Beach life:
Home And Away’s Sophie Dillman spends a lot of her working life wearing just a bikini in her role as Ziggy Morgan. And, as she tells Kerry Harvey, she is happy to do so, particularly if it helps young women feel comfortable about their own bodies.
Wearing a bikini is all part of the job for Home And Away star.
Her on-screen marriage might be on life support but, in reality, actress Sophie Dillman (left) is thriving in Summer Bay. “I am still gobsmacked that I get to do this every day,” says the former nurse of her Home And Away role as Ziggy Morgan, the newlywed who is unaware her husband Brody (Jackson Heywood) is embroiled in an affair with aspiring chef Simone (Emily Eskell). The 25 year old still remembers the moment she discovered she had been cast in the long-running Australian drama. “I had just been thrown up on by a patient and I was changing my scrubs when I missed a call from my agent. I called my agent back, covered in vomit, and they told me I’d got the job,” she says, laughing. Dillman moved to Australia’s most famous beachside town in June 2017, along with the rest of the Astoni family – dad Ben (Rohan Nichol), mum Maggie (Kestie Morassi) and younger sister Coco (Anna Coquerel) – the first nuclear family to join the show in nearly two decades. Coming up two years on, the quartet is inseparable. “I actually call my real-life mum and dad Carrie and Mark and I call Kestie and Rohan ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ so that gives you an indication,” she says. “We did a very big lunch (with my parents) when we first got the job and had a great day together and now my mum is
my fake mum’s number one fan and they talk all the time.”
Troubled teen Ziggy quickly made her mark in the bay – and not in a positive way. She ran away from home, stole a car and a handbag, and struggled to find a job or any direction in her life.
Meanwhile, she fell for then drug addict Brody Morgan, much to the consternation of her father.
It was a very different lifestyle to the one Dillman, now 25, lived at the same age.
“At that stage of my life, I would have been just finishing my nursing degree and just starting my acting degree. I certainly haven’t stolen any cars,” she says, laughing.
“I think I may have attempted to ride someone’s motorbike around that age but I was quickly stopped and encouraged not to do that.”
Unlike Ziggy who, despite being married to Brody, is still struggling to find happiness, Dillman is loving life and putting her newfound fame to good use as a spokesperson for several Australian charities.
Last year she was an Ambassador for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, encouraging people to donate blood, and she also works with Reach Out, a youth mental health organisation.
“I’m really lucky to have a platform that means I can speak out, so I do. I think it’s very important that, if you’ve got the public eye looking at you, that you use it for good,” she says.
“I’m really passionate about that sort of thing. I am more than happy to help out, especially anything to do with women or anything medical.”
Dillman – who spends many of her working hours in a bikini – is also keen to help young women feel comfortable about their bodies.
“No one at work has ever pressured me to look a certain way – ever.
“I think, if anything, I put pressure on myself and everyone at work puts pressure on themselves because they believe they should look a certain way,” she says.
“I was really stressed the first time I had to get into a bikini at work. I was honestly freaked out and still I have days when I don’t want to be in togs. But everyone at work makes me feel super, super comfortable and that’s all that you can ask for.
“I like the idea that women are powerful and fit and healthy. I grew up doing a lot of sport and instead of thinking about what I looked like, it was what my body could do and I think that’s really important.
“I would hate to think that a girl would look at me and think they had to lose weight to look like that. That would be my worst nightmare. I would hope young women look at me and go, ‘Wow, how fit and
healthy is she’.”