ACTRESSES BECOME MEAN MUMS
Former Neighbours star Morgana O’Reilly and Anna Jullienne are hoping their comedy pilot Mean Mums wins Three’s new comedy pilot week next Sunday. The pair play mean mums battling it out with other parents for supremacy on the school turf.
O’Reilly has a 3-year-old daughter and is expecting her second baby in the next few months, so hasn’t yet experienced schoolyard cattiness, but says she now knows what to expect when her kids get to the school stage.
“The day will come when I must face the school playground again, but as a parent,” she says. “I actually can’t wait to meet all the characters. By the sounds of things, it might even give me enough material to make a comedy series. Oh wait. We’re all over that.” Filming while pregnant meant O’Reilly had to spend most of her scenes hiding behind objects in order to distract from her baby bump, including one hilarious scene where she has to hide behind a giant stuffed pig. Luckily she had an expert on hand to offer advice in the form of mother-of-two Jullienne who spent the most of season 2 of 800 Words in a similar predicament.
If Mean Mums is selected to be a series, O’Reilly will return from her home base in Melbourne once the new baby arrives.
“I love being home in Aotearoa. I’m constantly plotting, scheming and threatening to move back. Thankfully work is the thing that brings me home. Two of my favourite things! Still, a bullet train under the Tasman would be pretty sweet.”
The Mean Mums pilot also stars former Shorty hottie Sonny Tupu, Aroha Rawson and Allan
Henry. Comedian Pax Assadi, of Freakin Dangerous Bro, also makes an appearance.