Sally Phillips was already feeling emotionally attached to the Austin script before she read it.
The star of Bridget Jones’ Diary and ABC’s Austin was introduced to the idea of the TV series while “meeting Michael Theo himself on Zoom”.
“And I was sold within five minutes,” she tells 9honey Celebrity, ”I mean, he’s so winning.”
Theo, 31, first found fame on Love on the Spectrum, a reality dating series that followed charming autistic Australians on their quest to find love.
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Next for Theo was the ABC series Austin, which is now in its second season and features Phillips, 55, as Ingrid Hartswood, the partner of Austin’s estranged father.
Off-screen, Phillips is a mum to three children, one of whom, Olly, 20, has Down syndrome and is neurodivergent, and two who with autism, dyslexia and ADHD.
”As a mum, I think [Theo] does a great job of showing audiences how joyous life with neurodivergent mates can be,” Phillips says.
“He’s 100 per cent genuine, 100 per cent gentleman and very very funny. I’m lucky to be able to call him a friend.”
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Olly also loves acting and will attend drama school in September.
”He and Michael have different strengths and challenges,” she says.
“Olly loves tennis, football and sporting a fake beard and a tutu combo to dance along to Strictly [the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing] with his girlfriend Natty, also in beard and tutu.
“Michael prefers suits and steam trains and does rather more sophisticated things with his beautiful girlfriend.”
While the first season of Austin showed the title character find his father, the second season is about Austin finding love.
“If you’re a fan of Michael from Love on the Spectrum, you’re in luck. This is the love season,” Phillips says.
“Austin finds himself in the Bridget Jones position of having to choose between two glorious women, his publisher Greta and Dr Who fan Hayley. All the success and attention goes to his head.”
Of her character’s experiences in the second season, she says, “Ingrid and Julian’s marriage is still pretty up and down. With Julian’s cancellation having an impact on their finances they decide to sell Big Bear to Aussie TV and start work on a live action version.
“Only one problem, the broadcaster can’t be associated with Julian, so Ingrid does it alone. With consequences…”
Phillips has enjoyed an extraordinary career, which has included being a part of the beloved Bridget Jones’ Diary movie series alongside Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, playing outspoken journalist Shazza.
The series features four movies, the most recent of which Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the most successful.
“It’s been the most wonderful experience,” she says of the movie series.
“It’s rare to be able to drop in on a character intermittently over 25 years and see how they’re getting on with their lives.
“I love Shaz. I mean, there’s the swearing, which is cathartic, but that’s secondary to the fact that the friend scenes in those movies are all love.
“Our job is to turn up and love Bridget, love each other and love being together with a great passion, even when one of us is going through the s–t.
“It’s a lot more fun than playing bitter, that’s for sure. And if you turn up and spend weeks and months with each other, loving each other in character over time, it turns into the real thing.
“We finished filming our last scene and burst into tears. Renee was saying, ‘This is mad. These aren’t real people. This is just pretend.’ But they are more than characters to us now, I think.
“Shazzer is never far away as she comes into conversation with people (and journalists) quite often. People seem to either relate to her or want her as their wing woman. And of course, like all the characters she’s relatable in that she’s so obviously flawed.”
And it seems Bridget Jones fans will have to make do with this being the final installment.
Bridget Jones’s Diary cast: Then and now
“Helen [Fielding, author of the book series] was on Instagram this week saying there was absolutely no plan for a ‘Bridget Jones in the old people’s home’ film. Gutted,” Phillips says.
Phillips reflects on raising older neurodivergent children as opposed to younger kids still in school.
“I lived in Rome for a year, teaching English as a Foreign Language. A friend made three times what I did by teaching English for Business. I asked how hard it was. He said ‘It’s exactly the same, only the nouns are different’.
“I’ve always thought SEN [Special Educational Needs] parenting was like that. Everyone loves their kids and everyone’s doing their best in the circumstances, worrying about them all the time because they love them and we all tend to stress to the max, just sometimes the nouns are different.
“And sometimes they aren’t. I bet we all struggle to get teen boys to pick their wet towels off the floor!”
She admits to worrying about their futures after their school years were over, but says she “wouldn’t have my children any other way”.
“The world can be a cruel place,” she says.
“Olly has had his first jobs as a Makaton signer in a kids’ program and I’m not just proud of him (he used his first paycheck to take his girlfriend out to dinner and buy (another) slinky,) but also pretty relieved that the industry is becoming more inclusive and that there are signs he may be able to have maybe a portfolio career split between the arts and catering.”
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“The challenges are subtler for my kids with ADHD. I tell them they HAVE to choose a career they love or they won’t be able to stick at it.
“I think people who aren’t affected don’t particularly want to think about it. Life can be tough and we all have our own challenges. I so admire everything Michael does out and about which shows how much people are missing out if they don’t have a bit of neurospiciness in their lives.”
Next for Phillips is more acting and some travel.
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“I have been very very lucky. I’d love to work with directors Joanna Hogg and Ruben Ostlũnd! And collaborate with Julia Louis-Dreyfus again [with whom she worked on the series Veep].
“And I crossed paths with Isla Fisher briefly on Bridget and she made me die laughing, I’d love to come up with something really stupid to do with her,” she says.
“And… I used to speak fluent Italian but haven’t been back since my 20s. I’d love to do a movie there too, something with one of the new wave of super cool female directors, Alice Rohrwacher or Susanna Nicchiarelli.
“If you print it, maybe it’ll happen!”
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