Dream role for Matylda Buczko

Matylda Buczko is stroppy surf chick Mink Carpenter on Home and Away.

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Winter was just winding down when gorgeous Australian actress Matylda Buczko landed a dream role as stroppy surf chick Mink Carpenter on Home and Away.

Buczko, 23,  was thrilled to get the part but she wasn’t so keen on the bikini scenes. She hit the gym, particularly the rowing machine and weights, so she’d be passable as pro surfer Mink. But she still felt self-conscious.

“Oh my goodness, it was awful, because you know, it was just coming out of winter and you have those winter kilos on. I mean, not only being in the bikini, but shivering in a bikini at 6.30 in the morning on a beach, trying to look warm and tanned.”

Buczko happily tells us she had a bit of a nightmare in the surfing scenes, too.
Co-star Luke Mitchell, who plays Mink’s brother Romeo Smith, urged her to get surfing lessons before they shot a scene out on the water.

“I said, you know, ‘I’ve got a surfing double, I’m not actually surfing. How hard can it be to sit on a surfboard?’

“It is really hard. It was slipping out from under me, it kept on sinking...”
She groans. And although her legions of fans will no doubt forgive Buczko’s real-life surfing struggles, she says she cringed when she watched the scene.

“All I could see was myself, furiously kicking my legs under water and just trying to stay upright and get the lines out.”

Buczko initially auditioned for a part as a rock chick on the soap, and thought she’d failed miserably when she looked around at her competitors, who all had black hair and black clothes.
But she was called back to read for Mink, who arrives in Summer Bay as Romeo’s mysterious sister, a top surfer who has just got out of juvy for an unknown crime. That suits Buczko just fine.
“I always said, if I ever did Home and Away, I’d love to have a character who was a bit of a stirrer. I like to cause trouble, and I’m a bit firey and fiesty at times, and I do like to have a bit of mischief in my life.”

Mink’s hot, with plenty of sass and street smarts, and maybe even a soft heart under her bad-girl exterior. And she seems to be getting a lot of attention from Xavier – despite his mum Gina Austin’s best efforts to keep the pair apart.

Mink’s already had a full-on confrontation with Gina, played by Aussie acting stalwart Sonia Todd, and punched John Palmer on the nose for insulting her brother.
But between shooting those bolshie scenes, Buczko was sitting demurely backstage, knitting a big chunky scarf for her boyfriend’s birthday, which was on the day they left for a chilly holiday in Europe. 
Not even that level of devotion could keep them together, though. Buczko says they’ve now split up, and she’s determinedly not looking for another love interest. “Because if you look too hard, it never happens!”

Meanwhile, Buczko’s hoping her work on Home and Away could land her a film role, or acting work in some exotic location.

She’s been acting since 1994, popping up in everything from Blue Heelers and Underbelly to The Saddle Club, and ads for juice, fish fillets and toothpaste.

And she’s already got her Oscars dress planned. “I dress, I think, less is more, so something elegant, maybe some amazing Chanel or Dior vintage gown, more Hollywood glamour... simple, understated, and a bit of timelessness.”

Home and Away, weekdays, 5.30pm and omnibus on Sundays, 10.30am.

- © Fairfax NZ News