She's the new Acting CEO of NZH. She's been described as ruthless, heartless and hardcore when it comes to business tactics. Donna Hardy barged into
Scandal! exactly a month ago and has started shaking things up.
I caught up with actress
Louise Barnes who plays her to find out more what makes her and her alter-ego tick:
Tashi: With the arrival on the scene of Donna and her relishing causing chaos and upheaval - she’s actually the new, less wrinkly Abby wouldn’t you say?
Louise: I don’t know, that’s the conclusion everyone’s drawn but I don’t think she is. From my understanding, she’s less obvious.
Abigail made no bones about what she was doing and what her motives were but with Donna, she’s very much a business woman - she’s doing a job to improve the bottom line and that’s what she’s doing. If she steps on people’s toes, she’s not fussed.
Tashi: How psychopathic would you say she is? On a scale of 1 to 10?
Louise: *laughs* She’s not a psychopath at all. I think if you want to put a psychological affliction on her, she’s more of a sociopath. She’s one of those people who doesn’t allow emotions to get in her way.
There are the most incredible statistics on sociopaths - many of them are alive and well in the corporate world. Seriously - I watched this thing about it.
Tashi: I believe you - totally!
Louise: As long as they’re in a business that requires them to be fairly cut-throat and unemotional, they function - without, without ... getting sent to jail *laughs*.
If you want to push the character you could say she’s a sociopath but I think she’s someone who doesn’t allow herself to get caught up in emotions and things - especially because she’s come into a team.
She doesn’t have allegiances to anyone and she’s not emotionally connected to anyone, she’s just there to do the job. I think she gets a buzz from winning.
Also, if you were to go a bit deeper, I think it makes a comment on women in business. Men are never challenged in this way when they do what a character like Donna does. Because people come at things with the idea that women are nurturers and softer - a woman does what Donna does and suddenly she’s a psychopath or it isn’t right.
I think women have a tough time - they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If they leave early to go to a PTA meeting then they’re like “Argh God, they’re not doing their job properly,” but if they’re hard-assed and unemotional then they’re psychopathic. It’s hard, it’s a double standard.
Having said all that, there’s no doubt that what Donna gets up to is going to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
Tashi: Yes, who’ll suffer most at her hands?
Louise: Well, I think she has incredibly high standards so if there’s anyone around who’s been riding on the coat-tails of who their father is then she’s going to give them a hard time until they prove that they’re there because they deserve the job as opposed to nepotism.
She’s had to fight her way to where she is so she doesn’t enjoy people who’ve come through the back door - whether it be Shakira who flutters her eyelashes and shakes her booty to get what she wants or someone like Mangi - Donna’s joined the dots herself and gone: “Let’s see if he got the job because of his relationship with his father.”
Tashi: Does anyone actually like her?
Louise: Ja, absolutely, someone like Mo who’s had to work her way up in the business and also experienced the double standards surrounding women in business - she respects Donna and the fact that she gets things done.
Tashi: Does she have a husband or a wife (ha!) tucked away somewhere?
Louise: She has family, some family - who are introduced but she’s quite a loner.
Tashi: What’s been your most exciting storyline so far?
Louise: I’ve really enjoyed the dynamics between her and Daniel. Daniel’s obviously incredibly threatened with the alpha male that he is, now she’s his competition as it were.
While her official title is Acting CEO, she has designs on a more full-time position. I really like the power struggle between them - they’re actually very similar people.
Tashi: Is there sexual tension between them?
Louise: I think probably in the way that ... I think power is a huge turn-on for someone like Donna. I think it’s the same for Daniel too so there’s an allure between them.
Tashi: What’s been the most dangerous thing about playing her?
Louise: Leaving her at work *laughs*. I’m a mother to a fairly young child and I have an amazing relationship with my husband - we’re chilled people, we have a good understanding, we listen to each other and discuss things and Donna’s just SO not that.
What she says, goes. She seriously indulges her ego and I work very hard not to do that in my private life - I mean you can’t have relationships if you do that - so that’s been a challenge for me to make sure that I leave her at work and don’t take her home with me.
Tashi: Besides acting, you’re also a yoga instructor - do you get up at 4 in the morning to do all those Salute To The Sun exercises in the nude?
Louise: In the nude? Wow.
Tashi: Yes I always picture yoga instructors doing that.
Louise: I left the acting industry a couple of years ago because I needed a change - I was tired of the entire focus being on how you look - being so powerless as an actress, so I started a Yoga studio with a friend of mine.
I went to United States and studied a form of Yoga called Bikram, it’s known as Hot Yoga. We started a studio - we were the only two here trained in it so I was religious in doing it.
It was my whole life, running the business, teaching it - and then I got sucked up into acting again. I became a mother at the end of 2008 so I have to be honest and say that in the last year I haven’t done any - I was a fulltime mom which I loved - I spend a lot of time running after a one-and-a-half year so I get a lot of exercise but I’d love to do it again.
Tashi: I've
seen that you have a secret desire to be a trapeze artist?
Louise: Oh really? *laughs* Ja, I would have loved to have done something like that. My husband and I were in New York for a while and they've got a trapeze school there that you can do lessons at that I coulnd't go to because they run them in summer and I was there in fall and winter but I would have loved to do it.
I've been a dancer all my life so I love being in my body - I also went to see Madame Zangara's and I realised that if I'd the balls to think out of the box more, that's what I would have done.
Just the idea of the circus life you know. I'm not mad about the idea of driving the same streets my whole life, I like challenging myself and moving around so if I were to get a job in the circus that would be it.
Tashi: What’s your fave soapie - besides Scandal! of course? Have you ever been hooked by one?
Louise: Yes I was a
Bold and the Beautiful junkie when it first started when I was at school. I think I was in Matric - I was at boarding school and we used to watch it then and a little bit later when I was at university I was addicted. That was years ago but I haven’t watched it for years.
Tashi: Who’s your most inspiring actor of all time?
Louise: Meryl Streep. She just gets better and better with age. She’s just extraordinary. Every film I see her in I’m more amazed by her.
Tashi: I read an article that criticised her as just being good with accents instead of acting and someone else was arguing that this isn’t so.
Louise: No, no not at all - and anyway, acting with an accent and still being real is difficult.
It’s really difficult - your authentic realness comes from the voice you use in real life so acting with an accent and still being real is a difficult thing in itself - not something to be scoffed at. In
Julie & Julia, she was unbelievable, just amazing. She’s definitely an inspiration to me.
Ends