Then she became Portia, the heroine in The Merchant of Venice, as the audience followed the little troupe around the schoolyard in Warwick, a small town in the Darling Downs, 130 kilometres south-west of Brisbane.

"It was very ambitious, playing all these different characters," Adrienne, now 36, says over a salad in a Sydney cafe, her habitual wide smile breaking into her trademark infectious laugh. "I encouraged the drama teacher to put Shakespeare on in the playground. I thought, 'Everyone's into this, what a great idea.'

"I didn't realise it at the time, but my drama teacher said to me years later that it was very driven by me wanting to play all these characters."

Audiences might best know Adrienne as Missy, a hooker turned writer turned drug addict who hilariously unravelled by the fourth season of the ABC comedy Rake, melting down in the courtroom and outpacing Richard Roxburgh's lascivious lawyer Cleaver Greene at hedonism.

When Rake last aired, Missy was pregnant and Cleaver had been voted into federal parliament. She can't confirm if the show will return, though it's tempting to think of Missy embarking on a new career as a political adviser.

In the meantime, Adrienne has transformed into raucous Eileen "Red" Bond, ex-wife of the late West Australian mining, brewery and media magnate Alan Bond. The two-part Channel Nine miniseries House of Bond charts the Napoleonic rise and fall of the man who wins the America's Cup but is then convicted and jailed over one of Australia's largest corporate frauds.

"You can start by throwing that bitch out!" are the first words we hear from Pickering in a flash-forward as Alan (Ben Mingay) parades his mistress Diana Bliss (Rachael Taylor) in front of Eileen.

"My family always thinks it's funny, the roles I get cast in," says Adrienne, denying she's an extrovert like Missy or Red. "The roles are very different to me. I feel like I'm quite shy."

"As I've got older, I've become better at dealing with that. I do experience some freedom, playing a role, and empowered, I think, by my own ability to really feel what the characters are feeling in the moment. So that gives me the launching pad to maybe be brave and big. I play interesting roles, and I want to play them fully. I believe in showing people all that they are."

Camilla and Marc "Claudel" blazer, $750, and "Coco" dress, $2000. Zara shoes, $90. Photo: Bec Parsons

I ask her about a social media photo of herself smiling and flipping the bird in the direction of Trump Tower in New York last year. "Oh no!" she laughs. "I knew I shouldn't have put that up."

Actually, the picture is on the Instagram page of Chris Phillips, the man she confirms is her beau. He's a Melbourne freelance filmmaker and advertising art director whose website lists his likes as surfing, Frisbee and apples, and his dislikes as winter, wearing shoes and stomach parasites. Phillips has created ad campaigns for social justice programs, as well as documenting people's lives in developing countries such as Cambodia.

Serious relationship? "Yes," she says, briefly showing a ring. "We are trying to organise a wedding. At some point we will get married. We need some time to work out when we can do that."

What's the attraction? "Chris is the most amazing man I could dream of spending five minutes with, let alone a lifetime. To me, he's just the most perfect, lovely human. And he's quite fond of me, so that helps."

The couple had been friends for a long time, sharing the same crew of Melbourne friends. "At one point about five years ago we were both single and we fell in love with each other. Very lucky." Adrienne has been learning to surf with Phillips for two years. He's much improved; despite being athletic and a good swimmer, she isn't.

"I'm terrible at surfing," she says. "I will not pretend that I am any good. It's really beautiful and they make it look so easy. But if you don't grow up doing it, It's a really hard thing to master. Each wave is different, and reading the water is another thing."

Adrienne took more naturally to acting, though she found trying to break through in Los Angeles isolating. However, she says she will try again if she can also work in Australia.

"Adrienne as an actress is very chameleon," says House of Bond producer Paul Bennett. "Rake is more her natural look. When you see her as Eileen, with the orange wig, you can see her physically transform into the person, whereas some actors are just themselves, with someone else's words coming out of their mouth. Neither way is better or worse, it's just a different process."

Adrienne admits she is flattered by this observation, especially as she has never met Eileen, only studied archival footage. She then reveals that her grandmother, Dorothy Pickering, who worked in the family's textile business, was her eventual inspiration when it came to depicting Eileen's exuberant, resilient and curious personality.

