in the past, kinsella had auditioned for the parts of janine butcher, zoe slater and sonia fowler, but had been unsuccessful. kinsella has commented, "i went up for the part of every girl in the square. i was closest to getting the part of zoe. i did workshops with all the slater girls but you have to say they are all dark and look very alike while i'm blonde. obviously that wasn't the right one for me. it was hard at the time but i'm very glad because i love playing kelly. she's totally different from any other character and she's good fun to play."