IF Bathurst’s Mel Jeffree ever dreamed as a young girl of making her Australian television debut, chances are she did not imagine wearing a sparkly purple alien outfit for the occasion.
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But that’s exactly what happened in Mudgee on Saturday when Ms Jeffree was cast as an extra during the filming of hit Australian drama Doctor Doctor.
Ms Jeffree – a registered nurse in the Bathurst Base Hospital medical ward – had seen a call-out for extras shared on the Western Advocate Facebook and decided to give it a go.
She made the cut and went for a costume fitting. And what a costume it was.
“I play the part of a sci-fi fan,” Ms Jeffree said.
“One of the main characters in the show (Charlie, played by Australian actress Nicole da Silva) has written a sci-fi novel and I was there as a super fan at the book launch.
“I know the novel so well that I yell out some of the lines during a reading and then I run to the front at the end to meet her.”
Ms Jeffree said it took more than two hours of filming at the Mudgee library for what she expects will be a two or three-minute scene in the final product.
The day started early for Ms Jeffree on Saturday as she was required on set in Mudgee by 5.45am. She was straight into costume and then whisked into hair and make-up (“which was really very fast”).
“By then all the actors were emerging for breakfast and then I hopped in a car with Nicole da Silva for the drive around to the library for the filming,” she said.
“They actually dressed me which was a bizarre thing – I just had to stand there while they put everything on me even though I’m actually quite capable of dressing myself. I do it every morning.”
Ms Jeffree said she would definitely work as an extra again but would not want to act for a living.
“I think it could be a bit soul-crushing,” she said.
Season 2 of Doctor Doctor is now screening at 8.40pm each Wednesday on Channel Nine (channel 5).
Ms Jeffree will appear in episode eight of the current season in a few weeks’ time.