Single, independent and happy: Why Olympia Valance doesn’t need a man
SOAPIE starlet Olympia Valance will set tongues wagging in her latest role as footy WAG Tahlia Woods in bold new TV drama Playing For Keeps.
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SOAPIE stunner Olympia Valance has never dated a footy player, but doesn’t rule it out — despite knowing what she knows. The 25-year-old has dived into the footy fishbowl to play ambitious WAG Tahlia Woods in Channel 10’s bold new AFL-inspired drama Playing For Keeps.
It’s an eight-part, made-in-Melbourne glimpse into the new breed of footy first ladies and their designer clothes, big houses and endless invitations.
Of course, it’s not all glitz and glamour. There are groupies, injuries, cheating partners, club politics, rivalries and maybe even a murder, in what could well be the 2018 update to Footballers’ Wives, the saucy British series that captured the rising world of soccer WAGs (wives and girlfriends) in the early 2000s.
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While Playing For Keeps is a drama based on the fictional Southern Jets Football Club, it’ll certainly look the part.
Scenes were shot at Etihad and Lakeside stadiums as well as South Melbourne nightspots Seven, and, fittingly, The Albion pub, co-owned by ex-Collingwood champ Dane Swan. Mansions in Brighton, South Yarra and Albert Park double as the characters’ opulent houses.
Also consulting to the cast and writers on some of the nuts and bolts of WAG life was Western Bulldogs player Liam Picken’s wife and blogger Annie Nolan, who ironically hates being called a WAG.
“Much of it was things like, ‘No, we don’t sit in corporate boxes to watch the game. We get seated in aisle 18 at Etihad and level 1 at the MCG’,” Nolan says of her contribution to the series Valance calls a “special unicorn of a show”, mainly for its female-led point of view and the immediate connection she felt to Tahlia.
“As soon as I read the script, I knew I could play this character very well and do it justice,” Valance says. “ (Tahlia’s) intense and it was tough to make her a real human who people can sympathise with.
“In the beginning, she’s a boss-ass bitch. She’s successful, running an empire which started off as an Instagram-type situation, and from that she created fragrance lines and she’s built her business up.
“But the reason why it’s so important for her to be successful and have money and to never rely on anyone else — a man — is because she had a rough childhood where money was an issue.
“She went from school to school, home to home. She never wanted to be like that again, so that’s where her drive comes from.
“I can relate to that as well, because there’s a part of me that has always gone, ‘I never want to rely on anyone to pay for anything or support me in any way. I will always do this on my own’. Of course, a partner can always come with me on my journey, but I’m independent.”
After leaving Neighbours last year, Valance packed her bags for Los Angeles, where she is managed by the same company as superstar Aussie brothers Chris and Liam Hemsworth. But she was lured back to her hometown Melbourne for this role, which saw her attend several AFL matches.
“I didn’t realise just how rough and tumble it is. Those boys knock themselves around. It’s fun to watch. I love a good perv,” she says, adding she’d “never say never” to dating an AFL player.
Valance modelled her character partly on friend Kylie Brown, wife of former Brisbane Lions hardman turned Nova radio host Jonathan Brown, and Sheree Murphy, the British-born wife of Aussie soccer star Harry Kewell, whom Valance met when Murphy did a guest stint on Neighbours in 2014.
“I told Kylie about the show and she’s so excited,” Valance says. “It’s a show that empowers these women and showcases how great they are, as strong, beautiful and intelligent women who have their own lives.
“I know Sheree not just as the wife of Harry Kewell. She’s a successful actress and radio presenter in her own right in the UK. She works her bloody a--- off.”
Jesinta Franklin, the model wife of Sydney Swans forward Lance “Buddy” Franklin, is another who’ll be tuning in, writing on Instagram that she loves the show already.
Playing For Keeps also stars another former Ramsay St regular, mother of six Madeleine West — currently making headlines over a rumoured split from her chef partner Shannon Bennett — as Kath, the coach’s wife and WAGs’ den mother.
Playing Tahlia’s fiance and the team captain Conor, ex-Home And Away star Jackson Gallagher says his character is based on watching Bulldogs skipper Easton Wood and Richmond captain Trent Cotchin on field and listening to footballer-turned-commentator Chris Judd off field.
