Australians have claimed enough of our national icons, so it’s only right that we claim one back.
Yes, the Nestle Scorched Almonds girl is an Aussie.
Last week the Sunday Star-Times ran an article seeking the missing actress from the 1992 ad after Nestle tried and failed to find her last year.
The company wanted to pay her talent fees for the adappearing on our screens this year and last.
Sydneysider Ellie MacCarthy saw the story online, contacted the paper and is now in negotiations to get her fees. The money has come at the right time as she is about to head to England to live, having just finished a degree in business and commerce.
MacCarthy, now 26, was a child actress.
Her parents first got her involved in acting when she was just a few months old and she carried on with it until she was about 16.
She starred in lots of commercials, “a few TV shows here and there and one feature length film”.
For the most part they were all Australian but she filmed the scorched almonds ad and another for German yoghurt in New Zealand.
“It turns out this scorched almonds thing was the most well-known thing that I did. Not that I realised how big it was over there.”
She doesn’t remember a whole lot about filming but does remember the plane ride over (it was her first) and “I remember sitting on the table and getting to eat lots and lots of chocolate and then getting to go and run around outside afterwards”.
And there were perks.
“I found out last night that mum brought back a suitcase full of scorched almonds. It was a mountain of chocolate.”
The past week has been a strange for MacCarthy.
“I have met a few people who have seen the ad and they were quite shocked to learn that it was me. Never did I expect this, though – people looking for me wondering where I was.”
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