~*~ZaRa~*~
Zara Morgan aka Kelly Greenwood
What were you doing before you joined HOLLYOAKS? Acting, mainly. I was at school and I began acting when I was about 13. I started in a series called Children’s Ward, and then I did Heartbeat and The Cops. After that I got the audition for HOLLYOAKS and got the part, although originally I went up for the role of Beth Morgan, but I looked too young so they called me back to read for the part of Zara.
Were you nervous about taking on the role? I wasn’t really that nervous because I’ve done quite a few things before. I think the only thing that worried me was that it was like a sort of family. Everyone was mates and I had to try and fit into this group of mates, but it was quite easy in the end.
Is Zara a “typical” teenage girl? In some ways yes and in some ways no. She’s a bit more rebellious than a typical teenager. My sister is Zara’s age, so I sort of based the character of Zara on her - she’s 15. She’s a Goth as well which is a bit strange (she’s just had her lip pierced!) I think Zara gets into more trouble, but if she were just a normal teenager then it wouldn’t be anything exciting for the viewers to watch.
A lot of Zara’s storylines seem to be separate from the rest of the main HOLLYOAKS plots...Well, the programme can’t really do much with Zara in relation to a lot of the other characters because she’s a lot younger than them – she’s only 15 and most of them are 18 or 19 plus. Sometimes I prefer to do scenes with other characters, but now they’ve brought in more characters of Zara’s age like Brian and Abby it is getting a lot better, and its nice to have our own sort of little group or gang.
Becks Crosby from the Northeast asked: “ Zara has recently gone through a lot of ‘personality changes’. Who decided to turn her into a Goth?” It was “upstairs” (the HOLLYOAKS production team) that turned me into a Goth – thank you very much! She’s had a lot of image changes, rather than personality changes, but she’s growing up; because at that age you grow up so quickly.
Finally, what are your plans for the future? I’m gonna stay in HOLLYOAKS for a bit – if they’ll have me! Just sort of learn a bit more before hopefully going off to do other things.