Life is imitating art for Olympia Valance, whom we’ve come to know as fierce and fearless Tahlia in Playing For Keeps.
The 26-year-old recently began dating AFL star Thomas Bellchambers – a ruckman for the Essendon Bombers – and couldn’t be happier.
“I go to work, do my job and then come home to my boyfriend,” Olympia says. “It’s nice at the moment.”
Olympia and her new boyfriend, Thomas Bellchambers.
While dating a footballer isn’t nearly the dramatic and salacious whirlwind we see in the hit series, Olympia admits there are parallels being a WAG both on and off screen.
“There are definitely similarities,” she says with a laugh. “It’s hilarious, really. Sometimes I read the scripts and I’m like, ‘Is this my life?’ Some of the conversations in the show are ones I’ve had with Thomas.”
However, there has been one big change for the actress since she fell for the star footballer.
“Obviously, I’ve changed AFL teams [as a supporter],” Olympia says jokingly.
“I know far more about the game than I ever did before – and I watch the football all the time now.”
“Some of the conversations in the show are ones I’ve had with Thomas.”
Into her fourth late night of filming when she sits down to chat to TV WEEK, Olympia is exhausted, but she says that just makes her more grateful for the friendships she’s forged with her co-stars.
“We’re like family,” she explains. “We sit for hours and talk [in between shooting scenes]. We have so much fun.”
Given their full-on work schedules, the friendships forged thanks to Playing For Keeps could easily have been a different story.
“Thank God we all like each other,” Olympia says with a laugh, “because we’re all in such close proximity for so many hours a day.”
Olympia was thrilled to be back with her PFK co-stars.
Playing For Keeps airs Wednesday, 8.30pm, on 10.
