A day in the life: Soap star Claudia has fans worked into a lather

ACTRESS CLAUDIA CARROLL is shivering in a light summer dress as the temperature plummets to near zero. Hailstones come crashing down again, ruining another piece of filming, and her lips turn blue with the cold.

A quick outdoor scene which was supposed to take a few minutes to shoot has now turned into a two-hour marathon. It's not all excitement and glamour starring in top Irish soap Fair City.

"We shoot several weeks in advance and this episode will be going out when the weather is much warmer, so we really have to look the part," says the 30-year-old star, explaining her lightweight attire.

The bubbly blonde, who has played Nicola in the Dublin soap for the past five years, loves the role of the abrasive businesswoman who makes estranged screen husband Paul's life hell.

But it's tiring work, beginning at 8.15am and stretching to 6.30pm six days a week.

"And on Sundays, my day off, I have to learn my lines," says Claudia.

"But I'm very lucky that I live round the corner from RTE and can be here in five minutes.

"I've timed it to perfection. Up at 7am, on with the coffee, into the shower, dry my hair, gulp the coffee and I'm dressing in the car.

"Three minutes later I'm here and then Sara, the make-up girl, has the tough job of making us look awake and fresh.

"We do three days of rehearsing and three days of recording. Rehearsal days are a lot easier because start at 9.30am.

"There are weeks when you're not in the featured storyline but we still have to be on standby for the smaller scenes.

"It's a very long day for the crew because they are on all day, every day. But we have a great laugh."

Claudia, who in real life is humorous and friendly, relishes the challenge of playing a woman who is the complete opposite.

"It is so much more interesting to play a nasty character, but it is difficult when you are playing an out-and-out bitch not to make her two dimensional.

"You have to look for the human or vulnerable side of the character to make her more rounded. It's nice when there's a bit of comedy.

"But sometimes people take your character seriously. I used to be called a bitch on the street for taking Paul away from Helen.

But all that has changed. In the last year I have been engaged, married, separated, had a miscarriage scare and am now getting divorced.

"So many awful things have happened to Nicola that there is a lot more sympathy for her. It's amazing. People now say, 'Oh, you're better off without him'.

"But Dublin people tend not to make a fuss when they see you in the street. But once you get out into the country you get hassle.

I REMEMBER popping into a hotel to use the loo in Galway and I had no make-up on, and was feeling hungover. These two girls started talking about me, saying, 'Isn't she a mess in real life?"

"I was mortified! I thought, 'How am I going to face them?'

"But I am a slob when I'm not working. I nearly always go round in a tracksuit."

When schedules allow, Claudia loves to do stage work. She recently took time off to star in Bernard Farrell's hit comedy Stella by Starlight at Dublin's Gate Theatre.

Last year she also appeared in the Gate's production of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan which was such a hit that she is going on a three- week tour with the play to Charleston, South Carolina, at the end of this month.

"That's going to be wonderful. There's nothing like the stage because you get instant reaction. The adrenalin rush we got in Stella by Starlight was fantastic.

"The Fair City bosses have been very good in allowing me time off to do theatre work.

"The nice thing about TV is you can have a life. Once you get home it's like having a nine to five job. I love going out with my friends.

"But sometimes, by the time you get home, you're fit for nothing and if I can sit there until 10pm I am lucky.

"I try to go to the gym a few times a week to keep fit and I'm in training for the women's mini-marathon in June.

"All I want now is to keep working. We have a great time on Fair City and everyone gets a good storyline at some time. It is very balanced and fair."

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