Meeting Summer Bay's Amy Mathews!

Thoughtful, intelligent and kind, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Amy Mathews inhabiting the sturdy shoes of Summer Bay’s favourite doctor, Rachel Armstrong.

But despite one’s first assumptions, Amy explains there isn’t a huge amount of similarities between herself and the reliable Rachel. “I think we’re quite different. If I had more qualities of Rachel I think I’d be better off,” she laughs. “She’s very hard-working, but she’s very open. She has positivity and an optimism that never gets shaken - sometimes I think that I’m a bit cynical!”

The next few weeks of life in Summer Bay will be the most trying yet for the good doctor, as she slides into a drug and alcohol-fuelled depression, following a tragic chopper crash which may have claimed five lives including that of her fiancé, Kim Hyde. Only days before the helicopter went down – a patient transfer Rachel herself organised to treat burns victims from the explosion at Jack and Martha’s wedding – Kim and Rachel were set to move to New York, a newly engaged couple deeply in love. Now he, Robbie, Martha, Kit and Belle may be dead. We asked Amy how she prepares herself for such emotionally intense storylines.

“A lot of it is general empathy - what would you do in these situations, thinking your partner is dead,” Amy explains. “It is tricky to handle that big epic stuff - you do have to do it with a sense of realism and respect, otherwise it can look a bit naff. It does take a lot of work. It’s emotionally draining - at the end of the day you’re just wrecked.”

In her downfall we see Rachel’s humanity. But despite the exhausting nature of the performance, Amy welcomes the challenge. “It’s really good to have really great storylines, all the twists and turns that each character has to endure,” she enthuses. “It’s always surprising and there’s always new challenges thrown into it.”

After her dramatic introduction to the Bay at the beginning of this season, Rachel’s kind heart and friendly face has fast become favourite fixture of the show. It’s a full circle for Amy, scoring a role on the show whose stars she used to rub shoulders with while attending horse camps as a young girl! “I was on a camp at a place called Jackaroo Ranch in Kenthurst and everyone was filming Home and Away!” she smiles. “I met Craig McLahlan and Dannii Minogue. I was pretty jazzed about that.”

From being a fan to having fans… When asked what she attributes the huge fanbase of the show to, Amy names its longevity and consistency, as well as the way the storylines are dealt with – they don’t go on for too long and they’re not wrapped up too quickly. “We can take people along on the journey with us, there isn’t that sense of separation,” she says. “And the acting. You can’t go into it thinking, ‘I want to be likeable or personable’ but the casting do a really great job in that everyone who works on the show are really lovely, charismatic, professional people.”

Lovely? Charismatic? Professional? Sounds like Summer Bay to us! So finally what’s Amy’s fave thing about the Bay itself? “It’s good that it’s always sunny.”