When 19-year-old Aussie actress Olivia Deeble headed to Los Angeles for pilot season, she learnt two things; That most people couldn’t tell if her accent was English or Australian and that in every project she auditioned for, she seemed to be playing the same few roles over and over again.
“Australian film, TV, culture, music and art doesn’t get enough representation or understanding overseas,” Olivia tells TV WEEK.
“Being a young Australian actor in America and no one even knowing I was English or Australian, that was shocking for me.”
“No one my age was writing things for our own demographic.”
(Image: Paramount+)As she reflected on her experience, she realised that the lack of young, complex and realistic characters written into these shows wasn’t for a lack of trying, it was because the wrong people were writing them.
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“No one my age was writing things for our own demographic. And no one was representing the true Australian experience,” she explains. “Australian high school is so different to American or English high school. I wanted to tell that story, and lessen the gap between young people in mainstream media creating these things.”
Working with her best friend and collaborator, trans non-binary actor and filmmaker, Luka Gracie, the pair started interviewing their peers and writing a show that would connect with generation Z, mirroring the true, Aussie high school experience today.
She wrote the show with her best friend, filmmaker, Luka Gracie.
(Image: Instagram)While the former Home and Away actress was comfortable acting in her own project, stepping into a production role was challenging, and a risk.
Thankfully, she had a solid support system in her mother director and producer Kate Gorman, and aunt, producer Charmaine Gorman who had faith in Olivia and More Than This from the very start.
“The best part was having these incredible, experienced adults come together because they believed in me and they believed that it was something they wanted to be a part of,” she says.
“Production was really hard work and it made me appreciate how much goes into it.”
(Image: Instagram)“Production was really hard work and it made me appreciate how much goes into it. As an actor, you step on set and you do your lines but then you get to go. I was hands on. I’d sit on set even if I wasn’t filming because if anyone had questions about lines, I could help. It made me so proud of myself that I stepped up and did that.”
These days, Olivia has her hands full studying English literature and media whilst writing season two of More Than This. But that doesn’t mean a Home and Away return is completely off the rising star’s horizon.
“I will always be a little bit open,” she shares. “I have so much love for the cast and crew and I would love to see Rafi come back. It depends on what everyone else is doing in the bay.”
