Shorty confession - I WISH CARLA WAS NICE!

ELISABETH IS SO CONVINCING, EVEN HER SON SAYS SHE’S NOT HIS MUM

- Rebekah Hebenton

From the moment Elisabeth Easther returned to Shortland Street, fans of the Kiwi soap have been waiting on tenterhooks to see her character Carla’s evil plans play out.

And this week her reign of terror comes to a head with most of the residents of Ferndale under the murderer-turned-therapist’s malevolent spell.

“She does resort to a modest amount of violence,” laughs the Auckland-based actress. ”Actually, quite a serious amount of violence. She’s bad.”

While Elisabeth, 50, admits it’s fun to play “a complete and utter nutbar”, she confesses it was at times difficult to carry out Carla’s litany of gruesome deeds.

And during the shooting of this week’s dramatic episodes – in which Carla’s mayhem reaches a shocking crescendo – the scenes were particularly disturbing to act out.

“It took some digging deep,” confesses the mum-of-one. “And to make matters more complex, it was the last day of the America’s Cup. When you’re shooting on location, just one helicopter flying past can be complicated, but we had seven overhead virtually the whole time, so it was a memorable day for lots of reasons.”

Elisabeth was only 25 when she first appeared on Shorty and being fresh out of acting school, she wasn’t well equipped to leave the conniving Carla and her disastrous life behind at the end of the workday – something she didn’t quite realise at the time.