Esther is a model act

[**Julie**]

Esther is a model act

HOME and Away's latest beauty, Esther Anderson, is not losing any sleep over the recent criticism that models are stealing dramatic roles from aspiring actors."You take the good with the bad," the former top Melbourne model said. "Hopefully I can rely on my acting skills and people will see I was picked because of that and not because I am a model." Acting is not something that Anderson, who is single after recently splitting from boyfriend Adam Nicholl, accidentally happened upon. She has been studying acting in Melbourne for the past three years, completing numerous courses, before landing the coveted role on the long-running soap. Anderson has now quit her lucrative modelling career.

"I am more than happy to give up doing lingerie photoshoots," she laughed. "I have always wanted to act. I went into my first course thinking 'let's see how this goes,' but I quickly realised acting takes lots of work."

Anderson will play a tough cop on Home and Away, which is possibly inspired casting considering her wish as a teenager was to join the police force. "I did work experience at Geelong Police Station and I went to the academy to get all the information about signing up -- but then I chickened out," she said.