Jodi Anasta to quit TV soap Neighbours after 3 years
After three years on Ramsay Street, actor Jodi Anasta has made the decision to quit TV soap Neighbours and says she is excited about “discovering something else”.
Confidential
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After three years on Ramsay Street, actor Jodi Anasta has made the decision to quit TV soap Neighbours.
And she says the move has nothing to do with her taking time off for exhaustion last year.
“It is completely unrelated,” Anasta told Confidential. “At the moment I am feeling happier, healthier and better than ever and just excited about change, a fresh new opportunity or discovering something else.”
Anasta, 34, took a three week break from shooting Neighbours in June 2019, citing exhaustion as the reason for taking time off.
She has split her time between Sydney and Melbourne for the more than three years she has appeared as Elly on Channel 10s Neighbours as she and ex partner, Braith Anasta, share custody of their young daughter, Aleeia.
Anasta, who became a household name playing Martha MacKenzie on Home And Away, is looking forward to living full time back in Sydney.
“It’ll be a huge change for me,” she said. “Ramsay Street and Neighbours has really become my world, my life and my family. While it is sad to say goodbye, it is also a really exciting time for me and the future. I will have so much more time with my beautiful daughter. I’ll get to do more school drop offs, all that kind of stuff, and just get back into auditioning again. I like being busy but just being back in Sydney and having that stability is a wonderful thing.”
Anasta consulted friends and family before she made the difficult decision.
“As an adult, you know yourself well enough to know when it is time to explore other opportunities, whether that be in television, film, design, beauty, music, whatever it is, I just felt like it was time for me to try something else.
She added: “Also with my character Elly, she has done absolutely everything, I have had so much fun playing her,” the actor said. “She is the most complex, crazy, charismatic character in the world and I’ve gotten to a point with her where I just don’t know where to go with her storyline.
Anasta, who has been learning to DJ over the past year, has also ruled out a move to give Hollywood another crack but reserves the right to change her mind if the right role came up.
“It is not at the forefront of my mind,” she said. “I definitely want to stay in Australia. I have always said as an actor, you go where the work is, and I think I have shown myself that being based in Melbourne (with Neighbours).”