Fact and fiction: Home And Away star shuns home-wrecker slurs.
Home And Away’s ‘other woman’ tells Kerry Harvey how some fans confuse fact with fiction and reveals that she met her husband through dating app Tinder.
Summer Bay newcomer Emily Eskell can see the irony in playing a home wrecker on TV while basking in newlywed bliss herself.
The 28-year-old redhead plays Home And Away’s Simone Bedford, an aspiring chef who falls for restaurant owner Brody Morgan (Jackson Heywood) when he starts mentoring her.
Brody’s wife, Ziggy (Sophie Dillman), is far from pleased at the interest her husband is showing in his protegee and does everything she can to end the relationship.
“I know exactly what it would be like to be in Ziggy’s position. I would slap someone too if they were treating me like Simone is (treating) Ziggy,” says Eskell, who wed her partner, Joel, a few months after starting work on the drama.
Eskell met Joel after signing up for Tinder in a bid to meet people outside her usual social group.
“I was just very bored by not being able to meet new people,” she says, adding she believes it is a problem many people have.
“We all work so hard that when we do have time off we really just do hang out with our mates. I had an on-off relationship with Tinder for a long time.
“I went on a date every night for about two months and then deleted it in a rage then downloaded it again one night, and found Joel on there and that was it.
“It’s not an easy thing to do but there was something in me that just knew I wouldn’t find anyone that I was compatible with and challenged by unless I broadened my search criteria.”
Eskell admits her on-screen antics as ‘the other woman’ are a strange counterpoint to being a newlywed.
“We all work so hard that when we do have time off we really just do hang out with our mates. I had an on-off relationship with Tinder for a long time.” – Emily Eskell
“It’s like living a double life. My poor husband is reeling.”
Happily, in real life, the couple and Heywood and Dillman are the best of friends, and the pair were among several Home And Away stars who attended her wedding.
“Sophie actually knows my cousin because she grew up in Brisbane and recently told me that they made out at the year-six dance,” she says, laughing.
Fans have not, however, been so welcoming with the young actress taking a bit of a hammering on social media from those who confuse fact with fiction.
“Some people send me messages and they’re like, ‘Get away from Brody. Leave them alone’. They are very serious so the girls took my phone away from me and started blocking all these people,” Eskell says, adding there were others who acknowledged the reality of Simone’s dilemma.
“Just because you are married to someone, it doesn’t mean you don’t ever have feelings for other people or there aren’t ever tempting situations. I am not condoning infidelity or cheating in anyway but I am sure the majority of human beings out there have experienced some sort of situation like this in their lives. Most of the people I talk to certainly have.”
Trolls aside, Eskell says that she couldn’t be happier. Fluent in French, she has a degree in International Studies but could never give up on her dream of acting and, after her first graduation, applied for and won a place at the prestigious National Institute Of Dramatic Arts (Nida).
After her Nida graduation in 2013, she has worked regularly on the stage, including with a Shakespearean company, and also had parts in Doctor Doctor and A Place To Call Home. Throughout, she held on to her dream of one day working on Home And Away, auditioning “at least seven times” before being cast as Simone.
“There are even a couple of people on it who I auditioned for the parts they got. I remember auditioning for Ziggy (isn’t that funny?) and I am pretty sure I auditioned for Willow as well,” she says, adding she was always aware there weren’t too many parts for a fair-skinned redhead in a beach-based drama.
“Maybe that’s why it was such a dream of mine. I never really thought they’d take someone like me. There are many more young, beautiful Australian girls who would be more appropriate so I’m really very grateful they’ve given me this part and given me such a fabulous storyline and character.”