It’s hard to reconcile the lovely Jodie Rimmer with her scheming character from Filthy Rich.
As we chat by phone, the busy mum is all apologies – she’s walking up a hill and getting breathless – while viewers have seen her alter-ego from the hit show, Lorna, move the body of her boyfriend Karl and pocket a large sum of cash – among other things. Is playing a devious gold-digger as much of a leap for the actress as it seems?
“Lorna is pretty dark and draining to play,” she admits, “but I relished it because as an actress, you want to play someone who has secrets and who’s flawed. I did have to take care of myself emotionally, though, and come home and do something nice like have a bath and snuggle my children [Xavier and Theo]. I had to reassure myself there are good people in the world!”
Jodie with her onscreen Filthy Rich family.
While Jodie (41) describes a day on set as “crying scene, fight scene, crying scene, fight scene, almost crying scene”, she says she was thrilled to join the big-budget production, especially since the cast included former Shortland Street star Erroll Shand.
“It was like I’d won Lotto! It’s almost like if you play soccer against someone good – you raise your game.”
Despite dramatic storylines, reality on set was anything but.
“Backstage gossip?” she muses, when asked to spill the beans on the cast whose steamy scenes have made headlines. “I could make some stuff up for you! Most of the cast is in their twenties and they’re actually pretty sensible. Erroll and I would try to lead them astray, but it never really worked!”
Filthy Rich is on TV2 Mondays and Tuesdays at 8.30pm
