Tennesia Malcolm, Gleaner Writer

Carol Campbell - Contributed

ON APRIL 27, Carol Campbell returns to Royal Palm Estate in her role as Jennifer Chambers, the feisty social climber viewers love to hate.

Campbell, who has occupied that slot for the 14 years that the series has been in existence, says it's something she loves to do.

"It's fun to get to experiment and be someone you're not. We all wish we could speak our mind like she does, so it feels nice to be able to express," she said. "Everybody has a little Jennifer Chambers in them."

But the real-life Campbell is no Jennifer Chambers. She exudes an effervescence which becomes even more so when she speaks of her 10-year-old son, perhaps the only similarity between herself and the villainous character she portrays on the long-running local soap opera.

"My son is my life, first and foremost. I do everything else around him."

Everything else, of course, includes her starring role in the biopic Glory to Glorianna and her stage debut in The Perfect Set-Up for which she received rave reviews.

Royal Palm Estate was her first acting gig.

"Whenever it's time to film, I make sure I'm here because I enjoy doing it," she says. Initially, Jennifer Chambers was a bit part but was expanded by writers after it took off.

The former freelance model, who lost her father a few weeks ago, says she keeps busy with touring the cast of The Perfect Set-Up, and filming RPE in between.

It's a far way from her days as a 'barrel child' whose focus was on joining her mother in the United States, not on becoming an actress.

Promise of migration

"It's the worst thing you could do to a child," she says of the promise of migration, "I had no focus on college or anything like that."

Though her family did get the opportunity to join her parents in Chicago, Campbell says by then she had already established a life for herself in Jamaica, and it was only in 1999 when her son turned two that she decided to relocate to the US.

That move came after stints as an Ann Martin make-up person, working at Joseph's and Kingston Public Hospital, even as a trader and taxi owner.

Now as an actress, the "single and loving it" divorcee says she is thrilled with the response she receives from people on the street.

"They have been real good and it makes me feel good. It's good that you can affect people's lives in such a way," she said.

As to what to expect from Jennifer Chambers in the new RPE season, Campbell sums it up: "She behaving like a skettel as usual, entertaining people; that nah go change."