Pictured: Neighbours casting director Thea McLeod
Australian soap Neighbours has been able to maintain its intense filming schedule throughout most of the Covid pandemic.
The beloved show is on track not to lose a single episode for 2020 – even as film and television sets across the globe were forced to halt production for months on end during the crisis.
Thea McLeod, Neighbours’ casting director for more than 10 years, told Daily Mail Australia show runners followed stringent health protocols and overhauled the entire system to ensure production could continue in the face of a deadly health crisis.
‘It’s been handled very well. They’re very cautious,’ she said.
Covid tests became mandatory for anyone who felt under the weather and social distancing measures were enforced where possible.
Neighbours managed to continue filming six episodes each and every week, but rearranged scripts and schedules to avoid actors unnecessarily crossing paths.
Instead, each actor has a group of other people on set who they generally work with.
Certain scenes were also cut and re-imagined to meet new safety protocols.
Thea has had to adjust her methods for seeking out new talent for the show, too.
Always on the lookout for Australia’s next ‘big thing’, Thea does her best to get as many actors through her doors each and every week.
But at the height of the pandemic, she was forced to close her doors – and still isn’t sure when she’ll be able to greet actors face-to-face again.
Thea McLeod, Neighbours’ casting director for more than 10 years, told Daily Mail Australia show runners followed stringent health protocols and overhauled the entire system to ensure production could continue in the face of a deadly health crisis
Former Neighbours actress and Melbourne-based performer Kahli Williams (pictured) said the Covid pandemic had changed the entire trajectory of her year
Neighbours actors returned to set even as Victoria was plunged back into lockdown
‘Likely not until next year. Which is hard, but we’ve got to be safe. Seeing actors and getting them in the room is the best part, that’s where we have all the fun,’ she said.
‘With casting, obviously I had to limit the talent pool to just Victorian actors. Normally I’d try to cast nationwide for each role. But it certainly gave local actors more opportunities.’
She also had to factor in concerns that actors on set might’ve had regarding travelling interstate to visit family, quarantine needs and varying levels of comfort relating to the virus.
Several roles had to be recast at the height of the pandemic and throughout the second wave to accommodate personal factors.
Thea said both she and show runners were understanding of the extenuating circumstances and ‘really just had to respect actors’ choices’.
‘It’s been a really different style of casting, but we’ve adjusted, we’ve managed’.
Given the high turnaround nature of the show, Thea was well versed in self tape auditions – which allow interstate actors to apply for a role online – which made the transition away from in-person auditions all the more easier.
The show gave Hollywood actress Margot Robbie (left) her first break as an actress
Similarly, former Neighbours actress and Melbourne-based performer Kahli Williams said the Covid pandemic had changed the entire trajectory of her year
‘Technically, it has worked. But I enjoy seeing actors in the flesh, getting a feel for their energy and really work shopping the scenes,’ she said.
‘We will go back to in-person casting eventually, but I know I need to be really cautious here. We’re not ready yet. Melbourne isn’t quite there.’
While the program did lose a few weeks of filming, they’ve made up for it by working later in the year, and are on track not to lose a single episode for the 2020 season.
Thea said it was the hard work and resilience of all the cast and crew on set that made Australia such a formidable cog in the industry.
‘Neighbours is like the best acting school in the world. In the US and the UK, they love Australian actors for their work ethic. They just have so much respect for how we get things done.’
Internationally acclaimed actors like Margot Robbie, Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe all got their starts on Neighbours.
But some of Thea’s other work made less of a smooth transition.
Measure for Measure, a film cast by Thea and produced by she and her husband, was scheduled to have its Australian theatre debut during the pandemic.
It was delayed, as was another film she was casting.
Neighbours also launched the career of Kylie Minogue – before she became a pop princess
He and his partner Jess Orcsik (pictured together right), the daughter of Australian television royalty Paula Duncan and John Orcsik, created an online workshop called ‘Empowering The Artist’ to connect with others in the same position across the nation and globally
The entire industry has a tough few months ahead as the state finally emerges from a draconian lockdown which appears to have worked in stemming the spread of the deadly respiratory virus.
‘It’s going to be hard,’ she said.
