Happy Holly Days ; When Soap Actress and Teen Pop Sensation Holly Valance Decided She Needed a Change, She Upped Sticks, Moved to Tinseltown and Became a Film Star. And Why Not? Hollywood has Her Name Written All Over It

Mail on Sunday › December 25, 2006

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Summary

IT takes an actress of a certain mettle to land at Los Angeles international airport with no job to go to 'and no idea where I was going', and attempt to kick-start a Hollywood career, but 23-year- old Holly Valance, you soon realise, is made of sterner stuff than one might imagine. She may have followed the route to success forged by many an Aussie wannabe before her landing a role in the soap Neighbours and then pursuing a pop career (Kylie Minogue and Natalie Imbruglia being but two shining examples) but the lads'-mag image and easygoing manner belie a woman of some chutzpah.

Chatting over lunch in Hollywood, it makes a refreshing change to see someone who actually eats her food, consisting of a substantially large club sandwich and gasp some post-lunch chocolate. Holly is nonetheless well toned and exudes health; her skin flawless, with her hair extensions (for our photo-shoot) coursing in blond waves down her back, making her the epitome of outdoorsy, Australian sexiness. In a town filled to bursting with leggy blondes, it must be somewhat demoralising, one might imagine, to walk into an audition and be confronted with more of the same, but, says Holly: 'The reception I've got from producers and directors has been great. They tend to like Aussies to begin with, and because they haven't a clue who I am, the parts I get are because they think I'm capable and a nice girl and I love that.' Holly came to our attention as a teenager, playing Flick Scully in Neighbours. She eventually moved to London to pursue a pop career that gave her a string of hits, including 'Kiss Kiss' and 'Down Boy'. She relocated to Los Angeles three years ago at the suggestion of her manager to try her luck in Hollywood. Roles in TV shows such as Entourage, CSI: Miami and Prison Break, and in the recent film DOA: Dead or Alive have ensured that she is now being touted for a starring role in the biopic of cricketer Don Bradman, The Bloody Ashes, opposite Russell Crowe. Not bad for a move that Holly had never initially planned.

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Happy Holly Days ; When Soap Actress and Teen Pop Sensation Holly Valance Decided She Needed a Change, She Upped Sticks, Moved to Tinseltown and Became a Film Star. And Why Not? Hollywood has Her Name Written All Over It

'I'd been living in London for a couple of years and although I loved it I really missed home,' she says. 'The flights between London and Melbourne are so exhausting that I was really getting down about it. I went home that Christmas and my manager said to me, "You've always liked LA why don't you just go there and see how you get on?" So I thought, "Why not?" I was only 20 when I moved here, so I felt ...

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