SHORTY STAR MADELEINE 'MUM REALLY IS MY BEST FRIEND

The actress' career has flourished thanks to her mother

- Sharon Stephenson

They're so close, they finish each other's sentences and still live under the same roof. So it's no surprise that Shortland Street newcomer Madeleine McCarthy, who plays surgical registrar Cleo Atwell, and her mother Lisa are inseparable.

“Mum really is my best friend,” says Madeleine, who joined New Zealand's longestrunning soap opera last October.

“And she's mine,” adds Lisa, a former accountant who until recently ran a family marketing business.

For Madeleine, it runs even deeper - the 21-year-old believes her meteoric rise up the acting ladder may not have happened if it wasn't for her mother.

“I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was about eight, which explained some of the learning difficulties I'd been experiencing,” recalls Madeleine. “I needed extra tuition to stay on top of my studies, but I wasn't very interested in school. I loved dance and musical theatre - that's where my real passion was.”

It's why Lisa, 54, eventually pulled her only daughter out of the mainstream school system to home-school her.

“As a parent, there's so much pressure for your kids to do well academically,” she muses. “I'm not creative at all, so I studied something at university that I thought would pay well, but it wasn’t my passion. It’s why we've really encouraged our three kids to follow their passions.”

When Lisa read a book about Kiwi dancer Parris Goebel’s dad, who experienced similar challenges, things fell into place.