Antonia takes control AT LAST I'M CALLING THE SHOTS

The actress is pushing the boundaries to give the 'creepiest' performance of her career

- Wendyl Nissen

When you talk to women who juggle a career with raising children, they don’t always want a medal for it or to be referred to as a superwoman. They love what they do, as hard as it is, and there is always another project on the go. Westside actor Antonia Prebble is one of those women.

At the moment, she is appearing on our popular soap Shortland Street as the nasty televangelist Rebekah Anderson.

One reviewer has described her character as “fabulously creepy”.

“I’ll take that,” laughs Antonia, between takes at the Shorty studios. “It’s super fun.”

Antonia explains that when Shortland Street producers first approached her to play Rebekah, one of the big reasons she wanted to take the job was because the role was so fabulous. “You just don’t get opportunities to play characters like this very often in your career,” she says. “Rebekah is in the show to shake things up. I knew it would be really juicy and really fun.”

Before Christmas, Rebekah beat youth pastor Scott Lawson to death with a fire extinguisher, which she says is “hands down the most gruesome thing I’ve ever done in my career, including throughout the six seasons of Outrageous Fortune and six seasons of Westside! Shortland Street is really pushing my boundaries.”

But behind Antonia’s decision to take up her first acting role on Shorty was the need to make sure she could see her children, three-and-a-half-year-old Freddie and one-and-a-half-year-old Gus every day.