Fair City Interview - Vicky Burke

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Vicky Burke - Loves her character Kylie's recent storylines

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Is Leo finally waking up to Kylie's scheming ways?

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Vicky Burke - Loves playing a "baddie"

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Dermot and Jo have stuck by Kylie but is she about to lose their support?

Linda McGee: Vicky, you've been getting some pretty juicy storylines on 'Fair City' recently. Were you very excited when you first saw the script for the current plot?
Vicky Burke: Yeah, of course. It's a completely new direction for the character and you like anything that's different and challenging... It's great to get big storylines. I've been quite lucky. I've always kind of had pretty big storylines and had pretty dramatic stuff so I'm delighted with it.

LM: Your character Kylie has had a particularly tough time lately, first losing her father and then finding out about Dean and Tracey's affair. Do you still have sympathy for her now, considering what she's been through?
VB: Aw I do, yeah, of course I do. Well, you have to, I suppose, if you're playing the part. But objectively I can see she is a bit bonkers and she's gone way too far. But yeah, I think I feel very sorry for her. She's lost everything in her life in a very short period of time. So you would, you would have a little bit of a meltdown, you know? Grief does funny things to people I think.

LM: Can you also see how fans of the show, who were behind Kylie from the beginning, might now be changing their minds and feeling that she's pushed things a little bit too far?
VB: Yeah, she's gone too far, yeah. Definitely I can see why people would lose sympathy for her. But it's kind of interesting that the character does go to this dark place and you know, you can't always be playing for people to like you.

LM: From the little secrets we've heard about next week's storylines, it seems that Kylie is set to push Dean to breaking point (again!). Will things finally come to a head then or has Kylie got plenty more tricks up her sleeve?
VB: I think it's all going to come to a head on the Paddy's week episodes, and you see quite how far she's willing to go then that week. But she does come to a very stark realisation of what she's been doing.

LM: So will there be more plotting and scheming?
VB: Not an awful lot of plotting. I think you're just really quickly seeing her go downhill, whereas before she was planning everything and she'd everything worked out. She had everybody on her side but now Leo has copped on to her and Dermot and Jo are beginning to wonder about her. So she's losing all her allies. So she begins to go downhill then and she doesn't care who knows about it really.

LM: A lot of the press stories are branding Kylie a "bunny-boiler". How do you feel about that and have you been getting much reaction to it from fans of the show on the street?
VB: Not really so much. I've been working so much that I haven't really been out. Normally you'd be off for a while so you'd see the reaction from people but I actually haven't seen anybody so I'm a little nervous because people feel very affectionately towards Tracey, so they hate when we do anything bad to her. I don't know, we'll wait and see. You can't pander to people. Sometimes you have to be a baddie and it's as simple as that.

LM: Yeah but it must be a bit more fun playing the baddie, is it?
VB: Oh it's way more fun! Absolutely, yeah. It's way more fun playing her in control because she's always such a victim. So it's nice to see her getting a little bit of power and how mad it drives her... You have to embrace it. If the character isn't doing something you would do that makes it even more fun. I'm never going to stalk somebody like this! So this is my chance!

LM: And nobody's hit you with a handbag yet? That's a good sign!
VB: No, I haven't been slapped at all, in fairness!

LM: When you're filming a big storyline like this do you find that you leave work physically and emotionally drained?
VB: Yeah, you are. You're exhausted. The mad thing is, from all the crying you get really dehydrated. It's not something you'd think about, you know? When you're under the lights and everything, you get really dehydrated and you're just exhausted when you come home, but you have yourself a bath and a glass of wine and forget about it.

LM: You mentioned people's fondness for Tracey earlier. Everyone seems to have forgotten that Tracey kicked a lot of this off by seeing Dean behind Kylie's back, or else they're just very willing to forgive her. Why do you think that is?
VB: Yeah, I think she's kind of the typical 'tart with a heart', you know? People say things like 'Ah, look it, she didn't do it on purpose'. Tracey has a way of messing things up as well but I think she's just one of those characters you feel very affectionately towards.

LM: How do you find being part of the 'Fair City' cast?
VB: Aw, I love it. It's a great cast. It's a real tight community and everybody's very supportive on it, especially with a storyline like this. Everyone's like 'This is great. I love what you're doing', so there's no badness on the set at all. It's a great place to work.

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