For seven years I've been me

BY CATHERINE WOULFE

ANGELA Bloomfield strides down the corridors of Shortland Street, not a wobble in sight despite her high, hot-pink heels.

The camera pans up: tiered pencil skirt, gold V-neck top, black jacket, and the gleaming red Rachel McKenna mane that has been a seven o'clock beacon on our screens, on and off, for the past 17 years.

Rachel has gone from schoolgirl to hospital management in that time and is set to become embroiled in a steamy storyline involving central character Callum.

Bloomfield's been climbing the ladder too.

She arrived on Shortland Street as a 19-year-old and stayed there for nine years, a lifetime in soap years, before taking time out to have her children – Max, five, and Maya, four.

Then came a stint behind the camera, directing other local productions Go Girls and Jackson's Wharf as well as the Street, before the return of Rachel, last August.

Bloomfield says she quickly slipped her "blinkers" back on, to cope with the stares she gets in public, and is getting reaccustomed to spending her working days being someone else.

"I'm really enjoying it because it isn't as stressful as directing. I don't know if I get more time, but as soon as I walk in the door [at home] I'm just not mentally cluttered. I just have a clearer head."

But she is also dealing with the slightly claustrophobic feeling of emotions bubbling close to the surface.

"I suddenly felt so anxious and sensitive and just emotional, and then I suddenly figured out that, you know, for seven years I've been me, and my emotions and things have just sat comfortably in my stomach ... As soon as you get back here, because you need to source your emotions in a flash," she clicks her fingers, "you know, you bring them all up and they sit in your throat."

The savvy 37 year-old has an innate authority that makes her slightly intimidating: during our photo shoot, she resists the idea of posing with champagne bottles. "You do know Rachel's not drinking at the moment?" she says, protective both of her character, who is a recovering alcoholic, and of herself – fans often get the two of them confused.

Afterwards, Bloomfield admits she sometimes has to "shake my Rachel off" (Rachel is a notorious bossy boots) and she seems to do just that during our interview, kicking off the high heels, ditching the jacket and curling up in her chair.

She is pale, with soft-looking skin and a small 165cm frame. The famous red hair is dyed, by the way; it's naturally a light golden brown.

Bloomfield speaks like actresses everywhere, projecting her voice and enunciating her words, but the Kiwi girl in her says "cos" and "telly". She uses retro phrases: "chill out," she says, "dude", "take it easy, man".

Ten years and two children have passed since she stripped for Ralph (a move she says was liberating, but will never be repeated) and Bloomfield still looks as polished as she did in those arty black-and-whites, but she has started to worry about time ticking by.

"Sometimes I feel a bit sad cos I'm like, already 37... What? We haven't got much time left! I feel like we need to do stuff now..."

But really, she's got all the boxes ticked. Bloomfield married Chris Houston in a surprise ceremony seven years ago, after getting all their friends and family on a boat for a party they said was a combined 30th.

The family lives in a 100-year-old bungalow on Auckland's North Shore. Houston has been a stay-at-home dad for the last few years. Even before they were married, he was clear that he wanted that solid time with the children but will be heading back to work once Maya starts school next year.

Bloomfield says it was initially difficult for her to step back from her instinctive "mum" role. She had to stop herself from coming home and going, "I'm Mum now, so you back off", she says.

"I've chilled out in terms of handing over child-rearing to my husband, who I respect greatly, but I'm still a mum so I wanna know everything... I don't want to miss out."

It is a matter, Bloomfield says, of "every now and then just duking it out and going, oh, okay, well this is actually all wrapped up in the fact that we have changed roles and it does need to be discussed and acknowledged".

Bloomfield says she is picking up some of Houston's good humour: when they met, she muses, she was the serious one. She says she has a tendency to feel like she is failing in some way; she is now working on being less defensive.

And what have her children taught her?

"Oh," she says, soft and sweet. "Loads. I think Max has told me to chill out actually, I think because I've said it to him: `hey dude, just chill' and he'll go `hey Mum, just chill'. They teach me to slow down, just to breathe and not rush through life, so you're not sweating the small stuff – but you're also trying to appreciate the small stuff."

- © Fairfax NZ News