‘A lot of actors were out of work just like that. I was lucky to have the work, but for a lot of the people on sets – everything from the people you see on screens through to the people who work behind-the-scenes – they lost everything quite suddenly’.
Melbourne’s entertainment industry was thriving before the pandemic, but many working actors and entertainers rely on side hustles, part time hospitality and retail work and other business ventures to get by.
When the second wave struck, they found themselves out of work, without a clue when they’d return – and for many, without government funding.
‘JobKeeper, JobSeeker, the government funding simply didn’t account for so many of these creatives,’ McLeod explained, referencing the stringent criteria which frustrated unions at the height of the pandemic.
Neighbours was also one of Liam Hemsworth’s (right) first roles, before he went on to land leading roles in America along with his brother, Chris
Robbie Ryde (pictured with partner Jess) said artists will always find a way to continue creating, but acknowledged that lockdown had challenged him
For Robbie Ryde, an Australian actor and producer who divides his time between Melbourne and Los Angeles, lockdown tested his mental health more than ever before
The industry has crawled out of lockdown and things are already looking promising, with productions getting underway again and several grants announced to create new content.
But there are still concerns that despite being one of the first impacted at the height of the pandemic, the entertainment sector will be one of the last to entirely recover.
Former Neighbours actress and Melbourne-based performer Kahli Williams said the Covid pandemic had changed the entire trajectory of her year.
She, too, was in Los Angeles searching for apartments when the Covid crisis drew her home to Melbourne, where she was thrust into a lockdown and forced out of work.
‘My part time marketing work ended up folding when the client had to make budget cuts… I was lucky my parents didn’t turn my old bedroom into a Pump and Pilates studio, Kath and Kim style, because I landed back with them for a few months,’ she said.
Three separate gigs for 2020 that Williams had shaped most of her year around were cancelled or postponed, but she has hope that a ‘recalibration is happening’ and that lockdown will have forced people to consider just how much they rely on the arts.
Mr Ryde had plans to relocate to Los Angeles, where Ms Orcsik lives, earlier this year, but the move was put on hold during the pandemic
‘Where would we have been without books, film, television and music? It seems ludicrous that we’ve structured our management of society such that we feel entitled to the art, but discard the artist.
‘Art shapes culture and inspires the soul of humanity, and I don’t see a future without it. So it has to bounce back.
‘I’d like to think that the stripping back of lifestyle has highlighted the importance of the arts toward culture and humanity… Australia has pulled through remarkably well, so perhaps that will entice more projects to our shores.’
For Robbie Ryde, an Australian actor and producer who divides his time between Melbourne and Los Angeles, lockdown tested his mental health more than ever before.
‘I just lost all motivation, that daily drive,’ he said. ‘I really had to go back to the drawing board.’
Mr Ryde said most artists in Australia are ‘experts at stretching the dollar’ and can ‘find a way to keep creating’ – which is exactly what eventually motivated him through lockdown, even as he didn’t qualify for JobKeeper or Jobseeker payments.
Former Neighbours actress and Melbourne-based performer Kahli Williams said the Covid pandemic had changed the entire trajectory of her year
He and his partner Jess Orcsik, the daughter of Australian television royalty Paula Duncan and John Orcsik, created an online workshop called ‘Empowering The Artist’ to connect with others in the same position across the nation and globally.
‘We’ve been forced to reconnect with the work and the love of the process, not the results,’ he said.
Mr Ryde had plans to relocate to Los Angeles, where Ms Orcsik lives, earlier this year, but the move was put on hold during the pandemic.
Now that restrictions are beginning to ease in Melbourne, he’s planning to make the move again, and said his plans for 2020 are to continue creating, no matter where he’s based.
Patrick Phillips, the City of Melbourne’s arts media officer, told Daily Mail Australia several extraordinary steps had already been taken to boost the arts sector.
Buskers will once again take to the streets of Melbourne’s CBD leading up to Christmas, $17 million has been put away for the arts budget for 2020/2021 and grants of up to $20,000 will be awarded for projects in 2021.
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Three separate gigs for 2020 that Williams had shaped most of her year around were cancelled or postponed, but she has hope that a ‘recalibration is happening’ and that lockdown will have forced people to consider just how much they rely on the arts