TV Week, 24/10/98

Murder Call's Lucy Bell and Jennifer Kent have known each other for close to a decade. They've studied acting together, toured the theatre circuit together and even lived together. We sat them down and asked them to talk about each other.

Jennifer

We met in NIDA. It is very competitive and our industry is very competitive but that's one of those things we've never experienced in our friendship. We don't look the same, we don't have the same skills or the same qualities, so we're not going for the same roles.

I don't underestimate the fact that that probably has something to do with why our friendship is so strong. If we were both blonde, looked the same and were trying for the same roles, perhaps it would be more difficult to not get jealous or not get competitive.

Lucy has been a friend of mine now for nine years and so I can't really remember what it was about her that first drew us together. I know the qualities I like about her now, though.

All I can say is that she's been a good friend to me. She's sweet and all the things people say she is, but she's also intelligent and has a sense of humour few people ever see. I think her humour is one of her strongest and most beautiful qualities. I'm privileged enough to see that.

The thing I love about my friendship with Lucy is that we get to work together, but we also get to relax together where there's no pressure to be gorgeous or glamorous or lovely.

I think Lucy has this humour... this vibrant side. She's this beautiful and glamorous young woman on screen all the time, but she can be as rough and rugged and Aussie as the rest of us. She's as rude as I am. All I can say is that she's not as sweet and nice as people think she is. She's the one with all the rude nun jokes.

She's also a wonderful listener and honest. One of the things that keeps our friendship alive through the years is support. We get along anyway, but there's a real support for each other. We care for each other and look out for each other. We make each other laugh and we can be stupid with each other. Stupidity cannot be underestimated.

When we get together we have several different modes we can go into. We can either be very silly and very stupid, or we can be quite intense. It depends on what's happening in our lives at the time. I ask for advice a lot and I hope that I'm a good listener when Lucy needs me, too.

I've got probobly three close female friends in the world, and Lucy is one of them. There are people you can get sick of, but it's never like that with Lucy.

Lucy

We met in 1989. It was our first year of NIDA and our first day. I remember Jenny, this girl from Brisbane, wearing a bright green t-shirt and she had long flowing red hair. I though, there's Meryl Streep.

We didn't become instant friends. Everyone was terribly nervous and overwhelmed in the first few weeks, and there was another girl from Brisbane that Jenny stuck together with. Also, for the first term there were two groups, and we weren't in the same one.

We didn't get to know each other well until later, when the whole year got together and did a pantomime. We thought it was hysterically funny and brilliant. I played a little old Scottish man, a mastermind of evil. Jenny was an evil character as well. She was in a wheelchair, which she mimed.

That's where I realised Jen's talent. She didn't need any props!

We were friends from very early on, but it wasn't until after NIDA that we became really close. We were both in the Bell Shakespeare Company and toured together.

We have a great friendship and it's really nice to have someone familar here on the set. Jen's studying shiatsu massage, so that's pretty nice, too. When I have a big day I'm like, "Please, can you practice on me?"

The nicest thing about having someone you know well on set is that when I get a bit stressed and overworked I know there's someone there who can help to put it all into some perspective for me and someone I can have a bit of a laugh with. Gary (Day, who plays Inspector Malcolm Thorne) is always calling it 'maiden's chatter', because we sit in a corner and carry on a lot.

We also share a lot of mutual friends, so we can back each other up about how hard we're working. One can call someone up and say I'm really busy, and the other one will say "You know, she really is very busy and is working very hard."

We never get sick of each other. It's a fantastic friendship because we can be brutally honest with each other and be forthright if something comes up.

I don't really know how best to describe her. She is very funny and down to earth. She's very grounded, wise and good natured. She's talented and gorgeous. What else can I say?

As a friend she's wonderful. She always listens and is there, and her humour is brilliant. It's a really necessary thing when you're tired and working hard.

We lived together for a while a few years ago. It was good because our lives were sort of in a certain synchronicity. We were both at the end of a long tour and were both feeling homey and nesty. We also met our boyfriends at the same time, so we could rave about that to each other without boring anyone else.

Lots of friendships fall into patterns of behaviour, but I think one of the reasons ours is so healthy is because it keeps changing. There was a day a couple of months ago when I was so tired and Jen gave me a massage and it was brilliant. Another day Jen will be feeling a bit low and I'll help her out. I think we're good for each other.

We see each other a lot and talk a lot at the moment because we work together and I'm sure that will change to some degree when we're not on the show anymore. But I think we'll work together again. We might have to make something for us to do!

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