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Reference > Erinsborough News > I've Never Even Been In Love

She’s about to play a teen mum, but Neighbours star Simone admits… “I’ve Never Even Been In Love”

Neighbours teen star Simone Robertson has her work cut out for her playing Ramsay Street’s Phoebe

With her romance with teen heartthrob Todd (Kristian Schmid) taking off this month, Neighbours’ recent arrival Phoebe is all set to become one of the top Aussie soap’s central characters. The big news is that Phoebe (played by 16-year-old school girl Simone Robertson) will become pregnant this year with Todd’s baby in a scandal that rocks Ramsay Street.

The story of Phoebe’s teenage love affair may be controversial, but as far as Simone’s concerned, it was an acting challenge she couldn’t afford to turn down. “I can’t believe that I’ve been lucky enough to be given such an important role,” she says. “Absolutely everything happens to this girl – there’s never a dull moment in her life.”

As Phoebe, Simone plays the freakiest girl in school, an oddball who doesn’t worry about looks and fashion, has weird ideas and even keeps a snake as a pet. Romance is last on her list of priorities. But when she falls for Todd, she soon discovers that there’s a price to pay for the passion of first love.

“I’ve had to use my imagination an awful lot,” says Simone. “I’m really inexperienced. I’ve never been in love and I don’t know how it feels. I’ve just had to guess how Phoebe feels when she’s smitten by Todd. When she gets pregnant, there are all sorts of problems she has to face. I don’t know if I could handle all that in real life. I wouldn’t want to have the responsibility of a baby at my age. The whole idea would completely freak me out.”

Encouraged by her parents, Simone started acting in the second last year of primary school when she was given the lead role in a school play. Shortly afterwards, she started work as a child model.

At 12, she was told by her agent that she’d have to make a choice between acting and modelling. So she chose acting. “I desperately wanted the part,” she says. “I knew Phoebe was supposed to be a bit freaky, so I went along wearing thick glasses with my hair in pigtails. Two days later, my agent rang to say I’d got the part. I was so excited!”

Simone’s currently studying on a reduced timetable so she can fit in her film schedule. “If anything goes, it will have to be school,” she says. But in the meantime, she’s enjoying the limelight. “I’m amazed at the reaction her romantic problems have caused,” she says. “But I’m delighted that Neighbours chose to feature a subject as important as teenage pregnancy.”

This article originally appeared in Inside Soap magazine, dated March 1993

Article submitted by Steve