Home and Away star Sophie Dillman opens up over working with babies on set

"You have to be 100 percent present with them."

By Jacob Sarkisian

8 Feb 2023

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Home and Away spoilers follow.

Home and Away star Sophie Dillman has opened up about working with babies on the set of the soap after her character, Ziggy, gave birth on the show.

Real-life couple Dillman and Patrick O'Connor are now playing parents on the soap as their characters Ziggy and Dean recently welcomed a baby in scenes that have only aired in Australia so far. The scenes will be airing in the UK in March.

Promos for upcoming Australian episodes tease that Ziggy will struggle to connect with the baby, but that couldn't be further from the truth for Dillman in real life, who told Yahoo! that she adored working with the multiple babies who played her character's new child.

Channel 7

"They were so behaved and working with babies is also great because you can’t control what they’re going to do. So you have to be 100 percent present with them, and working with them the whole time," Dillman said.

"I felt like our acting was great because it was so real to have a baby that was crying or laughing or grabbing at you... it means you’re really in the moment."

Channel 7

Dillman explained that O'Connor was initially nervous to work with the babies as they were given very, very young babies to work with.

"[Patrick] was a bit nervous when we first started handling the babies because we had like, really, really, fresh [babies]. We had a four-week-old when we gave birth, so I think he was a bit nervous about that," Dillman said.

However, Dillman said that he soon relaxed into the task and ended up loving the scenes as the babies were so cute. Meanwhile, working with the babies raised their own thoughts on having kids together.

"I’ve been clucky for my entire life. Like, that’s no doubt. Paddy loved it too. Every single one of them would come on set and we’d be like, 'Oh, you’re the cutest!' and then the next one would come on and we’d be like, 'No, you’re the cutest!.'"

Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.45pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR. First-look screenings air at 6.30pm on 5STAR and the show also streams on My5.

In Australia, the show airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7pm on Channel 7 and streams on 7plus.

Selected classic episodes are available via Prime Video in the UK.