Australian Penthouse

Gemini Carmen

Like all geminis, Carmen J. McCall, our Pet of the Month, is two very different people in one lovely body. One Carmen is a romantic stay-at-home and the other is a dedicated career girl with her sights set on the stars. We found both of them at Noosa Heads on a hunt for the sun.
Photography: Peter Caine

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“It’s a wonderful place,” she says. “There’s a feeling of freedom when you’re surrounded by people with no inhibitions. They didn’t care who or what I was — they just accepted me as me. The salt spray, the sun and the wildflowers gave me pleasure — and a chance to enjoy natural, environmental beauty.”

Carmen gave up her academic studies to become a successful model in South Australia, but now, after some amateur theatre work, she is moving into the film industry.

“I always thought that I’d like to work for a while as an actress,” she says, “and later go into the technical side of films. You really can’t work behind the cameras until you can understand the pressures of being in front of them.” And now her wish has come true. Carmen has won a feature role in the film Final Cut, a thriller being produced on the Gold Coast by Martin Williams. Between takes on the set, Carmen is re-reading King Lear — her favourite play.

“It’s the tragedy of all time,” she says. “I abhor violence… I’m really a super pacifist. But King Lear shows a violence which is very much related to our times.”

The other Carmen fills her home with vases of long-stemmed roses and tropical plants and sleeps between satin sheets. “I’m very relaxed at home,” she says. “I rarely wear underwear around the house, but sometimes I’ll put on high heels, a suspender belt and black stockings for a special man. I have no ideal man, but most of my friends are male.

Often they become my lovers, but that doesn’t interfere with our friendship. Desire without friendship just isn’t worth it. I’ve also learned that happiness and money are not related. Money is just something nice to have, but if you haven’t got love, you haven’t got anything.”

We think you’ve got it all, Carmen!

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• November 2009 Pet of the Month, Stoya
• October 2009 Pet of the Month, Tarra White
• September 2009 Pet of the Month, Kyla Cole
• July 2009 Pet of the Month, Sasha