It’s been a big year for actress Kerry Armstrong. Celebrating her 60th birthday, braving the jungle for I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! and now joining iconic soap Neighbours, things certainly aren’t slowing down. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve never for one second imagined that age has anything to do with me working or not,” Kerry tells TV WEEK.
“The thing about acting is that there’s no use-by date, because we’re telling the story of human beings, and most of them don’t die at 30.”
Kerry Armstrong has joined the cast of Neighbours.
In fact, Kerry wants to see more women her age on our screens.
“That’s the weird thing about Australia − we have this lack of Helen Mirrens and Judi Denches,” she explains.
“There are so many wonderful actresses who have disappeared from the Australian public, like Helen Morse and Sandy Gore, Kate Fitzpatrick. Where are all the 70-year-olds?”
Kerry Armstrong with Fiona O’Loughlin and Bernard Tomic on I’m A Celeb.
The AACTA and TV WEEK Logie Award winner was thrilled to play villain Alice when she joined the cast of Neighbours.
“She’s one of the most intricate and well-thought-out characters I’ve ever seen or played,” Kerry says. “I feel really lucky and blessed.”
Filmed in the same location as one of her first major TV roles − as Lynn Warner in Prisoner − the actress instantly felt at home on the Neighbours set.
“The crew working on Neighbours was working with me when we were teenagers, 40 years ago for Prisoner,” Kerry recalls.
“The first day [of shooting], I was remembering the girls entering as prisoners and I thought, ‘This is like a homecoming.'”
TV vet Kerry played Lynn Warner in Prisoner in 1979.
Neighbours airs weeknights, 6pm, on Eleven.
