“It’s a tell-some, not a tell-all,” says Lynne McGranger of her recently published autobiography. To be honest, I’ve changed their name if there was any chance of me hurting someone’s feelings – or worse, getting sued.”
That will likely come as a comfort to the performers she has worked with over the course of her almost three decades as Summer Bay’s Irene Roberts, some of whom are now household names in Hollywood.
McGranger’s co-stars have included Chris Hemsworth, Melissa George, Isla Fisher, Luke Mitchell, and Samara Weaving, among hundreds of others, and she is Australia’s longest-serving female cast member of a television soap opera.
She emphasises, however, that Acting Up: Me, Myself, and Irene is a memoir of her life from infancy to the present, not a scathing examination of her time on Home And Away. In reality, it’s a personal confession to some extent, with the actor disclosing prior difficulties with an eating issue and a former love of marijuana.
“I didn’t write anything to be unpleasant or nasty,” McGranger explains from Sydney, where she was en route to film sequences at Palm Beach, also known as Summer Bay to viewers throughout the world.
“I’ve altered names with some old friendships, acquaintances, and people that may have came into my life and not left the best impression. If I was intending to insult someone, I wouldn’t have used their true name.”
While her experience on Home And Away is mentioned in various chapters and there are other references throughout the book, Acting Up is about more than simply her time on the soap.
“I didn’t simply want to make it about Home And Away since my life had been extremely busy up until then, with many of life lessons,” she explains.
“Obviously, we encounter individuals throughout our lives that have an impact on us, and that impact isn’t always positive because those people aren’t always beneficial for you.”
“I suppose what I wanted to get across is that we’ve all faced workplace bullying, or done things in our life that we’re not particularly proud of, or been influenced by individuals who weren’t the best.”
“The book isn’t squeaky clean, but it’s also not a tell-all.” It’s a one-of-a-kind.”
For the record, she describes the vast majority of the individuals she has worked with who have gone on to become incredibly famous as “wonderful.”
Until she was approached by a publisher, the 68-year-old performer had no intention of writing a memoir about her life.
“In the past, if anything ridiculous or noteworthy or awful happened, I would always jest and say, ‘Well, that’ll go in the memoirs,’ never expecting there would be one,” she adds.
When the Covid-19 outbreak forced the cancellation of Home And Away in early 2020, she found herself with free time.
“I co-wrote it with a woman named Summer Land, not Summer Bay.” She was able to persuade me to talk about my recollections and arrange them in a logical order. And it’s a good thing, too, since I was completely blind. “I had no idea what I was doing,” McGranger admits.
“I suppose it’ll be a good read if folks are interested in what, why, and how I got to where I am now.”
“I’ve given it to people to read, and they’ve loved it, laughing and crying and being shocked and terrified, which is exactly what I wanted.” “I’m hoping people will appreciate it.”
McGranger isn’t the first star of Home And Away to pen a book.
Judy Nunn, who portrayed Alf Stewart’s wife Ailsa, is a published novelist; Luke Arnold, who played murderous nurse Lewis this year, was a published author before joining the programme; and Ada Nicodemou and Kate Ritchie have both written children’s books.
The actor, on the other hand, claims she has no plans to change careers.
“I’ve ran out of things to say, at least things that won’t get me sued,” she says. “And, as much as I joke about doing a little follow-up on stuff I left out, I feel like I’ve done it,” she says.
“My biggest concern right now is that this one will end up in the bargain bin in its first week.”
“Hopefully, it will be like when I was on Dancing With The Stars and was frightened of being voted off after the first week, but I wasn’t.”
