Kate Elliott: Katherine Mansfield, Shortland Street, and more...

Kate Elliott began her acting career after attending an audition at school. Since winning that role — as a bulimic, sexually abused, self-mutilating teenager in TV play House of Sticks — Elliott has had starring roles as writer Katherine Mansfield, aviator Jean Batten and no-nonsense Sergeant Jessica Savage (in The Gulf). Her big screen credits include Toy Love, The Locals, Fracture and Fresh Meat.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Elliott talks about:

• Why she chose to be an actor
• How she began her screen career at age 14
• Making out with Madeleine Sami while wearing a school uniform in the Harry Sinclair production Pale Blue
• Her experiences on TV series Street Legal
• How strippers at Mermaids taught her how to act while under water in Toy Love
• Using what she learned on Toy Love for underwater scenes in Bliss
• Her character in The Insiders Guide To Love
• Appearing in the Whittaker’s Chocolate commercials
• Playing Katherine Mansfield for the first time in An Indiscreet Journey, and how the character differed from the Katherine Mansfield she played in Bliss
• Juggling a new baby and her role in The Cult
• The fight to land her leading role in Bliss
• The skills needed to act in Shortland Street

This video was first uploaded on 6 December 2011, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera & Editing - James Coleman