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An Interview With Emily Symons aka Louise Appleton
Emily Symons was looking forward to her 30th birthday. Everyone told the soap star her thirties would be a golden period and the outlook seemed bright as she toasted the future with champagne on her milestone birthday.
The Sydney born actress had just got engaged to England footballer Matt Le Tissier and, after leaving Aussie soap Home And Away, she was out to pursue bigger acting ambitions in Britain.
But the beautiful blonde, who is now a regular behind the Woolpack bar in Emmerdale, admits: “The first year and half after I turned 30 was an absolute disaster. I was looking forward to my birthday and everyone said wait until you turn 30 you’ll love it.
‘On the day, on August 1999, my mum booked a restaurant overlooking the harbour in Sydney for a champagne meal with family and friends. It was wonderful but after that things just started going wrong.’
Emily, who first made her name as dizzy hairdresser Marilyn Fisher in Home And Away, broke up with Matt last August. Instead of enjoying a married life with him near Southampton Emily found herself unexpectedly moving out of his home to London, where she was suddenly alone and 12,000 miles away from her family.
With Home And Away off the screens in Britain, her impact in acting circles was also fading. But instead of flying back to Sydney, she stuck it out through the tears and the hard times.
Now Emily has bounced back with a role in Emmerdale as The Woolpack’s latest barmaid ~ a no-nonsense, Aussie ex-air hostess called Louise Appleton.
Emily, who was briefly married to English musician Nick Lipscombe in 1992, admits that she has done a lot of crying over the past few years.
‘I think I’ve been unlucky in love,’ she says. ‘I’ve probably picked the wrong guys for me and ignored any advice my mother gave me about men, which may explain a lot. What’s happen in the past hasn’t put me off marriage, but at the moment it isn’t something I think about. I’d like a family one day, but it’s not something I’m obsessed about.’
Emily was first engaged at 20 to an Australian lighting technician, but she called off the wedding. She says of her doomed engagement to Matt Le Tissier who she met in panto : ‘We had a fabulous time together, but now it’s over and done with. At first, it was hard being a single girl in London and I was a bit terrified of it. I kept getting on the Tube and going the wrong way. But then I started to get the hang of London life and in recent months, I’ve sorted a lot of things out in every way. Now I’m really enjoying life as a single girl again and trying to focus on my career. Having made the move to London I knew I had to make a go of it.
‘It wasn’t easy though. I did some TV presenting on shows like Live Talk and Celebrity. I was a little apprehensive about joining Emmerdale at first, having been in Home And Away. I knew the show of course and soon realised that it was a terrific chance for me. Now I’m glad I stayed in England.
Emily has always been a fan of British soaps and says she couldn’t see anyway that an Aussie actress could make her mark in any of them. So she was especially pleased to get the call from Emmerdale while standing in several inches of snow presenting a travel show in Scotland. As well as moving into Emmerdale as a regular member of cast, Emily has recently filmed a couple of episodes of Home And Away in London for the Aussie soap. Home And Away fans demanded the return of Emily’s character Marilyn because her storyline was left up in the air after Marilyn’s baby died from a brain tumour. The storyline was one of the most controversial in the soap’s history because it featured a young girl having an affair with a much older man played by Norman Coburn.
‘Both Norman and I thought they were joking when we’d be having an on-screen affair,’ recalls Emily. ‘We just couldn’t believe it and we didn’t think it would work. But the producers asked us to trust them and, ultimately, it all worked out fine. When I left Home And Away I pleaded with the producers to have me killed off. It was the second time I’d left the show and I felt it was time Marilyn went for good. But now I’m so pleased they let her live on. It was great to film reunion scenes with Norman in London. I’d kept in touch with several members of the cast and it was fun seeing some of them again over here. The show has been very good to me over the years and opened up a lot of doors.’
Despite the way her thirties started, Emily is hoping that they might turn out to be her best years after all.
Cast Interviews
An Interview With Sheree Murphy aka Tricia Stokes
Kathy Glover
Sally Walsh aka Lyn Hutchinson
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