Australian TikTok star Millie Ford has landed a new role in Home And Away – in a role that’s not a million miles away from her day-to-day job as a star of the video social networking service.
27 year old Millie rose to fame on TikTok posting comedy videos in which she parodies Australian teachers, mums and other relatable characters. Her online content has gained her over 1.5 million followers – many who will be excited as she makes her debut in Summer Bay.
Millie will play a social media influencer called Montana.
‘I actually play an influencer, which is my real-life job, and everyone was laughing like, ‘“This is just classic,”’ she said.
Aspiring actress Millie welcomed the chance to work alongside some of Home And Away’s more established cast members, including James Stewart (Justin Morgan), Kyle Shilling (Mali Hudson) and Kirsty Marillier (Rose Delaney).
She said they were ‘Amazing to work alongside and so welcoming and warm.’
Eager to learn Millie said, ’I was just a sponge watching them work and everything went really quickly. You kind of just have to kind of be on the ball and make sure that you’re picking up any sort of advice in between takes. They also helped me to not feel self conscious, and I think that’s really important because it just shows up on the camera.’
The characters Millie portrays in her TikTok videos are known for their comic exaggeration, and that’s something she had to learn to subdue a little bit when working on the soap.
‘(I had to) not exaggerate too much, which is a big difference for me, (normally) being online,’ she said. ‘Having quite a lot of facial expressions is something that you don’t need to do, or overdo.’
A video posted to her TikTok is captioned, ‘My Home And Away acting debut playing an influencer who has to do community service.’ It shows Montana, alongside James Stewart’s character Justin Morgan, complaining about the hard task of weeding that she’s supposed to be doing.
Several commentators have spotted a similarity between work-shy Montana and another comedy icon – Alexis Rose from Schitt’s Creek.
‘It’s giving Alexis Rose in community service 😂’ one fan observed. ‘Aussie Alexis Rose I’m obsessed!!!!’ agreed another.
Millie said that she loved the experience of working on the show.
’(It was fascinating seeing) everybody doing their bit to make it all fall into place and seeing how it all kind of comes together,’ she enthused.
The aspiring actress is determined to make the most of the opportunity.
‘Being a small fish in a big pond, I’m just kind of figuring out what kind of roles I want to do and how can I make the most of every opportunity and meeting new people,’ she said.
‘I feel like I’m starting high school or something and there’s a whole world ahead of me. I’m just taking it day by day.’
