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Beastmaster
14 DEC 2000
By SIMON YEAMAN , Daily Telegraph
For a popular soap star and youngest-ever winner of Ford's prestigious Supermodel of the World competition, Monika Schnarre is surprisingly down-to-earth.
Sure, she has starred with Arnie Schwarzenegger. But, hey, no agents or egos here.
Want an interview? Just call her at home in Vancouver. Need pics? She will personally e-mail whatever is required.
Daytime television viewers may recall Schnarre as Ivana in the soap, The Bold And The Beautiful.
These days, the blonde bombshell spends a lot of time on the Gold Coast, hamming it up with singer Natalie Mendoza, former Home And Away hunk Daniel Goddard and old Aunty Jack himself, Grahame Bond, in the fantasy adventure Beastmaster.
"He was funny," Schnarre says of Bond. "We got along very well. He makes me laugh. I saw him [as Aunty Jack] on the Internet and I laughed my pants off.
"I gave him such a hard time about that. Whenever we would gibe at each other, I would say 'Oh, you old drag queen, why don't you put a cork in it?"'
A success in the US, Beastmaster is an Australian-Canadian production, filmed at the Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast.
The dumb, but fun -- for some, anyway -- series centres around Dar the Beastmaster (Goddard), a warrior with the ability to telepathically communicate with animals. His menagerie of buddies includes a tiger, eagle and mischievous ferrets.
Dar's mission is to rescue his kidnapped love Kyra (Mendoza) and restore harmony to the kingdom, stolen from him by the evil Zad (Steven Grives).
It is a legendary, battle-filled world of kings and queens, wizards and sorcerers -- plus some albino tigers from the Gold Coast's Dreamworld.
"They're gorgeous," Schnarre says. "[But] they're intimidating. It would take only a split second for you to be lunch."
Schnarre plays the Sorceress, an amoral character who produces fantastic new creatures -- some good, some extremely bad. She also has an eye for Dar and an impudent approach to her tutor, the supreme sorcerer, Ancient One (played by Bond).
"She doesn't have any human emotions, so there is no good or bad," Schnarre says. "I decided to play her as a child. A child doesn't know good from bad. She just is. She doesn't understand the ramifications of her actions."
Schnarre's role has meant an interesting introduction to antipodean ways. "I've had to get used to a few things ... the coffee and slang for certain things."
Schnarre made her name as a 14-year-old winner of the Ford Supermodel of the World contest. By 15, she was the youngest person to have appeared on the cover of American Vogue and in the pages of the coveted Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
After five years, she quit modelling, finished high school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her real passion, acting.
"Modelling was something I just fell into ... [and] I felt I had accomplished everything I would in that area," she says.
"There are a lot of negative things that go along with the business. For that reason I don't think I'd want my daughter to start out at the same age I did. I think if you are not brought up with the right morals and ethics, you could fall into all sorts of trouble."
Not long after arriving in Los Angeles, Schnarre landed the role of Ivana in The Bold And The Beautiful and has since appeared in other shows, including Caroline In The City, The Addams Family and The Adventures Of Sinbad. She also appeared in a cameo role opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior.
To date, the Beastmaster role hasn't quite won her comparisons to the now-defunct warrior princess Xena. "Not yet. We've had very positive feedback and it's doing so well in the ratings. [But] I've yet to be called Xena."
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