‘The babies are missing!’: Why TV series Bump is growing up

There was a notable absence on the set of the third season of Stan’s high-school drama Bump: babies. The hit series by Claudia Karvan and Kelsey Munro that follows two 16-year-old parents in Sydney’s inner west, jumps ahead four years.

The studious, ardently feminist Olympia, or “Oly” (Nathalie Morris), is at university. Artistically gifted Santiago, or “Santi” (Carlos Sanson jr), is a tradie. And baby Jacinda, named after the “Queen of New Zealand”, and now played by six-year-old Ava Cannon, is starting school.

Nathalie Morris and Carlos Sanson jr noticed there was one thing missing from the new season of Bump: babies.

“It dawned on us halfway through the shoot,” says Morris. “The babies are missing!”

Adds Sanson: “They were a highlight. But what was so beautiful about working with Ava was, at that age, there’s such an innocence and a curiosity that she brought to the work that rubbed off on all of us. Whenever we had a scene with her, we could enter that fairytale. We were just having fun and that’s always when the best work happens.”

It’s clear when Oly and Santi drop Jacinda off for the first time at the school gate (where a whole new set of schoolyard politics begins for the adults) that their relationship has taken a U-turn from the end of season two.

“It was exciting to have that conflict and to draw on that push and pull,” says Sanson. “They’re navigating that co-parenting relationship and it’s back to, ‘Will they? Won’t they?’, which is fun to do.”

Morris and Sanson with Ava Cannon, who plays their daughter, six-year-old Jacinda.

The relationship between Oly and her mother, Angie (Karvan) has also changed, with Angie recovering from cancer.

“Their ability to bicker and get dramatic with one another, but then also the intensity of their love and the trust, that mirrors the relationship that I have with my mum,” says Morris. “This unspoken alliance – almost like a telepathy – that you see between Oly and Angie as well. That evolves in the third season. In the first, Oly is very much the child. In the third, that dynamic swaps around, and you see Oly take on a motherly role to her mum. That’s my experience in life, too. The mother-daughter dynamic dissolves and you’re just two women helping each other through life.”

While neither Morris nor Sanson, who are both 25, have friends their age with children, they recall the shame associated with high school peers becoming parents.

“When I was a teenager, if someone got pregnant it was like, ‘Oh my god! They should be locked up!’,” says Morris. “In the show, the characters are lucky with their families. They’re loving and financially secure.”

Adds Sanson: “Bump doesn’t judge. Which is beautiful, because so many teen mum [reality] shows paint them terribly. The truth is, this happens. The show encourages the idea of, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’.”

Morris believes the struggles are realistically portrayed. “Oly has not had the life that she thought she would have at 21. She’s sacrificed a lot.”

As has Santi, whom Sanson explains has “dropped his passion for art to work full-time as a tradie”.

“That’s a harsh reality, but it’s a necessary one.”

Morris and Sanson have films premiering in cinemas in 2023 – Sanson with Jub Clerc’s directorial debut Sweet As, shot in WA; Morris with Alena Lodkina’s dark New Zealand story Petrol. Both vow to return to the set of Bump for as long as the series runs.

“It feels like a sense of belonging, which I think everyone needs, especially in this industry,” says Sanson.

Adds Morris: “Claudia and Kelsey and [producers] John and Dan [Edwards] are not going to continue writing for the sake of pumping it out. They’re always going want to say something. They’re so devoted to these characters and this world. From the beginning, it’s been a passion project.”

Sanson says Bump is “trying to push optimism in the face of any adversity”.

“No matter how bad things get or how unexpected things are that happen, there’s always joy. We tackle such a heavy topic with such joy and love and humour.”

Bump streams on Stan from December 26. Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

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