Ever since her Home and Away alter ego, Tasha Andrews, washed up all salty and damp on the shores of Summer Bay in 2003, we’ve found room in our hearts for Isabel Lucas. Well, less a room, more a monumental shrine made of gold and jewels. Franky, FHM is deeply, deeply in love with Isabel, which is why we high fived and embraced each other in masculine expressions of joy when the 22-year-old half-Swiss stunner agreed to frolic surfside in front of our cameras. This collection of foxy pictures is the happy result! And in between saving the Third World, going to auditions and just hanging about looking gorgeous, Isabel found time to talk to one of FHM’s workshipful scribes…

Hello, Isabel! You’ve been overseas, haven’t you?
Yeah, I’ve been living in Namibia for the last two months with OzQuest. They’re an Australian non-profit organisation and they travel to different developing countries, organising projects that help the communities there.

So what sort of stuff were you doing? Digging wells?
There were a couple of projects that we were working on. The first project was building a big elephants’ trough.

Umm… elephant trough?
Yeah, it’s to keep the elephants separate to the community’s drinking system.

Were they battering the villagers?
Yeah the elephants are a threat to the locals, since water is so scarce. They’ve been known to kill people and knock down their houses to get to their water systems.

We understand. Elephants killed our parents…
Hmm… Well they were beautiful. We saw a lot while we were there, especially while we were trekking. The other project was building a big permaculture fruit and veggie garden – literally in the desert.

Working in all that sand, is there any orifice that doesn’t get all sandy?
Ah, not really. When we were working, it was a lot of hard, messy, physical work and at the end of the day we were all caked in dirt and often we couldn’t shower for days. But you learn to embrace it. It sounds cliched, but our group was so aware of how our hard work was making a real difference and helping people there, it was so worth it.

Fifty degree heat must have been a nice change from hanging on the beach in Summer Bay in the winter pretending it was summer?
Yeah, that’s true – 5am winter mornings on the wild, windy beach.

Is playing a woman with amnesia the easiest first acting job ever?
Oh, absolutely. Not a challenge in the slightest. Tasha was such a unique character, with an extremely unusual background… But it was a challenge in that there wasn’t much substance to base the character on or relate to, which is great for an imaginative person like myself.

Have you ever had amnesia in real life?
Uhm, No.

Have you ever had amnesia in real life?
No.

Have you ever had amnesia in real life?
Uhm, no, ha ha. Have you?

We can’t remember. That guy you married on the show was 16 one week and then a grown man the next. What was that about?
Yeah, I think the scriptwriters thought we wouldn’t notice that.

And what is the go with all the hot women at Summer Bay?
Ooo… you think? It must be the water. Obviously production lean towards casting attractive people.

What’s your stance on nudity? Would you strip down for your art?
It would really depend on how I felt about the script. If nudity was required to make it “full”, then I’d consider it. If it was a gimmick to get people to watch it… that’s not what it’s about for me.

So that’s a no to Bikini High School Massacre 6, then?
Yeah, I think you’re getting my drift.

We’re clever! You’ve just come back from Africa, which is full of animals. Who do you think would win a fight between a gorilla and a shark?
That depends whether they were in the water or not. If they were, the shark.

What if they were in knee-deep water? Little of an advantage to both, but also a disadvantage.
I reckon the gorilla would probably go close, then. What do you reckon?

We’d probably go for the shark, because it’s hard for the gorilla to land a killer blow whereas the shark just needs to hit him once.
Have you ever seen this occur?

We saw a gorilla get eaten by a shark on The Simpsons once.
Right. Is that where you formed the question?

Er… Moving quickly along. What do you find attractive in a guy?
I find it attractive when someone reveals themself to you. People who are really honest and real, who can just be themselves. Humility, spontaneity and compassion are beautiful qualities.

Do you normally remain friends with people you’ve had relationships with?
Yeah, I’ve remained friends with all of my exes. Haven’t you?

Er… We’ve never even been on a date.
Really?

We just sit at home and play computer games.
What? I don’t believe you. Do you have a girlfriend?

We just cry ourselves to sleep in our Battlestar Galactica.

(Check out scans of Isabel’s spread in our gallery below!)