BARRY'S LITTLE GIRL BECOMES A DAUGHTER

Tessa Humphries is much prettier than her dad although she isn't as famous yet as Dame Edna Everage. Not yet anyway.

Fans of Channel 7's soap Sons and Daughters have just been introduced to Tessa. She made her television debut in the serial last Sunday in the role of Mary Reynolds who claims to be the long-lost daughter of Pat the Rat.

Meanwhile, her dad, satirist Barry Humphries, is preparing for his new stage show Tears Before Bedtime which opens at Her Majesty's next month.

Despite his busy rehearsing schedule Humphries managed to catch Tessa's first appearance in the serial.

But says Tessa: "I did a lot of screaming in the first episode but not a lot of acting."

She says he is supportive of her decision to go into acting but how much influence on her he has been she is uncertain.

"He's not in Australia a lot. He's glad but he didn't try to sway me either way really. I can't say whether he has been an influence or not," she said.

"He's into the world of illusion really and whenever he came back to Australia he would take my sister and me to Luna Park and also supplied us with magic tricks. And I guess acting is a bit like magic."

Tessa is Humphries' daughter by his first marriage to Rosalind Hollindrake. They separated when Tessa was six and she stayed with her mother.

"I saw him on and off through the years and he made a big impact on me when I saw him," she said.

"But it's hard to say how close you are when you have a parent who travels a lot. In some ways I think we really understand each other."

She added laughing: "But it's a sort of silent communication. We know we're there, somewhere in the world he's there and he knows I'm here and it's like that really.

They have acted together - in the film The Getting of Wisdom - but, says Tessa, she was only an extra. "It was just standing up and sitting down for a couple of days," she added.

Originally she was interested in music and dancing. She started dancing classes when she was six, studying classical, jazz, tap-dancing - "and belly dancing" - but eventually decided acting was what she wanted to do.

She attended Melbourne's St. Martin's Youth Theatre for three years, appearing in two of its major productions. A year ago she moved from Melbourne to Sydney.

Her first television work was in the pilot for a series called Outback (which could yet go into a series) and soon after began work on Sons and Daughters.

Originally she was to be in the serial for three months but that has now been extended for another month.

In between acting, she has worked at a variety of jobs. "I have worked in a factory, two French cake shops, and as a waitress and a barmaid," she said.

"I've done a lot of different jobs but it has been good. They have me an idea what it's like in different positions in life - and also showed me which jobs I didn't want to do for the rest of my life!"

 

By: Unknown
Source: Sun Herald
Date: Unknown