EXCLUSIVE: Wentworth alum Nicole da Silva would “love” to bring back Franky Doyle in a whole new show

It’s hard to imagine pranking on the Wentworth set, but back in the first season, there was a fair bit of it going on. Nicole da Silva remembers one prank the women of the cast played on “dear Robbie Magasiva and Aaron Jeffery.”

“The boys had a separate green room, so some of us got in and decorated it with streamers, balloons, unicorns and all sorts of things,” Nicole tells TV WEEK with a laugh.

“So when they got to work that day, they got a bit of a surprise.”

When that first season of Wentworth was being shot, in a converted pharmaceutical factory in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, no-one knew just how huge it was going to be.

Nicole came into the role of Franky Doyle from the fast-paced police drama Rush, where she’d played bisexual cop Stella Dagostino.

The violence that was part of Wentworth wasn’t intimidating to her at all. Franky’s fight with Bea in the laundry in season two, to see who would be Top Dog, was “largely fun.”

“It was in the hands of a great stunt co-ordinator, a brilliant director, and it’s always fun to spar with Danielle,” Nicole says. “There were certain moments that weren’t meant to happen, and I did end up injuring myself in that fight, but I wouldn’t say it was a difficult task. We both enjoyed it.”

Looking back over her years in Wentworth, Nicole reveals there was one scene she found particularly hard to shoot. It was in season three, when Franky was in a garden shed with male prisoner Colin Bates (Steve Le Marquand), doing a drug deal. He tried to rape her, but she managed to get away by stabbing him in the scrotum with a garden fork.

“It was physical assault that was escalating towards sexual assault and that was truly difficult for me,” Nicole explains.

“I think it was hard for everyone who was on set that day. It was a bit too raw and real, and really gave me perspective into how so many women do experience that kind of violence and how harrowing it can be. That was a tough day.”

The 39-year-old actress, who gave birth to a daughter in 2018, was away from her Sydney home when filming Wentworth, and she thinks that worked for her.

“For the most part, I was in Melbourne on my own just doing the show,” she says. “So I was able to absorb myself in it, and I think that was probably necessary.”

The support of others in the cast helped too.

“Quite a few of us were living in Melbourne from interstate, so we would often debrief at the end of the day, or grab some dinner together, or just get together for a cup of tea and unload,” Nicole explains.

“For me, that was essential.”

Although Franky was involved in some memorably violent storylines, it was her relationships that made the character iconic – in particular, her romance with psychologist Bridget, played by Libby Tanner. Nicole says scenes with Libby were enjoyable to film.

“It was a lovely departure from the usual heaviness inside the prison walls,” she says.

“It was great to get that other side of Franky, and I thought that was really important to her journey. I had a lot of love for that storyline.”

Fans dubbed the couple “Fridget”, and have written fan fiction and made videos dedicated to them. Nicole found that “wonderful.”

“I’m really humbled,” she says. “It’s a privilege to have walked with that character and to have created that kind of representation on television. It’s been eye-opening to realise what that actually means and how far it reaches.”

Viewers last saw Franky in Wentworth as a free and happy woman. Nicole believes it was important to show that.

“I think we needed that for Franky, and for LGBT representation,” she says. “It was really important that Franky got that happy ending and that we departed from the usual tropes we see on television.”

Nicole won’t be making an appearance in the final 10 episodes of Wentworth. In fact,she hasn’t been watching the show recently, even though she was looking forward to seeing what was going to happen with certain storylines.

“I went straight from Wentworth into Doctor Doctor [the TV WEEK Logie Award-nominated Nine Network drama in which she played Charlie Knight] – there was even a bit of crossover. It was such a different world, going from one to the other, that I needed to step out of it completely,” she explains.

With Doctor Doctor having screened its final season, Nicole is working with her former co-star Danielle to develop new projects for film and television.

“We’re hoping to get something out there pretty soon,” she adds.

But if a Franky spin-off came along, she’d be up for it.

“Oh, any day!” Nicole enthuses. “I think she’s awesomely complex and I would be happy to step into her shoes again.”

In fact, Nicole has a suggestion for a spin-off series: base it on the friendship between Franky and Boomer.

“There was so much there, and I had a great time working with Katrina,” she says, adding that she feels nothing but pride when she talks about Wentworth.

“An Australian show that has got to eight seasons and has resonated globally is a massive achievement,” the actress says. “The fact that the is predominantly female in a show that has become so popular is really, really important.”

Read more exclusive interviews with the Wentworth cast and go behind-the-scenes of the drama in TV WEEK’s special edition magazine, out now.