When AW’s Victoria Wyndham(Rachel) dreamed up an evil character lookalike for her upstanding character, she wanted to give herself -and her leading man- a change of pace. “Carl and Rachel had had this very successful romantic storyline, but it was clear to me that there was nothing more for them to do” Wyndham remembers. “I knew that Charles wasn’t going to stick around unless he had a good storyline. I was very frightened of his leaving, because I adore working with him. So I pitched the idea of Justine. The way I saw it at the time the story would be told from Carl’s point of view, and the viewers would have hardly seen Justine at all.”
AW writers put a new spin on Wyndham’s idea. “They decided to tell the story from Justine’s point of view, which was enormously fun for Ms.Wyndham- but very different from what I had in mind” she laughs.
With Keating’s help, Wyndham came up with Justine’s ultra-severe look and clipped speech pattern: ”I asked Charles, Who is Rachel and why does Carl love her?”, Then I made Justine the opposite.” She discussed her decisions with Another World costumers and make-up artists-and emerged from her dressing room in harsh black attire, a tight bun and almost no make-up: ”When I came out on the studio floor, I looked so extreme that the management was horrified. They convinced me to wear a bit more make up around my eyes.” Still, AW honchos supported Wyndham’s vision. And the actress says she’ll “always love” psycho Justine:” What a shot in the arm it is to play someone over the top!”