The actress tells why 2010 is shaping up to be her best year ever as she takes on two new roles, on TV and in real life.
Kate Ritchie bats away a parasol as she stands in the sweltering heat for the Woman’s Day photoshoot. “Don’t worry about me,” she smiles. “I don’t want people to think I’m a diva and don’t even carry my own umbrella.”
Diva is the last word you’d use to describe Kate. She drives herself to the Woman’s Day shoot, happily poses for photos with the stream of fans who approach her with camera phones and chats excitedly about the fresh tuna she’s planning on cooking her husband-to-be for dinner.
But 2010 is the beginning of a new era for Kate. After two years working on the Nova 96.9 breakfast show, she’s ready to hit our screens again in her first major role since leaving Home And Away in December 2007.
Making the move to the Nine Network after more than two decades with Seven has the 31-year-old excited about the challenges that lie ahead, including playing the lead female role in Nine’s new police drama.
“The working title of the show is Cops LAC [Local Area Command] and I play a plain-clothes detective called Sam,” she says. “She’s a ground-roots type of woman.
“The show is sort of an upstairs-downstairs police drama. It’s all about how cops and detectives get along together. It’s really exciting. It’s a long time since I left Home and Away, so it’s great to think I’ll be working on a TV set regularly again.” Kate says playing Judi Kane in Underbelly convinced her to return to acting.
“It was Underbelly’s fault,” she laughs. “It felt so good and comfortable [being on set]. It’s nice to feel that acting is what I’m meant to do, not just something I did because I was taken to an audition as an eight-year old.
“There were many times [during Home And Away] I thought, ‘Why am I doing this? Is it just because it’s too hard to leave?’ It took being away from acting to realise how much I loved it.
“It’s great to be working with a new ‘family’. Everyone has been so welcoming and the excitement I feel is reciprocated. I can’t wait to work with different people and in a new environment. Learning new things is what it’s all about for me.”
Filming on the series will start in May, but for now Kate is enjoying a well-deserved rest after two years of dragging herself out of bed at 4am to be on the radio.
“It’s a brand new chapter for me,” she says.
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