You Ask: April Rose Pengilly (Chloe)
Neighbours’ Chloe Brennan ...faces your questions!
Poor Chloe’s life was turned upside down as Neighbours celebrated its 35th anniversary recently, but will April Rose be given an easier ride with your questions?
“What’s the best thing about playing Chloe Brennan?”
The best thing is that she just says whatever she thinks without sugarcoating it – that’s always fun to play. Also, she’s so similar to me, and therefore I’ve been able to put so much of my own personality into the character and find new layers to her. Plus she’s pretty sassy, which is
always fun!
“You’ve done a lot of modelling and fashion shows in the past – what’s your most memorable experience of
the modelling world?”
Well, I got the opportunity to do some really amazing jobs. I was the face of the biggest department store here in Australia, David Jones. And I lived in London for a bit, worked there, then New York and Japan. I worked with some incredible photographers all over the world, I can’t think of one single thing! But there were a lot of pinch-me moments.
“You auditioned to play Cheryl Blossom in US teen series Riverdale
– do you watch the show?”
There are a lot of roles that I’ve missed out on! But I haven’t really had the chance to watch it in a while. I think it would have been fun to see what I could have brought to it. There are a lot of projects – I auditioned for Solo: A
Star Wars Story. Emilia Clarke got the role that I auditioned for. I was going through Netflix with my partner the other day, and I was going ‘Oh I auditioned for that’, ‘I got a call back for that’ – lots of shows!
“Do you think Pierce and Chloe make a good match?”
You know what, I’m still very much on team Chelly [Chloe and Elly]! But I think there are obviously very lovely elements to the Pierce and Chloe relationship. He’s been really good for her during this time where her mother’s health has been deteriorating, and he’s really seeking stability in her life. I don’t begrudge the relationship, but there was something really special about Elly and Chloe. It was unrequited, forbidden love, and the reason they
“What’s the best thing about playing Chloe?”
didn’t end up together again was life kept getting in the way. I do hope there will be a future for them in some form.
“What’s it like working with Tim [Robards, who plays Pierce]?”
It’s good! Neighbours is his first acting experience [Tim shot to fame when he took part in reality dating show The Bachelor Australia in 2013], so we’ll talk about the scene and he brings a lot of ideas into it. Tim’s definitely more confident with all of that, and it’s really good to collaborate with him. And to have Ben Turland [Hendrix] come in was really fun – there’s a good dynamic between the three of us.
“Jodi [Anasta] who plays Elly recently announced she’s leaving the show. What are you going to miss the most about working with her?”
Oh gosh, you’ll make me cry! Jodi’s just such a beautiful person, with such a wonderful energy and we have such a wonderful time just gossiping and chatting. They’ll start rolling the cameras and we’ll be in the middle of sharing a story right up until the point of ‘action’. I haven’t really thought about what it’ll be like when she leaves, because I don’t want to believe it.
“Chloe recently lost her job as manager of Lassiters – do you think you could have done a better job of impressing Paul and Lucy?”
I probably would have done exactly the same things as Chloe, I have little to no experience in the business world. But I think she tried very hard and I don’t think she could have done any more. She actually did a lot better than I would have!
“Which of your cast mates makes you laugh the most?”
Well, I would say Scott Mcgregor [Mark] but he’s only back for a little while. I constantly have to massage my face on set because he makes my cheeks hurt from laughing. Chris Milligan [Kyle] would be a close second! He’s really funny. Oh, and Damien [Richardson, aka Gary] – he’s hilarious. We didn’t have many scenes together, but any time we did, it was hard to keep a straight face.
“What do your family and friends make of your alter ego Chloe?”
They all think that she’s really funny and out-there! Everybody has been very supportive, and I get a lot of feedback about the funny things that I add to Chloe’s scenes – which I share on social media. I’ll subtly add quotes from shows like The Simpsons and things like that into scenes and then later, I’ll share the references with everyone on my Instagram stories and see if any viewers pick up on it. They’re beginning to a lot of the time now. I had a few fans get in touch when I snuck in an Ace Ventura reference. So a lot of those are for my friends and family – they think that it’s just hilarious!
“What will you miss about Jodi Anasta [Elly]?”