Valance understands the public’s fascination with WAGs, who occupy their own tier of celebrity — the likes of Rebecca Judd, Nadia Bartel and Emma Hawkins, whose profiles and even businesses have been bolstered by their WAG status.
“(Football and television) are very similar industries. We deal with having a public persona and a private life, trying to keep a happy relationship going while in the public eye. I can relate to this world because it’s very similar to my own,” Valance says. “The public want to know what goes on behind the scenes.”
Having been linked to former One Direction singer Niall Horan and coming out of a two-year relationship with actor Greg Cannell about 18 months ago, Valance says she’s trying to stay single for the sake of her career.
“When Greg and I broke up, it was coming up to the end of my Neighbours contract, and my dream was always to go to LA, so when we split up I wasn’t about to get into another relationship,” she says.
“It’s really hard in this industry to be in a relationship with all the travel, and right now, it’s working for me to not have to make sure that anyone else feels OK. I guess at this stage my career’s super-important to me.”
Despite a lack of formal acting experience, Valance got her big break on Neighbours in 2014, about 15 years after her half-sister Holly Valance — the eldest of Valance’s seven half-siblings — debuted on the show and shot to fame as Flick Scully, before leaving in 2002 to pursue music.
AFTER attending Shelford Girls’ Grammar in Caulfield and appearing in school musicals, Valance went on to become a make-up artist with a view to eventually entering the corporate world.
At the suggestion of a make-up contact and friend of Holly’s, she auditioned for Neighbours, and after four callbacks, landed the role as feisty Paige Smith. When she left last year, producers didn’t kill off Paige, leaving the door open for a return.
“I was there for four years and loved everything about it, but I just wasn’t really challenged in the end and needed to do something different … but that’s not to say I wouldn’t go back,” Valance says.
Her soapie start has been an invaluable training ground and is well regarded in Hollywood for instilling a good work ethic.
“No one can teach in a class what we got taught at Neighbours,” she says. “It makes you very professional, learning scripts every single day, time management, getting to work on time.
“If you’re not on time, you’re in trouble because you’re letting everyone down. It’s a scary schedule to get it all done.
“Aussies are well received over there. We’re down to earth, easy to deal with and aren’t divas. Most come from soaps, so there’s no room for bulls---. I love it over there.”
Valance will return to Tinseltown next month for more meetings and to attend a Halloween party her agent is holding. Her dream gig is to play a female superhero a la Gal Gadot’s big-screen Wonder Woman, so it’s little surprise she’s thinking of attending as Marvel’s Spider-Woman.
“I love costumes, and martial arts, and stunts,” Valance says. “I love action. I would find that really enjoyable, learning new skills, doing my own stunts and training to be a character.”
Valance stays in shape with F45 classes and lots of walking and running outdoors.
Having sold her Elsternwick house next door to mum Tania Gogos-Wilson and stepdad, Aussie rocker and Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock frontman Ross Wilson, in June, she’s bought a one-bedroom apartment in South Melbourne she’ll rent on Airbnb when she’s overseas.
She’ll be dolling up for several days of the Spring Racing Carnival as a VIP guest and owner, with Mr Sneaky, the Freedman-trained horse she has a stake in, scheduled to run.
Valance regularly lends her profile to charity, most recently ygap and Polished Man, and has flaunted her curves for Voodoo hosiery and lingerie labels Nancy Ganz and Gossard.
Parents around the country are probably thanking Valance for sharing her anti-tattoo stance on social media. She’s having a large ivy-like tattoo removed from her torso. She’s already had three painful laser removal sessions and needs up to six more.
“It was a dumb, dumb thing I did as a kid at 15 with a fake ID,” she says.
In July, she partnered with DrinkWise to promote safe drinking at Byron Bay musical festival Splendour in the Grass.
After filming wrapped on Playing For Keeps, Valance and her mum headed to Bali for a detox holiday with “juices for five days, yoga, massage, colonics, saunas”.
“Just to give your system, your digestion, a break,” she says. “(Afterwards) the world is clearer and it’s like you can see better, having a break from alcohol, even chewing.
“I probably drink a bit too much, I love a glass of wine. It’s nice to have a week break from all of that, and I got so much clarity on my future.
“I’m a world citizen at the moment. I’m young, I’m 25. I know I don’t want to be stuck in one spot.”
PLAYING FOR KEEPS STARTS ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 8.30PM, CHANNEL 10
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