Samara Weaving: The Valet star on Hollywood glamour, Home and Away, and keeping it real

As she launches her new movie The Valet, Samara Weaving opens up about filming Home and Away revealing if you weren’t up to scratch they’d “just get rid of you”.

Samara Weaving says it’s good to have a reality check every once in a while.

The Adelaide-born Home And Away actor turned Hollywood star has called Los Angeles home for nearly seven years, after relocating from Australia when she scored her first lead movie role in The Babysitter.

She still remembers how thrilled she was the first time she saw her face on a giant billboard on Sunset Boulevard – the famous avenue that links Hollywood and Beverly Hills – promoting the 2017 black comedy horror film.

“It was a really surreal moment,” she recalls over Zoom call from Los Angeles.

“But it was exciting.”

She’s since seen her likeness on promotional material for films including Guns Akimbo, Ready Or Not and last year’s GI Joe spin-off, Snake Eyes, as well as TV shows including Hollywood and Nine Perfect Strangers, and sometimes has to remind herself not to be blasé about her literally larger-than-life situation.

“I don’t know if you ever get used to it, but maybe it loses its excitement,” she muses.

“I really should keep being excited. I kind of get annoyed at myself – my 11-year-old self would be saying ‘are you kidding, this is amazing – how dare you complain about being tired’. So, I try to remember that.”

Samara Weaving as Olivia and Eugenion Derbez as Antonio in a scene from The Valet. Picture: Dan McFadden/Hulu

And if that’s not enough to remind her, she has family and friends from Down Under to jog her memory that the world of red carpets, designer dresses, glittering premieres, stretch limos, free food and drink, and swag bags are anything but normal in the real world.

“I have a good friend in Australia who I often invite to come and stay with me when I am working on something, or come along with me to an event, and she just laughs hysterically,” Weaving says with a chuckle.

“She’s like ‘this is ridiculous, this is so insane’ and it’s good for me because you can take it for granted.”

Mind you, she arrived in Los Angeles with her feet firmly on the ground thanks to her parents Simon and Helena, who both lecture at the University of Newcastle in Communication and Media, and museum studies respectively (her uncle is Hugo Weaving, of The Lord of the Rings and Love Me fame).

When her star began to rise to and she found herself in the spotlight during her four-year stint as Indi Walker on Home And Away, they were there to give her a healthy dose of perspective.

“I remember when I was about 15 and there was some news outlet that was making up a story or something and it went straight to my head, and I was like ‘how dare they … ’,” she says.

“And they said ‘pull your head in … it doesn’t matter … no one cares’. And I was, like, ‘OK, got it – priorities’.”

Samara Weaving and Eugenio Derbez at the premiere of The Valet in Hollywood last week. Picture: Getty Images

It was the opportunity to have a laugh at Hollywood excess and pull back the veil on its glittering exterior that convinced Weaving to take the role of Olivia in the sweet-natured and lighthearted The Valet, a remake of the 2006 French film of the same name.

As a long-time rom-com fan, and after television dramas Nine Perfect Strangers and Hollywood, and the action-heavy Snake Eyes, she’d been looking to do something with a lighter touch.

The chance to play a pampered, shallow, self-centred starlet who fakes a relationship with an older, Mexican immigrant parking attendant to cover up the affair she’s having with a sleazy, married billionaire proved too perfect to resist.

“That was the fun of it – to be this ridiculous, larger than life character,” she says of the indulged, assistant-abusing Olivia, whose obsession with image and professional acceptance masks a deep-seated loneliness and insecurity.

“The challenge was trying to ground her and make sure that the audience didn’t completely write her off straight away.”

As Olivia drags the kind-hearted, family-focused Antonio (played by Mexican superstar Eugenio Derbez) into her world of parties, premieres and paparazzi to maintain the illusion, he begins to discover that life on the other side of the velvet rope perhaps isn’t as rosy as it appears from the exterior.

Fashion-enthusiast Weaving, well-versed in the world of red carpets and catwalks, was happy to share some of her own experiences to ensure the scenes looked and felt authentic.

Samara Weaving as Indi on Home and Away, where she says she learned valuable acting and life lessons.

“When I met with the writers for the first time … we were talking about the behind-the-scenes, funny moments that maybe hadn’t been explored before,” she says.

“Like if you’re on your way to a premiere and you are wearing a dress that shouldn’t be wrinkled, you have to lie down or stand really awkwardly.

“I just wanted to remove the glamour of it – wearing Spanx and masking tape under dresses, and the first thing you do when you get home is pull your eyelashes off and your hair extensions out, and I liked the idea of breaking that facade of glamour down.”

Like the many Australian soap star graduates who have gone on to have huge careers in Hollywood, Weaving is grateful for her time on Home And Away.

Not only did its fast pace and no-nonsense work ethic demands hold in good stead for every other set she’s been on, it also gave her a crash course in the harsh realities and cutthroat demands of showbusiness.

“Home And Away is such a machine and you’re just pumping out so many scenes,” she says. “We would do up to 10 scenes a day if we were in the studio. Working on my first American job, and doing four scenes a day, was wild. I was like ‘oh, we can take our time I guess’ – it was a lovely surprise.

Samara Weaving at the Louis Vuitton's 2023 Cruise Show last week in San Diego. Picture: Getty Images

“And, technically, you have to learn fast, otherwise they will just get rid of you. You need to learn your lines and know what your mark is and where the cameras are, and need to find your light – you need to learn that so quickly, otherwise they will just replace you.”

Weaving has also completed filming Damien “La La Land” Chazelle’s next movie Babylon, appearing alongside compatriots Margot Robbie and Phoebe Tonkin as well as Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, Jean Smart and Olivia Wilde.

“I don’t know what I can say,” she says guiltily of the star-studded period drama.

“I get really nervous when people ask me because I don’t want to get in trouble. But it was awesome.”

And then she’s off to film in Vancouver, casually dropping the bombshell that she has married her long-time partner Jimmy Warden (“I think we just flew under the radar,” she says of the nuptials), who she met when he was a producer on The Babysitter.

“I am actually about to go and work with my husband. He has written and is directing a film so I am going to go and do that, which will be really fun.”

The Valet streams on Disney+ from Friday.

Originally published as Samara Weaving: The Valet star on Hollywood glamour, Home and Away, and keeping it real