australian television information archive

New girl rides in

TWELVE months ago, Queensland actor Anna Torv packed up and moved to Melbourne.

The NIDA graduate had just landed a lead role in the fourth series of Ten’s The Secret Life of Us and had even managed to find a place to live right opposite the St Kilda flat where Evan, Alex and Kelly all resided (at least onscreen).

Unfortunately, the show was shelved after three episodes and while Ten may air the rest of the series this year, there are no plans for any more.

Undeterred, the 25-year-old has found a new home on Nine and will appear in two episodes of the hit drama McLeod’s Daughters. Torv plays Jasmine McLeod the long-lost cousin of Tess (Bridie Carter). The character, Torv says, could not be any further from her Secret Life role.

“They’re so different,” she laughs. “I went from living in a flat of 20-something wannabes in the middle of St Kilda to Drovers Run.”

Torv also had to swap drinks at the Fu Bar for horseriding lessons, as Jaz is a former equestrian champion.

“I’d done a little bit of riding, but I did go and have some lessons and I looked up some equestrian stuff on video from the local saddlery,” she says. “One of the girls that came out and did some of the double shots was a real equestrian rider, so she showed me some little tricks.”

Torv says Jaz awakens many ghosts of the McLeod family’s past when she arrives in the district.

“She goes to Drovers to scatter her father’s ashes and subsequently finds out she has cousins that live there and family she never knew she had and nor does Tess know that Jasmine existed,” she says.

While the newly hitched Tess is thrilled to discover her cousin, she soon finds out Jaz is haunted by the death of her fiance, who was killed in a riding accident. “She’s sort of got quite a hefty past,” Torv says. “Lots of little skeletons in her closet come out.”

Torv, who has extensive stage experience and who also starred in the short-lived drama Young Lions, says she was not daunted by the prospect of joining one of television’s most famous families.

“Everyone was quite welcoming. Everyone’s so sure of what they’re doing and so completely into their characters that it’s easy to sort of slot right in there,” she says.

By Erica Thompson
October 28, 2004
The Courier Mail