From working as an extra at the start of her teenage years to playing Summer Bay’s most manipulative mother, Holly Brisley has worked all manner of roles in between.
Sometimes it’s the parents who are the driving force in a young actor’s career, but in the case of Holly, she’s had her hands on the steering wheel (and a foot on the accelerator) right from the word ‘Go’.
“It was so funny, I just knew that acting was what I wanted to do, so I kept hassling Mum. My parents were of the opinion that if you really wanted to do something enough it would happen, so they would make sure they were available to take me to auditions.”
Holly led the way when it came to following her dream, but she acknowledges the help her parents gave her.
“My parents did have a role to play in the fact that I would never have been able to get to the auditions myself, so it would never have happened if Mum hadn’t helped in that way, but it was me driving it pretty much.”
Holly first started acting when she 13, becoming involved in theatre and working as an extra. Two years later, she managed to score a supporting role in the films ‘Official Denial’ and ‘The Flood’. As Holly confides, “That was pretty major for me, I think I was still in Year 10 at that stage.”
Her continued commitment to auditioning paid off when at 16 she landed the role of presenter on the national children’s show, ‘Agro’s Cartoon Connection’. Having never even done presenting before, Holly was very much thrown off the deep end.
“It was just a real sink-or-swim situation. It was like, ‘You’re now on national television’. I remember being scared and so nervous – there was a live audience – but it was the best training ground you could hope for.”
Working on a daily children’s show whilst still at school made for some very busy times. Holly would go to school four days a week and would then shoot five episodes of Agro in a single day! She had to combine studying for exams with preparing segments for a show that won seven consecutive Logies for Most Popular Children's Program.
But does Holly feel like she still got the full high school experience?
“Yeah, but I can’t say my mind was always on the job (laughs). I was working pretty hard and I missed out on quite a lot of stuff like schoolies week and you know, sometimes kids would call out ‘Agro’, but I didn’t feel like I was there enough for it to bother me because I was working a lot. Looking back I could not have had a better working experience that young.”
After finishing school and spending a year in Brisbane, Holly moved to Sydney for ‘Agro’s’ final season. With her gig of the last three years now finished and living away from family and friends, Holly’s commitment to performing was tested.
“It was very hard for me being down in Sydney by myself going ‘OK, well, what’s next?’ So I ended up doing a bit of regional television and it was pretty hard for a few years. I did some promotional work and I worked in a shop part-time for a while, but I kept up my acting courses and I was always working. There’s never really been a time when I haven’t had any work, but obviously to survive I had to keep doing other things to pay the bills.”
Before eventually landing in Summer Bay, Holly appeareded in ‘All Saints’, ‘White Collar blue’, ‘Pizza’ and presented on ‘The Looney Tunes Show’ and ‘Escape with ET’. She also had roles in ‘Scooby Doo’ and ‘Garage Days’, played Heather Locklear in ‘Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure’ and won ‘Best Actress - Feature Film' at the New York Film & Video Festival for her portrayal of ‘Geraldine’ in the Australian film ‘The Crop’.
Ask Holly what her career highlight has been and she’ll tell you how appearing on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ was an amazing experience and how winning that ‘Best Actress’ award was pretty good, but what she feels most proud of is when she’s able to take her acting to another level.
“Just this week I feel like I’ve hit another milestone. I’ve pushed my acting a bit further doing a lot of raw, emotional scenes and that was an achievement.”
When she’s not working hard at her craft, Holly enjoys spending time with her husband and their friends. “I love just hanging out on the harbour or going for walks. We’re very social, this weekend we’ve got about twenty people coming over for a barbecue, so I’m going to spend tomorrow preparing for that. Went to the snow last week. Love skiing. We try to get away as much as we can.”
And her advice for any aspiring young actors out there?
“Don’t let anyone talk you out of it.”
By Michael Hugill
