Smooth Criminal - Westside's Jessica Steals The Show

The wild family has a new Cheryl to play with

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Some may think actress Jessica Grace Smith would be feeling the heat as Westside’s newest Cheryl West, but she is no stranger to a challenge.

As the third actress to take on the iconic Kiwi character, Dannevirke-born Jessica thinks of it more as preservation than pressure when it comes to portraying the Westie matriarch.

“You know she’s a loved character, so I was very careful to just make sure that I was coming from my own point of view and not trying to copy what Robyn Malcolm or Ashleigh Cummings did,” explains Jessica. “There’s always the anticipation of how the audience is going to respond to it, but because the series did a kind of time jump, it felt like it was pretty seamless.”

Jessica is based in Sydney with her partner, former Shortland Street star Benedict Wall, 35, but the ex-Home and Away actress is loving a reason to be home in New Zealand.