In her raw and honest autobiography, Soap Star, to be released on Friday, Charles also sheds light on shocking behaviour within the UK model industry in the early ‘90s, claiming she was sent for traction at the start of her career in an attempt to make her taller and was told “it is fingers down the throat time for you”, in reference to her weight. Charles, who played Ramsay Street sexpot Sarah Beaumont between 1996 and 1999 and again in 2013 and 2016, said she discovered the betrayal by her castmates when her six month probation ended in 1996 and she signed a new, longer, deal with the show.“I found out a handwritten letter was sent to the immigration department trying to make me lose my job,” Charles revealed, describing the action as a form of bullying.“I did know who they were, the individuals who did it, but I thought who goes to that length and what have I done to be disliked that much.“That experience coloured my relationships with everyone on the cast and crew because I kind of felt nervous about trusting anyone after that.“The producer, in my contract meeting, did tell me there had been quite a lot of resistance from certain members of the cast about me staying on board.“Within weeks I found out what he meant – that they had contacted the immigration department to try and get me removed from working in Australia.“My immigration lawyer said the complaint from two cast members on Neighbourswas that a British actor had been given a full-time role with the show, thus taking a job away from an Australian performer. “They had also told the department they had complained to Equity.“But the show employed me as a British actor. I was written into the show. There was no audition where loads of Aussies turned up and this Englishwoman got the job. “I did not take a role from a local actor because there was no role.”Charles also recalled being asked if she wanted a boob job.“I said, ‘thank you, but no.’Charles said Soap Star will tell the truth of the seemingly glamorous life she has lived rubbing shoulders with stars in London, Los Angeles and Australia and working on TV and film.“When I was on the film set of Muggers I was so bored I did actually sit there and think, ‘God, I miss the bitches on Neighbours’,” she said.In Soap Star she recalls horror moments as a young model in the UK in the early 90s including being put into traction at 19 to try and make her taller.“I am just under 5ft8in (176cm) and it was always frowned upon because 5ft9in (179cm) was the preferred height for models in the days just before Kate Moss,” Charles said.“My agents, they did everything, they sent me for traction. I got pulled this way and that in a doctor’s office to try and make me taller. “I remember one occasion where I was taken into a toilet with a Nigerian model who was 13-years-old and they got us to strip down to our underwear and they measured her leg length and her thigh width and my waist and her waist and her arms and my arms and her chest and my chest and they basically told me at the age of 19 I was too old, at the height of 5ft8in (176cm) I was too short, at the breast size of 34B my boobs were too big and they wanted me to have a breast reduction, and at the weight of 120 pounds (54kg) I was too fat.”She also said it was not uncommon to be told “it is fingers down the throat time for you,” referring to her weight.“I left that agency that measured me and went with a smaller agency and started to do TV commercials and absolutely kicked it,” she said.Charles moved to Australia around 1995 and quickly was signed by Neighbours.She said in her experience the show was not racist or homophobic, despite claims of such behaviour occurring on the set today.“Any show is a little city of people who are all very different and think differently,” she said.“I would say the show itself is pro everything. “With regards to racism and homophobia, if any of that has been someone’s experience, and I would not want to take away from their personal experience, it would definitely be with individuals and not the establishment of the show itself in my experience.”Soap Star is Charles’s third book.Follow the links at @nicolacharles66 to purchase Soap Star when it is released on Friday, April 16, 2021.fiona.byrne@news.com.au
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