"My grandmother had lived through the Depression and war and had seen some scary things, and she was very good at going, 'Well, you can't dwell on it, Adrienne; pick yourself up and keep going.' And, 'You can't just sit at home and cry. Get out there.' I felt I really connected with that, because Eileen just keeps coming back. She doesn't give up; she keeps going for her family and the life that she wants."

Adrienne had been sending photos from the set to her grandmother, but during the shoot, Dorothy died. "She was an incredible woman who lived a very full, exciting, social life."

Carla Zampatti "Royal Velvet" cape, $1099. Morrison "Clementine" dress, $599. Tony Bianco shoes, $220. Photo: Bec Parsons

Her grandmother isn't the only major family influence on her life. A scan of her Twitter feed reveals that she shares many social justice concerns with her father Peter, a school career guidance counsellor. They include refugees, global warming, renewable energy, bullying of kids and violence against women.

She expresses shame at both the major political parties' treatment of refugees. Are we becoming a harder, less compassionate country? "I reckon," she says. "I get so frustrated with the dehumanising of people, particularly with the asylum-seeker issue.

"Unless you're First Nations people, we all came from another country, and asylum seekers are just trying to get a better life, whether you call them economic refugees or whatever name you give it. It makes me upset, because people are just trying to help their families."

Would it be fair to say her dad's world view influenced hers? "Yeah, definitely. I've always felt very close to Dad. I've inherited his ethics palette in a lot of ways. He's really passionate and very fair and very grounded, and I feel he's a great influence on me."

Peter grew up in Melbourne, where he met Adrienne's mum, Delys. They later headed to rural Queensland, where they raised a family of six children.

Adrienne doesn't buy the stereotype that rural Queenslanders are all socially conservative by nature. "People don't fit the mould you always think," she says. "I really didn't grow up thinking we were the crazy greenie people at all."

Delys, too, still demonstrates empathy for others despite being increasingly ill with Alzheimer's. "It's come on pretty strongly over the last few years," says Adrienne. "It's been a real challenge for our family. She's a very strong, beautiful, life-loving person. Even now, she will see someone who's upset and hold their hand. She doesn't even know who they are, and she'll hold their hand."

Adrienne recommends a rural upbringing when it comes to sowing the seeds of creativity. "That's the thing about growing up in the country: you've got a lot of space for made-up games and idiocy without judgment."

Max Mara coat, $4665. H&M Conscious Exclusive "Leonora Dreamy" dress, $269. Zara boots. Photo: Bec Parsons

All six Pickering children are creative. One brother, Chris, composes and plays music. Another, Vincent, teaches film and TV, while a third, Andrew, is about to start studying film and TV and wants to act. One sister, Raewyn, has just started doing stand-up comedy and her other sister, Frances, is a social worker and counsellor in London.

Adrienne, who majored in psychology and drama at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, might have followed in Frances' footsteps if not for her first break in TV. That was in 2004, playing Sophia Beaumont in All Saints while she was still studying.

And now, 13 years later, she's playing Eileen Bond in a production that, amid the drama, features some wry comedy gold: Alan in the family loo next to a painting of Napoleon on a horse; Eileen falling asleep with a copy of Valley of the Dolls open on her chest.

(The real Eileen, although not consulted in the making of House of Bond, initially approved of Adrienne as a "good sort in a great cast". But now, having seen a trailer, she's dismayed at some of the dialogue.)

After this domestic drama plays out, Adrienne will appear in the seventh season of Ten's Offspring. While Offspring is proving light and fun, Adrienne longs to play Missy again. "I just love Rake so much," she says. "Missy has been so polished at times, but she also has this great capacity to f--- everything up, like all the characters on the show.

"With Missy, you have hilariously over-the-top theatrical moments, and then your heart breaks with one beautiful, truthful scene. I love playing on the edge with Missy, because behind it all is this incredible sense of loneliness and being betrayed."

FIVE FACTS ADRIENNE PICKERING

• Adrienne's second TV role was in Headland in 2005, playing Elly Tate. Seven cancelled the series, and much of her year's work never made it to air.
• In House of Bond, Adrienne portrays Eileen from her 20s to her early 50s.
• In Rake, her character Melissa "Missy" Partridge's lovers included Cleaver Greene, Cleaver's son Fuzz, MP David Potter and TV shock jock Cal McGregor
• Adrienne hedged her bets in psychology and drama because she thought acting might be too tough to break into.
• Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson are among the comedians who make her laugh.

House of Bond is screening on Channel Nine on Monday April 25 and Tuesday April 25.