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FAB FIVE
Joanne Samual speaks exclusively to City Hub about her directorial debut, The Legend Of The Five
BY MARK MORELLINI oanne Samuel was one of the busiest actresses in the 70s and 80s, working on one show to the next. Her roles on hit soaps Class Of 74, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors, and Skyways just to name a few, made her a household name. Today she lives in the Blue Mountains, still works in the industry, and enjoys teaching children drama. She started performing in musical theatre at the tender age of five. Television commercials followed and a job working in a casting agency in her late teenage years led to acting jobs on Crawford’s high rating cop shows Matlock Police and Homicide. Her acting career then took off.
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“I think we saw the best working on television during those years,” reminisced Samuel. “It was a golden time - it was a real emergence of the Australian voice in television and in film. It was all starting to awaken – it was fantastic!” She has many fond memories of working on Grundy’s hit soap The Young Doctors. She remembers after attending a voice-over job she returned to set 10 minutes late only to be greeted by all the cast and crew in the car park staring at their watches! “We had a flood there once and wardrobe brought out gumboots so we could walk from the studio to the wardrobe room without getting wet!” Samuel was abruptly written out of The Young Doctors when she won a role
in Mad Max as Mel Gibson’s wife. “It was awesome working with Mel! He was such a hard-working young actor who wanted all the knowledge about filmmaking he could possibly find. He was so much fun. The whole experience was great and I feel really privileged to have been part of it.” Nobody realised what a world-wide hit Mad Max would become, propelling Mel Gibson to international stardom. “I actually went to the States when the film premiered, but I just wanted to come home. It’s tough over there and I had a young daughter at that stage. It’s something that just didn’t happen for me the way it happened for Mel.” Many other roles in television and films followed including a role as Mrs Bingle the school principal on The Wiggles
Movie which she cherishes. “I loved doing that. I still have young kids coming up to me and yelling ‘Mrs Bingle! Mrs Bingle!” Samuel is currently the founder of the 3 Sister’s Youth Theatre in Katoomba and enjoys teaching children drama. “It’s something I fell into when I moved into The Blue Mountains. With drama for kids, you sit there and watch them grow and change. The community they form is just so special. I started this little theatre company because I wanted them to have the opportunity as professionally as possible. I think arts education is vital for children. It increases their confidence, their sense of self, and they can stand up, speak up, and learn to work with one another.” Continued on page 2