australian television information archive

Wild child

WHEN McLeod's Daughters returns for a seventh season tonight, there will be a new face at Drovers Run.

Tayler Geddes, played by Gillian Alexy, is a 19-year-old "wild child" who has travelled to Drovers to avenge her father's death.

"Tayler's father passed away in a mine accident when Regan was the boss and Tayler feels that Regan is a bit responsible, so she comes to seek a bit of revenge," Alexy says of her character.

"She is just angry and she's lashing out. She's got a lot of stuff to work out and some really interesting story lines come from that."

While her debut episode goes to air tonight, Alexy joined the McLeod's Daughters cast last year and found it easy to settle into a team that has been working together for years. "It wasn't intimidating to walk on the set for the first time," she says.

"I have done a lot of TV, I have done a lot of children's drama, so when I walked on the set I felt very comfortable with the process of a shooting day. I knew all of the equipment.

"Everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming and, within a day or two, I felt like I was part of the family."

Alexy had to move from her home in Sydney and settle in Adelaide to be close to the McLeod's set and says she's been enjoying the daily drive from the city into the bush.

"That drive out helps me get into character," she says. "We shoot on location, nothing is done in the studio, so what you see is the real deal and that really adds to the way we approach the show.

"It's so beautiful out there, when I first joined the show it was winter so it was very green and all the colours were incredible, the air is so fresh that when you step out at 5.30am it's freezing cold and it's amazing because it's so crisp."

Alexy didn't have to worry about learning to ride a horse before starting work because her mother had taken her to riding lessons for a couple of years when she was a little girl.

"I was one of those kids who always wanted to try something so mum would enrol me in a class and I would do it for 10 minutes and then want to do something else, but horseriding was different," she says. "My mother wanted to ride a horse when she was young but couldn't afford it, so when I said I wanted to do horseriding she was gung-ho.

"Because I lived in the city she would drive me out to the stables, which were 40 minutes out, after school on a Tuesday and I rode a little horse called Misty."

With Tess, who was played by Bridie Carter, gone the only McLeod's daughter at Drovers Run now is Rachael Carpani's character Jodi, but Alexy is sure the audience won't eventually discover her character has a secret connection to the family.

"Tayler is a bit of a lost soul, and they always need a lost soul on the show," she says.

"Drovers Run is a great place for someone to grow up and discover themselves and she will do that and see where it takes her."

McLeod's Daughters, Nine, tonight at 7.30

By Sarah Nicholson
February 06, 2007
The Courier-Mail