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From daggy to designer in a day

FROM cowgirl to undercover cop, former McLeod’s Daughter’s star Lisa Chappell is a true chameleon – just like the new character she will be playing on Australian police drama, Stingers.

When Chappell hung up her riding boots in mid-2003 after a three-year stint at Drovers Run as Claire McLeod, she took a 10-month break from acting.

Now she is set to make a comeback, and fans will find it hard to recognise her as the cool, intelligent and easygoing cop Megan Walsh.

Forget the waist-high jeans, Akubra, baggy shirt and Drizabone, Chappell’s new character is more comfortable in leather jackets, tight hipster “spray on jeans”, teased hair and heavy make-up (undercover) or professional office attire.

Initially, Chappell found it hard to understand her new character.

“She’s been quite tricky to get my head around and very challenging to play,” she says.

“But I think now that I have played her actions for two weeks I have a clearer picture of who she is.

“Just putting yourself into this world where people kill people and take drugs and chop people’s head’s off was the most challenging thing.

“It wasn’t like when I was playing Clair where even though her world was so different for me I was physically in it– smelling the poo, shearing the sheep and getting a sore bottom after riding.”

Along with the challenge of getting into her new character, Chappell loves all the costumes changes involved.

“I think I had six different costumes during the three years I played Claire,” Chappell says. “This particular character is so complex and she has the ability to be a chameleon.

“So you are not just wearing the same clothes all the time and I would actually take some of this wardrobe home for myself.”

She says she could do without “all the styling” of her new role.

“I just don’t like the grooming. I wish I could just walk through a special shower like a carwash and then come out dressed with my make-up and hair done…

“The make-up artists are lovely and I do enjoy talking to them, but I’d much rather just be doing the work.”

So relaxed is the 35-year-old’s personal style she had to make a pact with herself not to walk out of the house in tracksuit pants.

“I’m the type of person who will leave the house without looking in the mirror once,” she says.

“The other day I’d forgotten to brush my hair and I had pimple cream on my face and my tracksuit pants on and then I took my dog for a walk.”

Chappell’s gig on Stingers is an extended guest role, though her character could be written into the script permanently.

Either way, Chappell hopes to return to her first love: theatre. She wants to star in a play she wrote for herself in her home town of Auckland, New Zealand.

“I thought I would test the play out there first before bringing it to Australia because they love me over there because they’ve seen me grow up,” she says.

 Stingers, Nine, Tuesday 10.20pm

By Katrina Witham
July 29, 2004
The Courier Mail