Actress Kat Stewart says Holly Andrews was the right choice to play Roberta Williams in Fat Tony & Co despite Williams claiming she has been poorly depicted.
Stewart won the Most Outstanding Actress Logie for her portrayal of Williams, the ex-wife of the slain gangland boss Carl Williams, in the original series of Underbelly in 2008.
Andrews took over the role of Williams in Fat Tony & Co which details the rise and fall of drug lord Tony Mokbel. The new series was launched on Sunday on the Nine Network.
Williams on Monday lashed out at the way she was portrayed as a mother and the manner in which she was shown communicating with her children.
She also says she never took drugs.
"My parenting skills are a lot better than they portray them to be on the series, I certainly don't sit around taking drugs in public or anywhere else," Williams told radio station Triple M's breakfast show.
"I don't speak to my children the way they portrayed me to do so."
She also said Fat Tony & Co stopped short of revealing what really happened when she confronted Carl Williams about an affair he was having.
The scene depicted Carl (played by Gyton Grantley) holding a gun to the stomach of his then pregnant wife.
"I confronted Carl ... he was having an affair with some girl, I confronted him and he got a bit angry at me and he shot at me."
Stewart, who has just finished the fifth season of Offspring for Network Ten, says she was torn about her decision not to play Roberta Williams in Fat Tony & Co.
Besides a possible scheduling clash with other acting jobs, Stewart said it was only fitting someone else play Roberta this time around because she has become much more of a public figure.
"I did as much research as I could (for Underbelly) but it was an act of imagination," Stewart told AAP.
"Had I had all that information available to me last time, it would have been a different characterisation ... we know so much more about her now.
"I felt like I was going to have to start from scratch and I thought a new person should have a crack at it."
Stewart said she could not have been happier when Andrews was cast in Fat Tony & Co opposite many of the actors who reprised their roles from the original Underbelly.
"It was hard not do it in many ways, but I felt it was the right thing to do," she said.
"Holly is someone I have worked with a lot and she is terrific actor and I am glad she got the chance to do it."
