish giggle. “I prefer to be light, breezy and easy-going, but I also have the capacity to go to those other places as well.
“It’s great to play a character like Eva and to be able to let that all out and have a scream. “I’m quite protective of my family and if someone did try and hurt them, you’d see my dark side manifest itself in the real world,” says Brooke, who hails from Christchurch.
Although she’s shy about her own love life, Brooke has picked up a few tips observing Lana’s relationship with Daniel, as well as Eva’s marriage to Ty. “I find it painful sometimes to watch my characters and their relationships,” she says.
“It’s really interesting looking at them from the outside, because you can always see those little red flags [when people make silly decisions]. “You think ‘please don’t do that’ and of course they do it. At the same time, you’d probably end up doing the same thing yourself,” the actress adds.
Brooke says her family doesn’t give her flak when they see her acting in sexy love scenes. “They know it’s my job, so I don’t really hear from them about it. I might have to warn my little brother when he’s back from overseas though,” she jokes.
Brooke is a fan of the fantastical storylines on The Almighty Johnsons, but if she were to have her own superhuman powers, she’d do something more akin to her good-girl Shorty character.
“I would like to be able to eradicate cruelty and have anti-bully powers,” she says. “Perhaps I could give people compassion injections. I have never been bullied, [but] when I see it I get quite upset.”
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