Life is filled with setbacks, but for young actress Madeleine Adams, who this week hits our screens as Britt Adams on Shortland Street, the Auckland floods could not have come at a worse time.
The Kāpiti actress’ career was on an upward trajectory when the record-breaking rainfall of January 27 quickly put a dampener on her spirits.
“I was affected so badly because I had just moved into my house at the start of the month,” she explains. “I hadn’t managed to unpack anything because I had a job working as a crew member on the set of a new show.
“I was working every single day, 12 hours a day for 17 or 18 days straight. The day after I wrapped up, we were hit with the floods.”
The entire first floor of Madeleine’s central Auckland flat, including her bedroom, quickly filled up with around two feet (61cm) of water, destroying a large portion of her clothes, her laptop, all of her records and her book collection, as well as other personal items.
Madeleine was upstairs when water raged through her flat, submerging all her stuff.
“I was upstairs while it was happening and didn’t even realise what was going on until I looked down the stairs, then it was too late,” Madeleine reflects.
“I remember running into my room and everything was already underwater – my clothes were floating.”
Any book lover would sympathise with Madeleine losing an entire collection, which she had spent a long time accumulating, but for her, the greatest loss was the laptop, which had all of her work stored on it, including old tapes, showreel material and headshots.
“For a lot of people, but especially as an actor and a self-contractor, your laptop is a lot like your lifeline, so losing that was devastating,” she shares.
“I’m not an overly materialistic person,” she adds, “but because I got rid of a lot of my things at the end of last year, everything I did have was very sentimental. The things I lost were absolutely heartbreaking.”
Although it will take time to recover all she has lost and for the trauma to subside, Madeleine shows she’s stronger than the storm as she continues to land roles on screen, including her debut May 1 appearance on the country’s favourite soap.
The actress’ first role was in The Pound back in 2015, and she now has numerous movies and TV shows under her belt, including the 2019 slasher film Black Christmas, The Gulf, Power Rangers: Beast Morphers and popular whodunit series The Brokenwood Mysteries. But her experience in Ferndale is one of the highlights.
“It was pretty surreal to meet the cast I grew up watching, like Michael Galvin for instance,” she enthuses. “I was like, ‘You’re amazing. I love you!'”
Madeleine plays an ex-head schoolgirl, mirroring her own real-life experience as head girl of Paraparaumu College back in 2016. Her character Britt Adams is one of a group of six new faces, all surgical registrars competing for the same job.
The gloves are off! Madeleine plays surgical registrar Britt, who lines up with five others in the hope of landing a Ferndale job.
“She’s very intelligent and we also share the same last name, which is a funny coincidence!”
Becoming an actress wasn’t always on the cards for Madeleine, who has a passion for social justice, so was once determined to become a human rights lawyer.
The change of career direction came about when, at the end of high school, Madeleine took part in a week-long drama workshop with New Zealand acting royalty Dame Miranda Harcourt. Dame Miranda’s undeniable talent and fierce passion for the arts helped set Madeleine, now 23, on her new path.
“Miranda is a fantastic acting coach and after taking part in her workshop, everything changed,” Madeleine muses.
The decision wasn’t one she took lightly, but with the encouragement of her mother Sarah Main, who also wanted to be an actress when she was younger – along with her inherited strong drive to succeed, Madeleine says she’s glad she chose to pursue her passion and she wants to inspire others to do the same.
With her inspirational mum.
“I think there was always something in my heart saying, ‘Well, I love performing and I love the arts, and if I don’t give this a crack now, then I’ll probably always regret it,'” she says.
Madeleine insists, “I owe absolutely everything to my mum, though. She has never once told me I should look for a different career – even in the hardest times as an actress.
“I genuinely don’t think I would be here without her. I would have given up a long time ago.”
