Baring her soul for The Strip

By FIONA RAE

The Strip, the local series which has audaciously combined as many near-naked guys as is possible in prime time with a story about female empowerment, begins its second season on Tuesday.

In the battle to win our eyeballs, the show's producers, the Gibson Group, went directly for our groins. But, of course, the show isn't really about the near-naked guys at all. It's about the (mostly) clothed women, specifically Melissa (Luanne Gordon), a corporate lawyer who dumps her job and opens a male strip joint, her daughter Paige and her best friend, the saucy, er, uninhibited Kathryn.

Auckland actor Jodie Rimmer plays Kathryn, whose on-screen sexual exploits have invited comparison with Sex and the City's Samantha. Rimmer says she can see how the comparison could be made, but Kathryn's not really like her.

"I think she'd have a really nice time out drinking with Samantha, but she's not as outrageous as her, definitely not."

Kathryn has been challenging and fun to play, says Rimmer. "She doesn't have too many hang-ups and judgments and she's a free spirit and there's something really nice about playing someone like her."

Rimmer does admit she became slightly bored towards the end of season one of The Strip when it seemed like just more of the same antics from Kathryn. Season two, however, is a different story. A whole new story for Kathryn, actually.

"The writers have gifted me some beautiful storylines and she has a real journey and we discover a lot more dimension and depth to Kathryn, so it was great for me as an actor to have that journey to actually flesh her out."

So what is it? She discovers a long-lost twin? A cancer scare? She loses a limb? Oh no, worse than that.

"She meets someone who she actually wants to be in a re-re-re-relationship with. The r-word. That's really full on for her. She has to deal with cohabitation and love for the first time."

Perhaps even more audaciously, The Strip is set in Wellington, which has meant a six-month trip to the capital twice for Aucklander Rimmer. But the girl born and raised in Devonport and now living in Grey Lynn had no problem fitting in.

"That was one of the best things about the job for me. I got put up in an apartment, got paid well, met lots and lots of great people. I was living just off Cuba Mall, so it was the whole walk everywhere, bars 30 seconds away from your front door thing.

"Probably after about six months you get a bit, 'Oh, it's a bit small here', the whole village thing, but I had a great time."

You could almost call Rimmer a veteran, having started drama at 10. That's 19 years of appearing in a variety of productions, including the films I'll Make You Happy and Snakeskin (where she played the stoner Daisy), plus Shortland Street and a year-long stint on Young Hercules playing the feisty Lilith, a girl who trained alongside Herc and Iolaus.

Her biggest near-Hollywood break was an Aaron Spelling pilot called Forbidden Island which was filmed here and could have gone into series production, had it been picked up. She's glad now it wasn't.

"It was that whole crossroads thing, I could be in Florida right now with a whole bunch of people making this crap show, but I'm really glad I'm not."

Hollywood doesn't interest her. Even Australia, where there may be more work, isn't on the list. Rimmer is a dedicated Kiwi.

"I actually just love living in New Zealand so much. I love my lifestyle here, I'm such a New Zealand fan. I just couldn't stomach Australia. And I certainly don't have enough interest in going to the States at all. Good on those guys, but there are so many people over there doing it, that I just wouldn't bother.

"I really, really love working, but I actually don't have the burning ambition to really be a star. I love having money and I love the actual process of shooting stuff, but if that stuff never actually went to air, it would be great for me, I wouldn't care. It's not for me about getting recognition, it's for me in the moment of doing the scene, that's my buzz."

Her dedication also extends to New Zealand music. When she calls for the interview she says she's been listening to The Strip CD and I don't think it's a marketing ploy. "I'm a total New Zealand music freak."

Her last roles were appearing in two short films in the 48 Hour Film Project, which was part of the Beck's Incredible Film Fest.

Teams pulled a genre from a hat and then made a film over the weekend of June 6-8. Both of Rimmer's films, a musical western (true) and a romance are in the final on July 6.

But currently she's cooling her heels waiting for the next job. She's not even much of a party girl these days ("I'm getting past that party thing, I'm getting old") and says she has a lot of quiet time where it's just "me wandering about the house listening to music" or walking the dog in her ugg boots.

She is passionate about cricket, goes to test matches alone so no one will bother her by talking, and has lately been getting into riding a friend's motocross bike.

"I'm the sort of person who needs to have lots of different things in my life."