DEDICATION PAYS OFF FOR ALYCE
TV beauty worked hard for stardom

At an early age, Alyce Platt, who plays fickle Amanda Morrell in the Seven Network's Sons and Daughters, set her sights on becoming an entertainer.

Now just 20, Alyce has achieved her goals through sheer hard work.

A former singer in a middle-of-the-road rock band, model and entertainer in Daryl Somers' Hey, Hey It's Saturday! and Hey, Hey It's Saturday Night!, Alyce scored her first professional acting role in Sons and Daughters one year ago.

"I was so excited when I got the part of Amanda because acting was what I'd been working to achieve and it finally happened," she said. "I'd been auditioning for TV and film roles for over two years and always was one of the final few but never the one chosen."

Alyce will never forget her first day on the set of Sons and Daughters.

Besides being absolutely terrified, she was so embarrassed because in her first four scenes she had to wear only a black bra and panties. Furthermore, she had to kiss co-star Peter Phelps.

"That was all I wore!" she exclaimed. "Nothing else! Everybody felt so sorry for me and sympathised with me and helped me. Peter and I had to appear in our underwear, but Peter was lucky - he was required to put on a shirt after only one scene.

"Kissing him was embarrassing and the floor manager that day played a prank on us. Instead of calling out 'cut', he let the kissing scene continue until eventually I called out 'stop'.

"I was so nervous I can't remember what Peter's kiss was like. I think he was a little bit nervous too because I was new in the cast.

"I'd appeared in a kissing scene on stage but I wasn't surrounded by men standing about and sitting at tables.

"I thought they were there to either just have a good look or to judge my performance. I didn't know they were lighting and stage guys!"

Since her terror-stricken start in television, Alyce has come a long way.

"Basically, I'm more confident now because I know what I'm doing, but I always ask the opinions of directors because I want to learn and improve," she said.

One aspect of becoming a celebrity which Alyce finds hard to handle is being recognised in the street.

"I think it's nice when people come up to me and want to talk, but I feel sorry I can't reciprocate as much as they'd like because I'm shy," she said.

"It's weird how some people come up to me and say: 'Hi, I know you! I saw you the other night.'

"To think they're so familiar with my face that they're so excited to see me, yet I don't know them, is strange. And the fact that they know me as Amanda and not Alyce is an uncanny situation."

Alyce, who has an English father, a chef, Australian mother and two older brothers, 26 and 23, has always had family support in her quest for a career in showbusiness.

At three, she sang and danced in stage plays at home in a make-shift theatre in a garage. She used to ask all her uncles and aunties to come and watch what she was doing and involve all of the other kids around her area.

"My mother was a great influence on my career," she said. "She would have liked to have done what I'm doing so she has put all her energies into getting me where I am today."

After leaving school, Alyce sang with a rock band at night, for a year-and-a-half, and during the day attended theatre workshops and went for auditions.

Alyce's ambition is to land a singing-acting role.

 

By: Unknown
Source: TV Week
Date: 9 June 1984