Обичам сериала "Дъщерите на Маклауд", жалко че историята бе разказана докрай и сега ми остава единствено да гледам повторенията на сезоните, които Холмарк от време на време прави....
Продължавам, обаче, да чета с интерес за актьорите които ми станаха толкова близки с образите си в сериала за има-няма 7-8 години, също за Южна Австралия и местата представени в "Дъщерите на Маклауд".
Ето едно интервю на Лейт Форест работил при заснемането на четвърти и пети сезон на сериала, което открих в един холандски блог посветен на "Дъщерите", който следя и в който новините продължават да текат независимо от излъчването на последния финален осми сезон!
Поствам го в оригинал, а когато имам време ще се постарая да го преведа :

How I came to love "Chicks on Horses" LEITH FORREST

January 24, 2009 12:30am

I MUST confess, before I started work on McLeod"s Daughters – I had never seen an episode. Not one. In fact, I"d never even been to Gawler.

I remember my first day being told which cast members were which by a simple but effective method – "Rachael (Carpani) is the hot one with blonde curly hair. Simmone (MacKinnon) is the hot one with red curly hair …"

Little did I know that two seasons later, I would come to love and adore everything about the show we affectionately referred to as "Chicks on Horses".

That"s why it is terribly sad to hear that this season of McLeod"s is the last.

McLeod"s is far more than just a television show.

It not only opened my eyes to the world of television, but also to South Australia.

While on screen the characters were fighting bush fires, attending weddings and saving people who fell into a dam, a well, a silo or off a horse , behind the scenes, the people and places of small town South Australia got to experience a little bit of "showbiz".

Freeling, home to the Gungellan Hotel and truck stop ; Mt Pleasant, home of the Killarney property, Gawler, Kapunda, Two Wells and more, just won"t be the same without the presence of McLeod"s Daughters.

It was through McLeod"s that not only I, but many of South Australians got to come face to face, and become friends with, some of Australia"s finest actors.

And they loved it here. They told me so. On one hand it was a job, and yet it was also their home.

The thing about television is that it"s not as glamorous as you might imagine.

If the actors had to be on set for a 6.30am start, that means they had to be in hair and makeup – at 5am. For the likes of Rachael and Michala (Banas) who lived in Norwood, that meant that I would be there to pick them up – at 4am. A 10 – 12 hour day doesn"t look that appealing at 4am.

Then you add the Gawler factor. As beautiful as Gawler is, in summer, it"s hot. Really hot. When you"re in 40+ degree heat for hours, in a paddock with no shade, caked in makeup, it"s a far cry from the red carpet of the Logies.

That"s not even considering the 80 or so crew members who are also out there, braving these elements, shooting the same scene up to ten times. That"s rehearsal after rehearsal, then the scene from every possible angle.

Oh, and let"s not even mention winter.

The days were long too. Night shoots would finish at midnight, every night, for weeks. Then there"s travel. The day we shot the wedding of Tess and Nick, I took the cast to set, from set, to the airport, or to their home or hotel. That day I drove close to 800kms, from Mt Pleasant to the city and back again.

Still, everyday was like a magical adventure. There are few more beautiful sights than a sunrise or sunset at the Kingsford property – home of Drovers Run – just out of Gawler. Or a rainbow over the lush canola fields outside of Freeling. Just beautiful.

And boy, did we had some fun..

I still smile at the thought of Craig McLachlan, who played Kane on the show, in the back of the Tarago, playing Guns and Roses tunes down Main North Rd to the passing traffic. Every time we stopped at the traffic lights, we would wind down the windows and change the tune to "Hey Mona" to see their reactions. Craig and I thought this was hilarious. We must have. We did it everyday for months.

The show itself had a strange effect on people.

Rachael Carpani, who played Jodi Fountain, tells the story of walking through Sydney airport, after the episode of Lisa Chappell"s character Claire"s death screened , and a lady came rushing up screaming "Jodi, Jodi, I"m so sorry about Claire"s death … are you ok? Can I buy you a drink?" To which Rachael secretly thought "lady, I should be buying YOU a drink".

In fact days after the episode of Claire"s death, people actually laid flowers at the area where the car went off the cliff. The locals actually knew the quarry, and thought this was the best way to pay their respects.

The show also had international appeal. Many countries screened, and continue to screen the adventures of Drovers Run. I remember working on fan mail for the show, and there were always hundreds of letters from overseas fans. Even some from India, who thought that the star of the show was a Birdie Carter, not Bridie.

Australian television will be poorer for McLeod"s departure. It was the only show that shot on film, not tape. And it showed. The quality of the show"s cinematography is the best in the industry by far. Unfortunately it was almost the most expensive.

Where other television shows can shoot and reshoot, when you deal with film, you have to make sure it"s just right. Each night it was my job to make sure that the cans of film, bubble wrapped to seemingly survive a nuclear explosion, made it to the airport on time, so they could be sent to Sydney for editing. I remember my boss Felice telling me in no uncertain terms, guard these with your life. If you get in a car accident, get out, and walk them to the airport. Make sure they are there on time. If they"re not, don"t bother driving back to the office in Gawler.

Thankfully I never missed one run.

As the last episode of McLeod"s is shown, I"m sure there will be plenty of tears. From fans who"s favourite show is disappearing, to cast and crew who are no longer working in their dream job. The many South Aussies who got their fifteen minutes of fame as an extra, to the town"s, farms, and properties that McLeod"s called home.

Perhaps they should never have called it McLeod"s Daughters. When Claire died, there was just one daughter. When Tess left, Jodi had to step in as an illegitimate McLeod. We often joked that eventually the show would be called Friends of McLeod"s or People who once knew someone called McLeod.

All I know is, after it"s all over, I"m truly, truly thankfully that I was able to be a small part of McLeod"s Daughters.

Leith Forrest worked on McLeod"s Daughters during season"s four and five.

интервюто в AdelaideNow

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