Australian actor Nathalie Morris is best known as Oly, a teenager who has a surprise baby in the popular Australian TV series Bump. In the fifth and final upcoming season of the beloved show, she is also making her screenwriting debut.

She was inspired to try writing for the series after reading Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way Of Being, a season four wrap-party gift from Bump producer and director Rebecca O’Brien.

Still, it took some encouragement from both her housemate and Bump co-star Christian Byers — who plays her on-screen brother Bowie — and actress Claudia Karvan, who plays her mother on the show, to finally get Morris cracking.

“Claudia … said if [the producers] liked it, they’d use it and credit me,” the Sydney-based actor says.

“I started writing soon after finishing up season four. I showed it to Claudia who invited me for dinner. That’s when she suggested I do a day in the writer’s room and it rolled from there,” Morris says.

The actress, who joined Bump four years ago at the age of 23, has certainly grown with the show. From breakout star to watch in 2019, she later became a behind-the-scenes story contributor, with a hand in plotting her character’s storyline.

“Being part of the Bump journey for as long as I have been means I am able to be part of the conversations, and I am grateful I had that chance,” says Morris, who would like to write her own show one day.

Playing strong women

In between busy schedules filming Bump, Morris went to New Zealand in 2022 to film We Were Dangerous. In the feature film drama, she plays Lou; one of three teenage delinquents who bond and rail against the system in this Maori-led, all-female cast.

The directorial debut of Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu, We Were Dangerous premiered at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in March this year, and it is now playing at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Morris auditioned for the role remotely while holidaying in Rome. But when she landed the gig, she was worried.

“I asked my agent, ‘Did they make the wrong decision?’ The character of Lou is so young, and I was 25 at the time. I wondered if I could still play a part that young,” Morris says.

“They assured me they had made the right choice, so I flew from Rome to New Zealand to do the shoot and so glad I did.”

Morris was born in Canberra, one of four siblings raised by their French mother and Australian father. At the age of seven, her family moved to Bungendore, 40 minutes from Canberra, to live on a rural farm until Morris was 15.

But Morris had wanted to act ever since she saw a stage show of High School Musical as an 11-year-old.

“My parents always encouraged me and supported my decision to study acting … It’s what I always wanted to do and it made me happy,” Morris says.

Between the ages of 14 and 18, she studied at Canberra’s Youth Theatre, guided by director Karla Conway.

“Karla was bold and empowered me in my time there. She was intelligent, fierce and determined. She took me seriously and made me feel incredibly capable and strong as an actor,” Morris says.

After finishing high school in Canberra, she moved to New Zealand to study acting in Wellington.

Playing strong women on the screen was a natural next step for Morris, who says shifting from a defiant Oly in Bump to a rebellious Lou in We Were Dangerous was an easy transition.

Lou is a queer character and, while rehearsing the film, Morris was encouraged by Stewart-Te Whiu to read American novelist Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 lesbian drama Carol (Cate Blanchett played Carol in the 2015 film version).

“To play someone quite bold and private who had strength [in the same vein as Carol] appealed to me,” Morris says.

“There is a beautiful dynamic between actress Erana James [who plays fellow delinquent Nellie] and Lou — a fierce girl with a no f***s given attitude.”

The French connection

Morris says she feels European as much as she does Australian; her childhood was spent travelling to France to visit her maternal grandparents.

“They never spoke any English, but were so affectionate and showered us with love. Visiting them was what we did as a family to maintain our French family connection … French traditions have been part of my life since I was born,” Morris says.

“There is a passion I feel within me that is inherently French — we’re big feelers and I think that’s because of how we were raised and what comes out in my acting too.”

It is no wonder then, that another major influence on how Morris tackled the character of Lou was her favourite French actress, Adèle Haenel (Portrait of a Lady on Fire).

“I totally wanted my energy to be like Adèle Haenel. She is always a reference point for me, and someone who is unapologetically herself. She’s funny, charming, quirky and weird, but powerful and opinionated and I totally love that.”

We Were Dangerous is on at the Melbourne International Film Festival.