Home and Away’s Kirsty Marillier opens up on why her mum is her best friend

When Kirsty Marillier has some time off from her busy shooting schedule on Home and Away, she wants to spend it with her best friends — her mum and dad. “I saw someone recently and they were like, ‘how was your Easter break?’ and I was like, ‘I hung out with my mum and dad, they are like my best friends’,” the actor says. “That’s how I see them. And I think my mum and I see each other as people now which perhaps we wouldn’t have at one point in time.” Ahead of Mother’s Day, Kirsty, who plays police officer Rose Delany on Australia’s iconic soap, spoke to PLAY about her strong bond with her mother, primary school teacher Eulene Marillier. The family is originally from South Africa, but immigrated to WA, initially to Pemberton, when Kirsty was 10. It was a move Eulene admits was difficult. “They felt a sense of difference with an unfamiliar accent and appearance, it made it very hard for them to fit into a little country town,” Eulene says of her children. “All I could do was encourage my girls to be their best selves and to embrace their differences.” But Kirsty’s memories of the time are of how her mother smoothed over any bumpy starts. “My mum is an incredibly stoic woman, I think a lot of South African women are,” Kirsty says. “When we first moved to Australia, it was my first day of school in Year Four. And this boy named Toby said, ‘your accent’s wicked’. And I thought he meant bad, because in the South Africa, we don’t use the word wicked meaning good. And I went home in tears, like, my face was saturated, because I thought he meant wicked like a witch. And my mum was like ‘no, I think he means it’s cool.’ “My mum was always able to kind of err on the side of joy, she has a really good sense of humour.” Kirsty says when she moved out of the family home, initially to be closer to the WA Academy of Performing Arts where she studied and then later to Sydney to work on Home and Away, their relationship became “richer”. She says now she is working as an actor and a playwright, her mother continues to act an an inspiration. “I tend to write her voice into all of my plays, but she is a bit nonsensical sometimes with the things that she says,” Kirsty says. “I’ll give you an example — in a South African accent. Once she said to me, ‘if you don’t follow your heart, you will turn into a cabbage.’ I was like: what?! It was hilarious because I also knew what she meant. I’ve actually written that on the front of one of my scripts before, because I just love it. It sort of makes no sense but filled with humour and joy, and it just reminds me of her.” As for Eulene, she says while her top advice to Kirsty ahead of her move to Sydney was “stay safe”, she was confident she had all the skills to make the right choices. “Be honest and kind to your daughters. Listen to them and encourage them to be good people,” Eulene says when asked what words of advice she had for mothers with young daughters. “Don’t stress about the little mistakes young girls make — they will turn out fine if you lead by good example. They will learn from you.”