KATE ATKINSON ‘MELISSA IS THE OPPOSITE OF VERA’
BECOMING THE NOTORIOUS SYDNEY FIGURE WAS UNLIKE ANY OTHER ROLE
It was the story that gripped the nation – Sydney-based financial adviser Melissa Caddick went missing in 2020, while she was under investigation by ASIC for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme in which she had stolen nearly $30 million off friends and family. After months of speculation about her whereabouts, partial remains of her body were found on the South Coast of NSW. Her cause of death still remains a mystery.
Now, her disappearance and crimes are being retold in the upcoming drama, Underbelly: Vanishing Act. Taking on the role of the notorious figure is Wentworth star Kate Atkinson, who reveals to New Idea that she was thrilled to sink her teeth into such an “intriguing role”.
“I was enthusiastic about playing a character who was a departure from anything I had done before,
and astonishingly different from myself in terms of choices and values and lifestyle,” she says.
Indeed, Kate, who is best known for her role as the well-meaning manager Vera Bennett on Wentworth, says fans of the prison drama will get a kick out of seeing her in this role.
“Wentworth fans are an eclectic and extraordinary bunch, and I’m sure they will let us know if they like the series,” she says. “I think some of them will take delight in seeing me play a character that is the antithesis of Vera Bennett.”
Although, Kate was initially concerned about taking on the role.
“I wont lie and say I didn’t feel a degree of caution about playing a real-world figure in recent history,” she says. “But I am responding to the world the writers created in the script. And as far as we know, there is no live footage of Melissa, so people aren’t going to say, ‘She didn’t speak like that or walk like that.’ I am not trying to duplicate a real-world figure.”
With several theories concerning Melissa’s disappearance still circulating, Kate reveals the series does not aim to reveal what happened, but instead it will “toy with the many different versions of what may or may not happen”.