THE WOMEN FROM SNOWY RIVER
Sheryl, Amanda and Joelene admit they feel hemmed in
by 19th-century fashion
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Sheryl Munks, Amanda Douge and Joelene Crnogorac
say their roles in Banjo
Paterson's The Man From Snowy River made them
glad they live in the 20th
century, and not the 19th.
Sheryl, who plays Emily McGregor, doesn't know
how women coped with the thin,
tight clothing in cold weather. "We had to be
careful not to lift up our skirts during
shooting, because we were all wearing stripy
thermal underwear. We looked like
little Michelin women!" she says.
The series is set when women were supposed to
be "ladylike"and remain in the
home while the men did most of the adventuring.
So Joelene is delighted that her
character, Danielle McGregor, gets a look-in
on the action. "Danni is a tomboy,"
Joelene says. "She gets to do a lot of things
the other girls on the show don't."
Amanda says her character, the willful Victoria
Blackwood, is expected to marry a
gentleman and spend her life homemaking and having
children. "She's the Scarlett
O'Hara of the Australian high country," Amanda
says. "She's young, she's wealthy,
and she's reasonable looking, so the world's
at her feet."
Banjo Paterson's The Man From Snowy River is the
first period drama Sheryl,
Amanda and Joelene have done, and all have found
the series an exciting challenge.
Sheryl, 29, played Effie's friend, Sophie, in
Acropolis Now, and has had "guest
roles in everything" including A Country Practice,
The Flying Doctors, Neighbours,
Blue Heelers, The Big Steal and, for three months,
Prisoner. The series gives her
an opportunity to catch up with Brett Climo,
who plays her soon-to-be husband,
Colin McGregor. The pair once worked together
on A Country Practice.
She and Brett get on well together, she says,
which makes romantic scenes easier to
play. "He's very easy-going. I do get a bit nervous
before a kissing scene - just a bit
apprehensive that it looks real!"
Sheryl says her husband of 18 months, gardener
Paul Callahan, doesn't mind when
she has to do love scenes. "He loves what I do,
and he never gets jealous," she
says. "He knows I'm not going to run off with
anyone else."
For 15-year-old Joelene, being in the series means
having to continue her Year 10
studies with a tutor. "I'm at school two days
and on set with a tutor for three days,
which is the way I like it. If I was at school
every day, I think I'd go nuts!"
Joelene's parents are pleased her good grades
haven't slipped during shooting. "I
push myself more than anyone else pushes me.
I can't hand in something that's not
my best," she says.
Joelene, who played Linda in Round The Twist,
would like to study criminal law or
psychology when she leaves school, although she
says acting is her first love. "But
acting is not a full-time job," she says.
Amanda, 19, who has acted since she was 14, has
had guest roles in such series as
The Flying Doctors and Inside Running, and she
stars in the upcoming film That
Eye, The Sky. She is in her second year of an
arts-law degree at Melbourne
University, and is working with an American drama
teacher to learn the Stella Adler
technique. "My mind is very important to me and
to my acting," she says. "I'm an
intellectually-based person, rather than an intuitive
actor."
Like Joelene, Amanda wants to have a good education
behind her to help her
through any lean times. "I'm very ambitious.
But I realise the lack of control in this
industry makes it difficult. If it doesn't happen,
I'll find a way to cope, for sure,"
she says.
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Story: Caron James, TV Week, 29 October 1994
