Latest news with #MorganaOReilly
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
‘Nobody's screaming at each other': The White Lotus actor addresses cast tensions
On the cusp of turning 40, Morgana O'Reilly finds herself in a career sweet spot thanks to The White Lotus. Having racked up almost 20 years of performances in shows such as Neighbours, Rosehaven and Wentworth, it was O'Reilly's small but memorably meme-able role as The White Lotus' officious hotel wellness mentor, Pam, which has thrust the Kiwi actor into the global spotlight. 'In my more vulnerable moments, I go, 'Oh my gosh. I can't believe this is all happening, right at this point. I mean, I don't look 28!' she reflects to Stellar. 'But it's also wonderfully indicative of what is available [to actors as they get older]. And it's also great, because I'm so much better at what I do now than when I was 28 and maybe, hopefully, it is indicative of a world where that's what we want to see.' O'Reilly will celebrate the big 4-0 singing and dancing with friends and family, noting that she was pregnant with her daughter when she turned 30 so a party is long overdue. Far from feeling anxious about the milestone, O'Reilly is impatient for her birthday, laughing: 'From 37 through to 40 just feels like waiting in line for the bathroom. 'It's just like, 'Hurry up! We may as well get there'. Let's just crack on.' And there's a lot to be excited about, thanks in part to The White Lotus. The anthology murder mystery series set in a chain of luxury hotels has become a water cooler hit of 2025. Having seen the hype around the first two series, reinvigorating Jennifer Coolidge's career and putting Aussie actor Murray Bartlet on the map, O'Reilly was understandably thrilled to be cast alongside Parker Posey, Carrie Coon and Sam Rockwell for the latest whodunnit in Thailand. And yet, O'Reilly didn't feel any pressure, reasoning: 'to the American market, I'm basically a nobody, so there were no expectations to meet. 'I just went in to do my best … I'm a fairly confident and outgoing person, but I found trying to be in that space — working with all those amazing fancy people — not that they ever made me feel like an outsider, I was going: 'you have a right to be here' quietly in my room before going out.' In the end, the cast became tight knit and O'Reilly now considers many of them friends. Scoffing at persistent rumours of tensions on set, O'Reilly explains: 'when you're working together, it's not all peaches and roses. 'But nobody's screaming at each other. If you lived with people for six months, you'd be like, 'Oh, that person's getting a bit annoying'. 'That's probably the extent of it. Otherwise, it was always just such lovely vibes. Everyone was such consummate professionals, and nobody's there being a diva or demanding more than other people. Everyone was beautiful, respectful and kind.' The White Lotus has opened doors for O'Reilly. 'People are so nice to me now,' she says, laughing. 'Not that they weren't before … but there's language in our industry which suggests a finish line, which is fictional. This idea that 'you've made it', that's not real. You haven't made anything. You haven't finished. It's all tides on the beach. 'But after doing that show, I felt maybe that has unlocked a special bonus round.' O'Reilly went straight from the Thai set of The White Lotus into shooting Stories About My Body – an upcoming film adaptation of her one-woman stage show directed by her husband, Peter Salmon – in New Zealand to filming Playing Gracie Darling in the Hawkesbury River region. In Playing Gracie Darling, O'Reilly plays Joni Gray, a child psychologist who is haunted by the disappearance of her best friend during a seance years earlier. When another member of the Darling family disappears, Joni returns to her hometown to face her demons and search for answers to both mysteries. Finding herself in the lead role on the mystery which also stars Dame Harriet Walter and Celia Pacquola was a dream come true for O'Reilly. 'I'm a Leo,' she hazards of her horoscope sign, which is typically associated with leadership. 'So, come on, it's delicious! It feels like being promoted to a managerial position.' The supernatural subject matter of Gracie Darling also struck a chord with O'Reilly who took part in a lot of slumber party seances when she was a kid. 'I am of The Craft generation!' she enthuses of the 1996 film about a high school coven starring Neve Campbell. 'I love a ghost story. I love anything a bit witchy.' O'Reilly has always been encouraged explore her imagination. The daughter of a choreographer and a graphic designer herself, O'Reilly 'grew up in rehearsal rooms and dark theatres, and mum's boot was always filled with strange costumes. 'And, yeah, putting on shows was just a very normal thing.' And she is proudly exposing her own kids Ziggy, six, and Luna 10 to that same sort of creative energy. 'I'm comfortable with the fact that they're not going to have a conventional life,' she smiles. 'I think if it was a priority for us that they have a conventional stay in the one school all the time life, then we would have to find different jobs. 'It's hard for them sometimes and then I have to remind them: 'Sorry, but you were just born into this crazy art family, and we're just going to go on lots of adventures. Some people go away to get away, and some people go away because it helps them understand what they love about home. And so, you'll understand home in a way that other people won't, because you'll be away from it for a bit'.' While the location of the fourth season of The White Lotus is still unknown, O'Reilly would happily pack up the family and head anywhere in the world that creator Mike White wanted should she be tapped to return. 'I'm not holding my breath but I did jokingly say to Mike when I last saw him: 'I work at the hotel, so I could come back in the fourth season. Right? Nudge, nudge …' And unlike some of her fellow cast, Pam didn't die and so, theoretically that makes her comeback a more likely proposition. Although O'Reilly has come to believe that anything is possible in TV – even a resurrection from the grave. 'I remember doing Neighbours and somebody saying to me: 'Well, nobody can really die on television,'' she laughs. 'And that's true. You know you can always come back. You can come back as a twin. You can come back as an apparition. You can come back with amnesia.'
