Robyn's party jitters 'IT'S MY SCARIEST ROLE YET!'

Why this harrowing drama means everything to the star

- Wendyl Nissen

Actors don't usually get to create their own roles. Instead, as our very own Robyn Malcolm will tell you, they turn up and do their best to interpret someone else's vision for their character.

But all that has changed for Robyn now that she has co-created the tense drama After the Party, which is receiving rave reviews after its first episodes screened on TVNZ 1.

"I've never had an experience like this where you sit down with a we friend and create something fresh together that I can portray," says Robyn.

"We knew we wanted to put a woman in her fifties at the centre of it. And we knew we wanted to make sure she was somebody that we've not seen on screen before." Robyn co-created the drama with her friend, screenwriter Dianne Taylor.

The pair created the character of Penny, who is brave but wretched, strong but fallible and beautiful but wrinkled, and never seems to brush her hair. In other words, a realistic woman in her fifties.

"When we were writing Penny, we knew what we wanted and then we decided to look around at our friends for inspiration," she laughs.

"I'm not saying for a minute any of our friends are Penny, but I think older women are super-interesting, because they've got history. And we talked a lot about that and what happens if there's a bit in your past where the shame of it has completely driven the next bit of your life." In Penny's case, she claims en are her ex-husband Phil did something so terrible, he should have been arrested, but no one really believes her.

Especially when he returns from exile in Scotland and moves in with their daughter Grace and grandson Walt, charming and cajoling his way back into the community.