Lachlan’s love for Belle…
THOMAS ATKINSON DISHES THE DIRT ON HIS ALTER EGO’S COMPLEX CHARACTER…
No matter how despicably their character may be behaving on screen, your typical soap actor will usually try with all their might to rationalise their alter ego’s actions. However, as Inside Soap sits down for a chat with Thomas Atkinson – who plays disturbed Lachlan White – the star is astounded when we ask him whether he has any sympathy for young Lachy…
“No, I don’t feel sorry for him at all,” insists the 18-year-old. “His time in prison was entirely down to his own mistakes, and he’s also a sex offender. Even though he was a kid at the time, he knew what he was doing, so it’s not something that can be easily forgiven.
“But if I were to give Lachlan some advice, I would tell him to get away from the Whites,” adds Thomas. “You love your family unconditionally, and although I think he’s starting to see that his mum and his grandad aren’t the people he thought they were, he still loves them and is sort of blind to their wrongdoings. He should spend more time with Belle and the Dingle family, because they’re the epitome of normal compared with the Whites!”
Having been brought up by relatives as dysfunctional and twisted as Chrissie and Lawrence, Lachlan hasn’t ever had a positive role model. However, the twisted lad has a reason to turn his turbulent life around, now that pretty Belle has taken a shine to him!
“I think he genuinely loves her,” reckons Thomas. “It’s not your average teenage relationship. Neither Lachlan nor Belle have that many friends in the village, so they’re pretty much all each other has. And Belle makes Lachlan feel normal and loved – not as if he’s an ex-convict with a bad history.
“That’s not to say he isn’t aware of his mistakes,” continues the star. “When Lisa goes to support Rhona in court, she gives Lachlan some looks that suggest she still remembers what he did to Alicia. But Lachlan wants to redeem himself for Belle’s sake as well as his. He cares about her so much and really doesn’t want to lose her!”
His creepy and criminal antics mean that Lachlan didn’t exactly hit it off with the ladies before Belle agreed to be his girlfriend. So the romantic scenes between the smitten young couple are