SUMMER LOVIN’
Home and Away star Sophie Dillman tells Lisa Woolford about the year ahead for Summer Bay
YOU’D imagine living and working long hours in the pressure cooker that is television wouldn’t be ideal for a couple, but you’d be wrong. Home and Away’s Sophie Dillman, who stars alongside real-life boyfriend Patrick O’Connor, says it’s an unexpected blessing.
“Honestly, it’s so funny,” Dillman laughs.
“We knew each other from uni, then we both got jobs on the show and we always got along. Then our characters got together – and then we did. We spend every waking minute together, but it’s really lucky because we were really good friends first. We’re still best mates. It just means I get to hang out with my best mate all the time.”
Is it trickier now she and O’Connor’s characters, Ziggy Astoni and Dean Thompson, have split on the show?
“We’ve never taken our arguments home or our arguments to work,” she explains.
“When we’re at home, we’re Paddy and Sophie. At work, we’re Ziggy and Dean. I find when you sit in the make-up chair for an hour and you have your hair and make-up done – which is something I don’t do at home – and then you put the costume on, it’s a whole transformation. And then after you finish a day, you take your make-up off and clothes off and it is like taking the character off.”
Dillman – along with the rest of the world – was more than ready to shed 2020.
“Everyone thought that 2020 was going to be about what was next but it ended up us appreciating what we had,” Dillman sagely says.
The iconic soap’s tight-knit cast and crew certainly grew in gratitude for each other in their most challenging year.
Producer Lucy Addario says while there are challenges every season, shutting down production for nine weeks was previously unimaginable. There’s been long days and weeks as the team scrambled to make up for lost time.
“We’ve had extra shoots, used extra studios – we were just really happy to get to our finish line and achieve what we set out to do,” she says.
And that included the gripping 2020 finale where Ziggy and Tane Parata (Ethan Browne) gave in to the growing chemistry between them. When sneaking out before Tane woke up, Ziggy bumped into Dean, who begged her to give them another chance.
Dillman hints that 2021 is going to be full of surprises for viewers, and she hopes it’s time Ziggy gets a bit of a break.
“She’s had a lot of her youth taken in a sense,” she says. “She got married quickly because her mum was really sick, then it was still quite adult with Dean. A lot of her carefreeness disappeared.
I think this is hopefully her opportunity to be a 22 year old for a while.”
The multi-Logie winning series is going to keep bringing all the feels this new season.
“It’s been so nice at a time like this to go, ‘What a great job we’ve got. We get to help make people feel happy and escape’,” Addario says, before adding fans had better buckle up for 2021.
“It’s a new beginning for a lot of characters which will be great,” she says. “There’s lots of drama, lots of surprise, lots of heartbreak. I’m sure the fans won’t be disappointed.”
HOME AND AWAY
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