Georgie Stone, who plays Mackenzie Hargreaves on Neighbours, spoke to Digital Spy on the importance of not finishing the tale on a “depressing” note.
In this week’s episodes, Mackenzie was left heartbroken after her husband Hendrix Greyson sadly died after his lung transplant failed.
With only a few weeks until the final episode of Neighbours airs, the long-running drama doesn’t have much time to depict where Mackenzie goes from here.
“Definitely,” Georgie said when asked if she’d like to see a ray of optimism for Mackenzie’s future. Mackenzie is someone I’m incredibly protective of. I care about her and want her to be safe.
“I believe that when we tell tales about grief, we need to acknowledge and demonstrate to people that there is hope and that life does not cease with this loss.”
“I believe it would be a disservice to this lovely trans character, who has meant so much to so many people, if she ended up in such a terrible, devastating place.”
“We have to service the tale, and we can’t push her sadness under the carpet,” Georgie concluded, predicting dark things ahead in the coming weeks. I didn’t want that to happen, so I made sure it didn’t.
“However, we must be careful not to depress our viewers too much. Also, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take it — I was fatigued from all of the emotional narratives and wasn’t sure how much longer I could take it! There has to be a ray of hope.”
Georgie spoke with Digital Spy while filming Neighbours and had yet to receive the final scripts. When we inquired if Mackenzie’s ex-boyfriend Richie Amblin was planning a comeback, she said she didn’t know for sure but that she wasn’t aware of any preparations.
Mackenzie dumped Richie in 2020 after learning that he had spread lies about her at school and rated her performance in bed on an app called ‘The Ladder.’
“I think the fans got closure on Richie,” Georgie added. When Richie returned a few months after their breakup, I believe they reached a point of closure where Mackenzie understood and accepted Richie’s apologies and they agreed to be friends.
“You see, Lachie [Millar, who plays Richie] is such a compelling actor that he can do anything and have us all saying, ‘Aw, but Richie!’ I’m one of them!
“However, what he did was quite horrible.” It was an instance of sexual harassment.”
