WENTWORTH STAR LEAH 'I FELT SO STRONG!'

The Aussie acting legend talks love, leeches, lifting weights and her new series High Country

On the set of any TV drama, it's up to the lead actor to set the tone. On High Country, that was Leah Purcell. So when cast and crew started "freaking out" about leeches falling on them from the trees just a couple of days into filming in the rugged mountains north of Melbourne, the star remained calm.

"Leeches have a heat radar, so they actually feel you out and zoom down," she explains. "They were coming from above and below.

People would take off their masks and there'd be leeches under them, but I thought, 'I'm just going to be cool and calm everyone down."

Then, as Leah, 53, was stepping over a log, she felt something squash against her thigh.

"I swore loudly and crudely, running out of the bush, telling all the boys, 'Turn around! I've got a leech in a place you don't want to see!' Mate, they're mongrel little things."

Leah wasn't expecting the leeches when she signed on for High Country. But she did know that filming the eight-part mystery thriller "the biggest moment in my career, number one on the call sheet, the show written for me" - would be a challenge.