She's studying a wall of headshots – each a potential new face to join a rebooted continuation of the Australian soap, which had ended on original broadcaster Seven Network after just eight months on air. This version would be bolder, brighter – and within months, sold to the UK, where it would garner millions of new viewers.
This worldwide projection would allow countless unknowns to become household names. But first, they had to showcase their talents to Russ in the hope of becoming Ramsay Street's newest neighbour.
She'd initially be contracted for just one week's worth of episodes.
"She was such a shy little thing. I thought she was like a little mouse – only tiny," Russ recalls to Radio Times.
"I thought she really had something and was going to be ideal. She was like a little rosebud, that has now blossomed into this most magnificent rose."
"They came to me at one stage and said, 'We want you to find another Kylie.' I replied, 'No, sorry, it's not going to happen. I can find someone else, but you'll never find another Kylie.'"
With thanks to Russ seeing this early potential, Charlene long outlasted her initial contract and would depart 362 episodes later. Songstress Minogue has now sold over 80 million records across the globe, achieved 9 UK No. 1 singles, and won 2 Grammy Awards.
But Donovan wasn't the first actor to play Scott. During the initial run, the part was fulfilled by Darius Perkins, though Donovan had actually auditioned for Russ over a year earlier – on that occasion to play Danny Ramsay.
"He came after school in his uniform. You know, smelly boys after school, all that sort of thing," she laughs.
"But Terry said, 'Look, I think you've got to finish your HSC [Higher School Certificate]. That's important.' Jason rang me and I agreed.
"I promised him that something else would come up at a later date. And of course, it did. He was the first one I rang. That was the beginning for Jason."
"We thought we'd have a drinks night to see them all [the original company] get together and how they work. The producer John Holmes and I were sitting there watching, and at one stage, we both turned to each other and realised we'd made a mistake with the person we cast as Jim. We felt he didn't seem to have a connection with everybody.
"We thought about Alan, and rang creator Reg Watson. There was a bit of to and fro, and eventually he said we could have him."
Dennis's mother had taken him to see a touring production of Oliver! at Her Majesty's Theatre in Brisbane, of which Russ was part of the cast. One of the estimated 250,000 Australians impacted by forced adoption between the 1950s and '70s, Russ had turned to acting as an escape from her inner turmoil.
From there she worked extensively in theatre, travelled, worked in television in New Zealand, before returning to home turf to work on Prisoner: Cell Block H and later Neighbours.
The book has been penned alongside close friend Robyn Bishop, and documents everything from her terrifying solo journey to Sydney to give birth to her illegitimate daughter – and the heartbreaking search that followed, her son Sam Hammington's surprising fame in South Korea, and her brutal dismissal from Neighbours in 2009 after a change in leadership.
One of the last people she cast for the serial drama was Margot Robbie, who played Erinsborough High student Donna Freedman for three years.
"She started ringing me herself, and one particular day she was finally put through. I said, 'Well, how old are you? I'm looking for a 17-year-old at the moment. Come in.' I can remember sitting in my office and looking up, seeing this young girl walking towards me, and saying, 'Oh my God.'"
"Now she's gone on to phenomenal success."
"I'm just blown away by it all," she laughs.
"I was a bit like a mother hen with them, and I know a few of them sort of thought of me as their other mum."
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