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Morgana O'Reilly stars in haunting new Aussie series that will hook viewers from the first scene
An eerie new Aussie series is upon us and it will have you hooked from the very first scene. Paramount+ Australia's original new series Playing Gracie Darling is a haunting tale that follows 14-year-old Joni and her three friends who hold a seance in an abandoned house. It ends in horrific circumstances when one of the girls, Gracie Darling, suffers a seizure before mysteriously vanishing days later. Fast-forward 27 years, and another girl has gone missing after a new group of teenagers hold a copycat seance during a spooky 'game' locals call Playing Gracie Darling, whereby they re-enact the ill-fated spiritual gathering from decades ago. The six-part mystery, starring The White Lotus Season 3's Morgana O'Reilly, is filled with supernatural undertons. 'I love a ghost story, so it was so up my alley. Give me a mystery and a ghost story any day,' O'Reilly tells ahead of the series premiere on Paramount+ on August 14. 'I love a ghost story and I love [series creator] Miranda [Nation]'s writing. She's really got the most wonderful mind. She makes such complex female characters that are just loveable and challenging.' Adds O'Reilly: 'I ask people for their ghost stories. As an actor, you hang out and see a lot while waiting, and that's often one of my icebreakers: 'Tell me your ghost stories', because I feel like there's some kind of intrinsic connection between that mysticism, ghosts and tarot cards and crystals and all that. There is a connection between that and storytelling and being an artist and being creative. So I love that stuff and I unashamedly say so.' In the series, O'Reilly plays the adult version of Joni, who is now a child psychologist who returns to her sleepy hometown to try to solve the new mystery while confronting her past. 'They're really full-on, big emotions,' she says of playing her character. 'She goes home to try and investigate, but she has to face a lot of demons. She has to face a lot of skeletons in the closet and ghosts, figuratively and literally.' 'It's a total joy to dig deep and play a complex character. She's a kind of mush of contradictions and she's so many things, so I had a lot of fun finding where she lives in my body and where she is similar to me and where she's different to me and getting under her skin.' Speaking of getting under her skin, not only did New Zealand-born O'Reilly have to adopt the Aussie accent, she also had to get used to the local creepy-crawlies when filming in the Hawkesbury River region in NSW. 'The landscape is stunning. The forest was just really magic and scary – and full of leeches,' she laughs. 'Oh my God, the leeches were so awful. That was the most challenging. At one point, one of our camera operators had the steady cam and we are walking through the bush [in a scene] and then he goes, 'Cut' and pulls off his boot and pulls off this leech. He said he could feel it latch on just before they called action and they had to carry on the shot.' O'Reilly is no stranger to filming on location. She recently filmed Season 3 of the award-winning series The White Lotus in Thailand along with a stellar ensemble featuring Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb and Patrick Schwarzenegger. 'Hanging out and trying to be social and getting over my own impostor syndrome for the first couple of weeks, that's an important lesson, but now I feel like they're my friends,' she says. 'And then of course, once it comes on air and you get to prove to yourself and everybody like, 'I was in that.' It's amazing. The biggest challenge is just trying to keep convincing myself I had a right to be there. 'Working on set with these amazing actors, there's the professional side and there's the social side, just like being in the presence of these wonderfully epic creatives. Not just the actors, but the producers and the director and the creators. The costume and make-up and design, so working with them was amazing.' And, of course, O'Reilly has filmed many projects in Australia too. The actress even lived on our shores for eight years, during which she starred in Neighbours from 2013 to 2015, playing the sassy and spoilt Naomi Canning. The beloved Aussie soap wraps this December after a 40-year run. However, it has been cancelled before so O'Reilly has hope for another resurrection. 'Part of me wouldn't be surprised if somehow it rose from the dead again,' she says. 'It's sad that it's gone. It's profound and it's special. It's like losing a grandparent, I guess inevitable.' 'Nothing lasts forever, but it's important that we remember how special it was and how much it contributed culturally, creatively to the landscape of storytelling in Australia, but also its representation of the LGBTQ+ community of diversity inclusion. 'It really has been a show that has strove to be progressive in the confines of being a really mainstream soap opera. It's done the best it can do. Let's celebrate it.'
