There’s a tinkling tune almost drowning out Yael Stone’s voice as she chats to TV WEEK, sitting on the floor of an office in western Sydney.
“It’s like we’re on a carousel!” Yael says, laughing. “When you write up the story, ‘We were riding on the horses…'”
In fact, the tune is coming from a wind-up toy that a nanny, also sitting on the floor, is using to distract Yael’s baby, Marli. It’s the last day of shooting for new drama series One Night, where Yael stars alongside Nicole da Silva and Jodie Whittaker, and Marli has spent the shoot on set, close to her mum.
Yael, 38, wasn’t planning to return to work so soon after the birth of her second daughter. But then the script for One Night – to be shot in Thirroul, 70km south of Sydney near her home on the NSW South Coast – came along.
“It was one of those jobs where it’s like, ‘Oh, this is actually too good to be true.’ I’m going to have to say yes and somehow make this work, even though she’s so little,'” she explains.
The trio’s friendship goes back to their teens – but it’s about to implode.
(Image: Supplied)Over in the UK, Jodie, Doctor Who’s first female Doctor, had a similar reaction when she was sent the One Night script.
“I was on maternity leave,” the 41-year-old tells TV WEEK. “I’d been offered a few things and I was like, ‘I don’t want to go back to work yet; I’m at home in the bubble.’ I also said very clearly that if I’m going to work, it’s going to be really convenient, it’s going to be London, because [filming] Doctor Who meant living in a completely different city for three years. And then I read it…”
One Night is the story of three friends – Hat (Yael), Simone (Nicole) and Tess (Jodie) – whose lives have been forever changed by the traumatic events of one night in their home town 20 years earlier.
Only Hat remained in the town after that night, but now Simone and Tess are back – Simone, looking after her dad with dementia, and Tess, bringing her wife Vicky (Kat Stewart) and kids over from the UK to spend a year in Australia.
Without telling the other two, Simone has written a book about what happened 20 years ago, and when it’s published, everyone is talking about that night.
It’s been 20 years since Hat and Simone have seen each other.
(Image: Supplied)Nicole, 41, said yes to the role before she knew who she’d be starring with – “I loved that there were three complicated and interesting women at the fore of the story” – but was thrilled to find herself acting alongside her longtime friend Yael for the first time.
“Nicole stayed with me in New York in our very small apartment when she was doing a short acting course,” Yael recalls. “It was quite a serious acting course.
I was always nervous about acting with Nicole, because I knew she was very serious about her work.”
“I’m very serious about my work, but not very serious about myself!” Nicole explains.
One thing the pair have never talked about in their years of friendship: their experiences working on iconic prison dramas Wentworth, where Nicole played Franky, and Orange Is The New Black, where Yael played Lorna.
“We haven’t even mentioned that I auditioned for your role,” Yael says.
“Did you?” Nicole asks. “I had no idea!”
Vicky (centre) and wife Tess arrive with their children Arthur (Jude Hyland) and Lily (Harper Simon).
(Image: Supplied)As for Jodie, she turned up on the One Night set not knowing anyone in the cast or crew. But she says it was “a joy” to play Yael and Nicole’s on-screen friend.
“Whenever we had scenes as a three, I was like, ‘Hi!'” she says. “I’m totally opposite to Tess, in the sense that I’m very tactile and I don’t shut up.”
One of the biggest challenges for Yorkshire-born Jodie was saying her lines in an Australian accent, while Kat, playing her wife, had to speak in a British accent.
“I’d be like, ‘Am I saying this right?’ and she’d go, ‘Am I saying this right?'” Jodie remembers.
Kat, 50, tells TV WEEK it was “so funny” swapping accents when she and Jodie were chatting between scenes.
“She has a great ear,” the Five Bedrooms star enthuses. “She’s an absolute delight to work with.”
Hat and husband Mark (Damien Strouthos) are hosting a get-together.
(Image: Supplied)Although the final day of shooting took place in Sydney’s Parramatta (“I grew up around this area, so it’s nice to be back,” Nicole says), most of the series was shot in Thirroul. For Yael, it was a chance to show off the beautiful coastline she and partner Jack Manning Bancroft call home.
“I love where we live and wanted everything to go just perfectly,” she says. “When it rained, like monsoonal – we literally had cars float away – I was just like, ‘I’m so sorry!'”
Despite the rain, Jodie fell in love with Thirroul, as Yael had hoped she would.
“I kept texting her, going, ‘I’ve spent a fortune in that shop!'” Jodie says.
“I loved it down there.”
Simone is having second thoughts about letting her book be published, but it’s too late now. big interview: The cast of One Night
(Image: Supplied)The British actress and her actor husband Christian Contreras couldn’t stay in Australia for a holiday after filming ended, needing to get their eight-year-old daughter home.
For Yael, having baby Marli on set turned out to be “a challenging juggle”, but also “the most amazing thing”.
“It’s brought us all a lot closer together,” she adds.
Nicole says she was in a similar position with her now five-year-old daughter when in Doctor Doctor.
“I was heavily pregnant during one season and had a toddler during another,” she explains. “So it’s these seminal times in your life that are marked by these wonderful worlds you get to play in.”
Mark your calendars for September 1 when the first season of One Night premieres on Paramount Plus.
