The doctor will see you now

Kelly Carlson

Her Nip/Tuck role has given Kelly Carlson a reputation as the most dangerous woman on television.

Kelly Carlson is no diva but there's some things a girl can't live without. "Actors have their entourage, I have my horses," she says of the beasts keeping her company on the Queensland set of her latest film, The Marine.

"They were my life growing up. It had to come to an end when my dad died because I couldn't afford to go to college so I had to sell my horse. But these days I really have a hard time riding for pleasure because I like to establish a relationship with an animal. I don't just get on and ride them, I don't find pleasure in that."

The same couldn't really be said of her Nip/Tuck character, a model and sometimes porn actress. It was pure sexual attraction - and a desire for cosmetic perfection - that brought Kimber together with the promiscuous Dr Christian Troy (Julian McMahon). When the couple weren't experimenting at swingers parties or threatening each other with bondage whips, they were playing dangerous mind games. In one episode, Troy tried to dump his clingy girlfriend by "swapping" her for a car.

If you think things can't get much worse for the Marilyn Monroe lookalike, just wait until season two starts on Monday night, (TV2, 9.30pm), Carlson cackles.

"You're in for a whirlwind of fun, let me tell ya. She goes off the deep end. She ends up in the gutter of hell. She develops a bit of a cocaine habit, really hits rock bottom but then when you see her again she's a whole new person. You see her grow as a human a little bit."

Insecure characters such as Kimber sum up the nature of Nip/Tuck, a show that professes to expose the flaws in a world besotted by beauty. At this year's Golden Globes, Nip/Tuck was named Best TV Series: Drama, and you can bet it wasn't just its provocative attitude towards sex that got it there.

Carlson, who was a model before she got the job, says Nip/Tuck is a world she knows well.

"I see her all the time. In Los Angeles, Kimber Henry is a common, common thing. That's why so many people don't succeed in LA because there's no repercussions to bad behaviour, whether it's drugs or drink or sex or whatever.

"You need to have self-control and most people don't. Everything is the norm, everything is okay. Next thing you know you wake up on the ground with cocaine on your face and you're passed out and you need to go to rehab."

Carlson says she was surprised at the positive feedback she received after taking on the role of a woman she describes as being "shallow" and "cold". Aside from the obvious attention from men's magazines, her character was so popular that a temporary stint on the show was extended so she could be part of the core cast.

"Now I understand how difficult this lifestyle is. I'm never home. I never get to see my family. But I made that decision. I am not the marrying type. I just wanna work. It is definitely not glamorous."

Neither is the seedy underbelly of Nip/Tuck, a world where it's normal for the elderly to undergo sex operations, or for criminals to alter their appearance to escape the law.

Although the show has been a critical hit, it hasn't escaped finger-pointing and accusations that it desensitises viewers to plastic surgery. In 2003, cosmetic surgeons in the US performed more than 8.7 million procedures, a 32 per cent increase over the 2002 figure according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Whether shows like Nip/Tuck are to blame is arguable, and it's a criticism Carlson likes to defend by quoting Madonna.

"She was describing one of her shows that was banned from Italy. She said she doesn't endorse a way of life, she just describes one. And that's how I like to approach Nip/Tuck. Because it's not endorsing surgery at all. You need to read between the lines. It's like The Sopranos. It's not promoting being part of organised crime, it's just showing you."

To show she means it, Carlson became a spokesperson for the Smile Network, a charitable organisation that provides non-cosmetic plastic surgery to children living in poor countries.

"The plastic surgery thing really hit a nerve and it is an epidemic, especially in the United States. I have to take responsibility. But when you say plastic surgery, it doesn't mean a facelift all the time."

Carlson is hoping the same rule will apply to her career so she's avoiding taking on the saucy Kimber Henry-type roles for now. In Marine, a PG-13 action film, she plays a damsel in distress, but she's a damsel who can kick butt, she says.

"I need that balance because Nip/Tuck is so racy. I want something out at the same time that kids can watch because they love the blowing up of a gas station or my fight scenes. I am kind of a tomboy."

LOWDOWN

WHO: Kelly Carlson, who plays blond bombshell Kimber Henry on Nip/Tuck

WHAT: A cutting-edge American drama centred on the plastic surgery clinic of doctors Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and their dysfunctional personal lives.

WHEN: Season two starts Monday, TV2, 9.30pm