‘Before I knew it, I was auditioning', says RTE Fair City star as she opens up on how hit soap changed her life
The popular actress first joined the soap in the summer of 2023 and plays the beloved Babs Mullen on the long-running soap.
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Ali opened up on how joining the show changed her life
Credit: Instagram
And although she joined the soap more than two years ago, Ali's storylines continued to mount and became more dramatic.
She also opened up on the surprising story behind her casting on Fair City.
She told RSVP: "One of the producers who was working on casting within Fair City was following me on
'This woman DM'ed me out of the blue and said, 'really enjoying your comedy, if we ever had a role come up that was suitable for you, would you be interested in coming in to audition for us?'
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'And I thought, 'this is so not the conventional way of getting auditions', or so I thought in my mind, although social media has completely changed that landscape now and there's opportunity everywhere."
She added: 'I thought, 'yeah, like, what have I got to lose here? I'm going to give this casting producer my email address and sure, if she has something suitable in the future, brilliant, she'll reach out to me. And if she doesn't, you know, it's okay.'
'So, I gave my email address and within a couple of months, I received an email from her. She said, 'I think I have something for you here. If you're interested, could you send your CV and your show reel onto me and we'll take it from there?' Which I did.
'Before I knew it, I was auditioning through self-tape for the show."
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Ali also opened up on how joining the show completely changed her life.
She explained: 'It really changed my whole life because sometimes going into a new job — no matter what it is — as an actor, you're being brought in as an individual so it's so daunting."
A look at tonight's episode of Fair City
Another Fair City star
SHOCK CITY
The actor's mum Kathy was diagnosed with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as broken heart syndrome, after the death of her husband and Johnny's father, in 2019.
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Kathy has since struggled with her health battle as she later suffered a heart attack and a stroke.
STAR'S TRUTH
After the now-73-year-old's stroke,
In March 2021 his sister Maureen moved back in with their mum while he was busy working on a project, which is when he met his wife Brenda.
Johnny's mum was diagnosed with cancer earlier last year and has "been in and out of the hospital" ever since.
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And as her condition progresses, Johnny now spends a lot of time caring for his mum.
He told The
"Even if you do get away to that weekend wedding and someone else, like your neighbour or your auntie, helps out your mum, there's an emotional attachment and that's very difficult to get rid of.
"It's a feeling of guilt, where you're thinking, 'God, what if something happens; I shouldn't be here, I should go home' and that's very difficult."
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