Home and Away star responds to Mackenzie's devastating new story

 She called the filming "difficult" but "rewarding".

Home and Away actor Emily Weir has opened up about the devastating storyline involving her character, Mackenzie Booth. In scenes airing in Australia this week, the fan-favourite character learns that her pregnancy has come to an early end.

With this being the second occasion that Mackenzie and Levi Fowler have lost a baby, Weir told TV Week that her character struggles to come to terms with the "intense shock" of the situation.

She's in absolute denial, intense shock, fear and grief," said the actor. "Mackenzie is pleading with reality for it not to be real. She collapses and is folded in by the grief, but is also forced into decision-making about 'next moves', which enrages her."

Weir added that she worked hard with co-star Tristan Gorey, who plays Levi, to bring an honesty and care to their scenes, with the pair wanting to do right by fans who have gone through the experience in real life.

"Tristan and I are committed to embodying the truth of these heart-wrenching scenes, as many of our viewers know the experience well," she explained. "We always want to dig deep and do our best — which, as creatives, makes the work worthwhile."

"It was an incredible experience [to film]. It was difficult to tap into those deep emotions and sustain them for the entirety of filming this sequence, but [it was] really rewarding," added the actor, who joined the soap in 2019.

Looking forward, Weir said that the loss "greatly impacts" the relationship between Mackenzie and Levi. Despite the couple loving "each other so much", the actor indicated that they may struggle to process the grief together.

Elsewhere on the Australian soap, there will be chaos in Summer Bay as a mysterious thief targets the town in a spate of robberies. Lacey Miller is one of the characters affected by the crimes, and her father David Langham immediately begins to investigate.