By LOUISA CLEAVE
A close bond between actors playing siblings may not always be necessary, but it helps.
Jacksons Wharf newcomers Sara Wiseman and Emmeline Hawthorne found the family ties already in place when they started work on the second series of the local soap.
Rebecca Priest (Wiseman) and her younger sister Hannah (Hawthorne), victims of a shipwreck, were washed up on the show two weeks ago from Sydney.
In the storyline, Rebecca had fled her dishonest husband and a pile of debts, and taken Hannah with her.
The younger Priest is an opinionated city girl upset about being ripped out of her cosmopolitan lifestyle for life in a hick country town.
It is clear that the closeness shared by the characters on screen extends to Wiseman and Hawthorne, who had come to know each other before starting work on the series. Wiseman had studied acting under Hawthorne's father, Raymond, at the Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts, and Emmeline had seen her perform in plays at the school.
The connection gave the pair a head start working together on Jacksons Wharf, which has given Hawthorne her first television role, and provided Wiseman - who played aggressive journalist Louise Jarvis on Street Legal - with her second high-profile television part this year.
Hawthorne, who is just 19 but has been acting in theatre for more than four years, credits Wiseman for helping her through her first experience on the small screen.
"Sara was someone who really grounded my work, because it [television] is so fast."
The praise gets pretty gushy from there, leading to Wiseman and Hawthorne sharing what must be described as "a moment" between actors.
Hawthorne, who followed her father, mother (Elizabeth) and sister (Sophia) into the acting business, is as theatrical in person as you would expect her to be in her work on stage and screen.
It is hard to imagine her being nervous about anything, but she insists that filming Jacksons had that effect on her.
"I felt like I had no top lip and I was frowning and hunched forward or something," she laughs.
Hawthorne says the Jacksons production was like a "crash course" in television, filmed rapidly without the luxury of lengthy rehearsals that stage actors are accustomed to.
In contrast, Wiseman made her acting debut with a part in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures and has since featured in short films (winning a best actress award this year for Letters About the Weather), as well as stage plays and television (Shortland Street, Hercules and Xena).
Did she offer Hawthorne any telly tips?
"No, she did fine."
Hawthorne accuses Wiseman of being modest.
"I did need it! It's the really basic things that you miss, that you don't get when you first start, like finding the camera over someone's shoulder!"
Wiseman, who's also a dancer and sportswoman, is taking part on an Outward Bound course and says she has no immediate acting plans she can talk about right now.
Hawthorne is spending time watching her father direct a new play and learning about another side of the business.
Jacksons Wharf, her first acting job in almost two years, was an affirming experience, she says.
"It gave me the opportunity I needed to have a bit more courage in myself.
"I was never quite sure whether it was given to me or whether I'm actually good at it."
TV: Mutual admiration club between two Jacksons Wharf newcomers
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