Bump's Nathalie Morris on fame and 'weird' fan encounters

Bump star Nathalie Morris has had an interesting few years, with the Stan show achieving worldwide success following its 2021 release.

Now, the star is excited to share another project with Australia, a New Zealand show called One Lane Bridge, which is available to stream on Acorn.

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle, the 24-year-old revealed she's excited to see how fans react to One Lane Bridge given how different it is to Bump.

Fans of Bump will be surprised to hear Nathalie with a Kiwi accent for her role as Emma in the show, which was shot in Queenstown in 2019.

One Lane Bridge follows a murder investigation at Queenstown's infamous One Lane Bridge, where an ambitious Maori detective inadvertently reawakens a spiritual gift that endangers the case, but also his career and life. Nathalie's Emma is the daughter of Andrew 'Grub' Ryder, the man who is murdered at the bridge.

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Speaking of her character in One Lane Bridge, Nathalie said, "I think it'd be interesting for [fans] to just see a very, very, different character to Oly, but just as strong, just as determined, just as independent, but a very different personality!"

"I'm excited to see what people think."

It was the "courageous, independent and stubborn" Emma that drew Nathalie to the project, as well as her love of Danish and Swedish police dramas.

"I've always just loved that tone. I've always wanted to kind of inhabit that gritty, mysterious, kind of brooding, thrilling world," she explained, adding she was also very excited to live in Queenstown while working on the show.

One thing that was slightly harder, however, was getting the Kiwi accent right, though it was definitely made easier thanks to the fact Nathalie actually studied acting in Wellington for three years.

When asked if there were any particular phrases that caught her out when trying to speak with a Kiwi accent, she shared, "This is very specific to the show, but the difference between 'dad' and 'dead', which obviously, my character in the show in season one, episode one her Dad is found dead at One Lane Bridge.

"And I feel like a few times in the show, I have to say 'dad' and 'dead' in the same sentence. 'My dead dad,' 'My dad's dead,' that was very confusing for me, it was very hard."

Given the intense subject matter of the show, Nathalie shared with us that it was difficult for her to shut off after filming every day.

"I actually do struggle to let go of the show a little bit. The thing that I love about acting, the thing that's always drawn me to acting, has been, you know, I've never been a very super extroverted outgoing, kind of performative person. It's really getting to kind of see the world through someone else's eyes and getting to, you know, imagine that I'm living someone else's life in a different place in a different body wearing different clothes – that's what really excites me about acting."

"So because that's what I'm really interested in, I feel like when I'm shooting something, I do get a little bit caught up in a different tone and a different mindset. It does stay with me, and I have to make sure I have rituals to return to myself and shake it off. Because your body doesn't know it's not real and a lot of the tension and your feelings associated with the show do linger in your body, and sometimes you get so stressed that it can affect your mind and your mood.

"So yeah, I do have to make sure that I do things that take off that day and just allow me to reset physically, you know, jump in a cold lake or get a massage, listen to my own music, talk to my own friends and family."

As Bump was released mid-pandemic, it was an odd time for Nathalie to find fame, with the star telling us of some "weird" fan encounters.

"Bump certainly reached a lot more people, and our faces were blown up on buses and it has been strange and it continues to be strange," she said. "I just didn't ever expect this, it just feels like a bit of a weird thing that is part of my life that someone might recognise me or I'll be talking to someone and then 30 minutes later they'll go, 'Oh, by the way, I loved Bump.'

"And it's like oh, that's weird that you've seen me, that you knew who I was already and we've just spoken for an hour and you know Bump, so yeah, it's a very odd thing."

While you'd imagine that masks might be helpful to stay anonymous, Nathalie revealed that it doesn't always do the job, "I did go to the gym once wearing a mask, and the person behind the desk was like, 'Oh, it's so weird, your eyes remind me of the lead character from Bump.'

"I was like, 'Oh, that's funny,' but I thought that was really weird. Like, I was literally covered from here to here," she said, referencing her face.

Speaking of the huge success of Bump overseas, Nathalie shared that she is excited about the idea of heading over to Hollywood but says the opportunities at home are enough to keep her in Australia for now.

"I'm still so curious about Australia and the stories, and I still feel very excited by the idea of playing Australians," she said.

"So, yeah, I don't think I'm done with that yet, but obviously if an American opportunity came up I would jump at it."

One Lane Bridge is available to stream on Acorn.

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