She’s gone from Australian Idol to Uber driving, and eventually winning I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Outta Here!
But now Casey Donovan is giving acting a go in Street Smart – a new comedy starring Fat Pizza creators Tahir Bilgic and Rob Shehadie that centres around a gang of wannabe crims constantly having run-ins with a parking officer.
As for where Casey fits in, well, she’s Tia – the probationary parking officer around town.
NW chats to the star about her new gig.
Casey Donovan is back on our screens – this time, giving acting a go.
This is your first time doing TV acting. Was it a challenge?
Casey: It’s been a great experience, and I’ve had a great time filming and learning new tricks of the trade and what goes on behind the scenes. It will be a bit odd going back to normal life. It’s definitely an exciting and interesting new avenue.
I kind of went into it just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and took everything on board. It’s been a lot of fun.
Was it harder than you expected?
Casey: I didn’t put any expectations on it. Some days are quite challenging – just long days and getting into the rhythm of getting up early and going home late but it’s been great.
READ NEXT: Casey Donovan opens up about her incredible weight loss.
Casey and Rob Shehadie have each other’s backs in the show.
It’s your first time doing comedy, too. Is it hard to be funny? We’re assuming it’s not as easy as it looks!
Casey: You kind of just read the page and try and get a feel for it and then on the day the director says: “How bout you try it like this?”
There is a little thing of trying to put your own spin on it. I don’t know what’s funny. Sometimes people laugh, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes you’ve done a scene that many times that you’re like: “Is it still funny?” [Laughs.]
Do you think this could be a whole new career for you? Could you see yourself doing it again?
Casey: Oh, definitely. It’s something I’ve wanted to get into for a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and loved going to work every day and learning new things. Yeah, it was just a lot of fun.
Would you ever try your hand at becoming a soap star – like on Home and Away or Neighbours?
Casey: Look, I don’t know [laughs]. If the opportunity arises, then sure, that’d be great. But working with these guys – Rob and Tahir – and all the cast and crew are so creative and it’s a lot of fun. It really is a big family and there’s no stress which is really, really nice.
Did they give you a few pointers? Cause they’re funny guys…
Casey: Yeah, some of the scenes we shoot, I mean Tia, my character [a parking officer] has some one-liners and then some days she gets some big bits of chunky script and they give you little pointers to breathe and “Maybe do this or do that” and you kind of go “Oh, I never thought of it like that or looked at it like that”. Everyone was helping each other, which was nice.
We read that you’d put your hand up for The Bachelorette – have producers approached you? And were you serious?
Casey: [Laughs] Look, I don’t know. I don’t know if I want my love life out in the world. I haven’t much thought about it to be honest, I’ve been too busy.
So it’s not a no then?
Casey: Oh, look, you know, I’ll leave that to your discretion.
Are you planning to do more music, or is acting your focus now?
Casey: Oh look, music – that’s my baby! That’s my passion and the one thing I love to do, and the opportunity to branch out and do acting or musical theatre is great but music is always the one thing I try to come back to.
I’d love to get back into the studio soon and try and knock out an album and see what happens. I’m not really sure what’s happening next for me [laughs].
Do you have some ideas for the next album?
Casey: There’s always a few ideas in the back of my mind. But I try to focus on what I’m doing right now. I like to live in the moment. We’ll see what happens when we get there.
Street Smart premieres 8pm Sunday August 5 on Ten.
For more exclusive interviews, pick up a copy of this week’s NW!
