Water Rats: articles


article

Tayler turns prankster

It's payback time for Water Rats, Taylor Johnson, as Susie Macyong discovered.

Constable Taylor Johnson, becomes a cheeky trickster this month when she plays a few practical jokes on her fellow Water Rats.

"And it's about time too," says Raelee Hill, who plays the young constable in Channel Nine's top rating drama series.

"The rest of the gang have been giving her a bit of a hard time. She's still fairly new to the job because although she's been there nearly two years, the others have all been in the game a lot longer.

"They're older and wiser too, whereas Taylor's still finding her was."

But it's not all fun and games, as Raelee explains. "Taylor's going through a lot at the moment, after all, last month she got shot! She pulls through and deals with it really well."

Although still young, Water Rats Taylor is maturing very fast. In upcoming episodes, Taylor is chosen to be both confidante and trusted friend, when one of her fellow crew is the victim of tragic circumstances.

Taylor helps him come to terms with what's happened, something Raelee is more than excited about.

"I've been working fairly consistently over the past five years and although I've leant a lot on Water Rats, I've realised that there's still a lot I don't know."

Raelee uses much of her own experiences into Taylor's character and sympathises with the difficulties she's encountered as one of the youngest in the Water Rat team.

In fact, Raelee believes it's important to put a bit of yourself into a character, especially if you're in a television series, otherwise she says, "it can do your head in."

Raelee describes Taylor as someone gifted with bountiful doses of confidence, but that she has a tendency to overstretch herself and sometimes get a little too out of her depth.

While she might share Taylor's sense of unbridled enthusiasm, Raelee doesn't allow herself to get too carried away with the glamour of television.

She supports a number of charities, regularly donating money to the WWF (World Wide Fund) and had spent her very first pay cheque for her role on the soap Paradise Beach, on sponsoring two World Vision babies—a boy in Zambia and a girl in Indonesia.

"The causes of these charities are something I'm quite passionate about," says Raelee, "and I'm always happy to help of I can."

In this day and age it's good to know that there are a few good people like Raelee still around—young enthusiastic, AND talented.

By Susie Macyong
1998
Soap World