Milly Alcock quit school to star in Foxtel drama Upright and it has taken her to the top of the class

After quitting school for her TV role, young star Milly Alcock was ready for Hollywood – until COVID hit. But you can’t keep this star down.

Milly Alcock had just landed herself among the bright lights of Hollywood, with the glow of her critically-acclaimed role in Foxtel Originals drama, Upright, lighting her way when the pandemic took hold of her dreams and sent her packing back home.

The 19-year-old, who had risked so much for the breakthrough role of her lifetime, was on a high after receiving rave reviews for her performance as runaway Meg, opposite Tim Minchin’s Lucky in the heartwarming road trip series which introduced the young actor’s phenomenal talent to the world.

It proved validation for the Sydney starlet’s decision to abandon her High School Certificate studies and throw herself into the lessons in life the production was about to gift her.

A sanguine Alcock tells The BINGE Guide, she has no regrets, describing her educational experience as a difficult one, where she didn’t feel she belonged.

“It wasn’t my place. I never did well. I really struggled and I really wanted to do well,” she explains, adding: “it just wasn’t for me. It wasn’t my place. I didn’t really have any great teachers who saw me until I found acting was where I felt safe. So, yeah, it was the right decision.”

Right moves … Alcock quit school to join Tim Minchin in Foxtel dramedy, Upright. Supplied: Foxtel.

Whatever the articulate and composed young woman feels she lacked in academic skills, she more than makes up for with natural instincts in front of the camera – as her Upright appearance would make abundantly clear.

Alcock goes toe-to-toe with the more experienced Minchin, who literally crashes into the young girl’s world as his character makes an emotional trek across the Nullabor to make peace with his past, and dying mother.

The Matilda composer and seasoned actor and musician remains in awe of his co-star, impressing with her confidence and resilience this year.

“Millie was on a roll and this role meant a lot of people know how good she is now,” he says, “And then COVID came along and it’s been tough for her … she was really just hitting [her] straps and had her career just completely roadblocked.”

Alcock is impressively optimistic, despite losing her waitressing job in the shutdown and being house bound like most in the industry.

“I feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself and about others,’ she says.

“It’s been a really rewarding time. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m not really angry that it’s happening. I’m very, very grateful to be Australian right now. I’m very grateful to still be at home. I have the privilege to not worry about getting kicked out of my house or getting evicted or things like that. I just really grateful.”

Winning … Milly Alcock and Tim Minchin pose with the AACTA Award for Best Comedy Series Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

One bright spot was this month’s AACTA awards, where Upright scored the best TV comedy and comedy performer gongs for Minchin and won Alcock a best comedy performer nomination.

As one of the youngest nominees, Alcock said the COVID-safe industry gala was fun but “so weird.”

”There was one other person under the age of twenty seven. So I just felt really like ‘whoa, sweet. I’m just going to sit by myself and to drink win.”

But there may be better news on the horizon, with Minchin confirming he has plotted out the storyline for a season two of Upright; with only the counry’s increasingly busy local production schedules standing in the way of cameras rolling.

“Ironically, given that no one’s been working,” Minchin says, “we’re now about to head into the busiest TV and film production period Australia’s ever known. With American productions [filming here], but also just a global appetite for what we do. So we’re competing for crews and [studio] timeslots and money and all that.”

He adds: “but I really like the story we’ve come up with … it’s fantastic.”

The series, as Minchin explains, has a message relegated to post-pandemic audiences.

“Upright talks a lot about self forgiveness and about trying to get your head around the fact that when stuff goes bad, when there’s shit in your life, that great stuff will grow from that, even if it’s really bad.”

Lucky break … Alcock in a scene from the TV series Upright. Picture: Foxtel.

Alcock would, of course, want to be part of any sequel, picking up her journey with Meg.

“I would like to see Meg happy … I’d really like to see her get her shit together. She’s self-sufficient, she’s making all the right choices.”

But this TV newcomer knows “that’s not what makes good television. You know what makes good television? Conflict. But I would really genuinely love to see her settle down and live in a little house in the coast and just work an old job. But that’s not the reality of what’s going to happen,” she teases.

“People don’t like to see normal lives on TV … that’s life already,” she laughs.

* Upright s1, streaming Boxing Day on BING E