Zoe Phillips was in the first week of her Year 12 exams when she got asked to do an audition. It was for the role of Abra Bacon in the Netflix series East Of Eden.
“So I put down a tape and then I had to jump back into focusing on studying,” Zoe, now 21, tells TV WEEK. “But then a week later, they wanted me to do a chemistry read over Zoom with Joseph Zada, who plays Cal Trask. And then a week later, they offered me the role.”
At that point, Zoe still hadn’t finished her Year 12 exams.
“I found out that I got the role the day before doing my maths exam. And I love maths! If I had got a no, I think my result in that exam probably would have gone a bit south.”
For Melbourne-based Zoe, currently appearing in the ABC drama Dustfall, East Of Eden was her first professional acting role. A “really shy” kid, she only got into acting during COVID lockdown in 2020.
“I was struggling with feeling isolated at home,” she explains. “So I randomly found an acting course online, and I did these Zooms for a whole year, and they really got me through each week. And then when the restrictions were relaxed, I went to class in person.”
Zoe filmed East Of Eden in New Zealand, acting opposite The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping star Joseph Zada and Kate Winslet’s son Joe Anders. She admits she felt “really nervous”.
“But then getting to work alongside my co-stars like Joseph and Joe, they really held my hand through, especially, the first week of filming, because my nerves were through the roof.”
In Dustfall, Zoe plays Edie, the survivor of a vicious sexual assault. She did a lot of preparation for the role to try to understand what her character might be experiencing.
“I watched a lot of documentaries with stories of survivors of sexual violence, and I read and listened to countless impact statements that you can access online.”
For Zoe, the hardest scene to film was the one where Edie had to undergo a forensic examination following the assault.
“What was most hard to sit with during this examination scene was knowing that women out there had to go through that,” she explains. “But it’s not meant to be easy to digest. So I did have to put aside my discomfort and just focus on doing my best to give her story justice.”
She says it was “wonderful” to be able to speak to forensic physicians before shooting the examination.
“And there was one there on the day who kindly instructed us through the scene.”
Edie is covered in scratches and bite marks for much of her time on screen. Zoe says she got to a stage where she “disconnected” from what she looked like.
“If I looked at myself in the mirror, I really couldn’t see me anymore, because it was so harrowing to see these amazing special effects. It was just very brutal to look at.”
In Dustfall, Kate Box plays Edie’s mum, while Anna Torv plays Tig Pollard, the detective in charge of her case. Zoe says both women are “powerhouses”.
“The way that they communicate their ideas in each scene, and how passionately and respectfully they spoke about the script, they really gave me confidence and some agency to learn that it’s okay to share my own thoughts.”
Zoe, who also had a small role in Netflix’s My Brilliant Career, has just returned from a trip to the US for the New York premiere of East Of Eden.
“I spent a week there doing meetings,” she adds. “And then I flew over to LA and spent another week doing meetings. That was a really wonderful opportunity. And now I’m back home and I’ve got a lot of auditions lined up. Nothing I can actually talk about, but I’m keeping myself very busy!”
Catch Dustfall on Sundays at 8.20pm on the ABC on or on ABC iview.
