MNN - Mother Nature Network

Australian actress Rachel Ward says that as an individual, she's "feeling quite frustrated about how one can effect change" when it comes to the oceans in the face of corporate and government practices. "I'm being very conscientious about using only sustainable fish, the because of fishing and what the corporations and government insist on carrying on, it makes a mockery of what the individual is trying to do. They're supposed to be reducing the number of fishing boats and the number of fish caught, but when you see what's going on in Sydney Harbor, you just despair," laments Ward.

 

She also reminisces, rather negatively, about her experience making the "The Thorn Birds" in "Miniseries," the fourth and final episode of the third season of "Pioneers of Television," premiering Feb. 5. Marking the 30th anniversary of "Thorn Birds," focusing on the romance between a young girl and a priest (Richard Chamberlain), the miniseries also covers "Roots" and "Rich Man, Poor Man." Ward says that the only good experience that came out of the show that launched her career was meeting her future husband, Bryan Brown, who played the man he character married.

 

For the last few years, Ward has been concentrating on directing. At the moment, she's working on a TV movie in Australia called "An Accidental Soldier."

 

"It's a World War I story about a deserter who finds love in a French farmhouse," she says.