By Phil Jarratt
Noosa’s multiple Queensland longboard and shortboard surf champion Lilliana Bowrey has been making waves in the surfing world pretty much since she could stand up on a board, but a Netflix series set to start filming in Victoria next week could take her fame to the next level.
Our Lil, the sweetheart of the Noosa surf festival in her longboarding years, and now a teen sensation (she turns 16 next month) on the junior shortboard tour, was one of several Noosa surf girls chosen to audition for the 10-part teen drama series, Surviving Summer, being produced by Werner Film Productions for Netflix.She told Noosa Today from rehearsals in Melbourne: “The Werner team kind of knew after my first audition that this was what they were looking for personality wise – just kind of goofy and outgoing, which is my character anyway – and I had the right look for my Polynesian character, Poppy Tetuanua.”
While celebrated international teen stars Sky Katz, João Gabriel Marinho, Australia’s Kai Lewins and Savannah La Rain have the lead roles, first-time actor Lil’s character Poppy is an important and complex one. Lil explains: “Poppy is outgoing, loves to have fun, but she’s also really dedicated to her surfing. She’s not exactly an underdog, but her story is that her best friend gets sponsored and she doesn’t, and she’s wanted to be sponsored her whole life. At the same time her mother passes away from cancer, so she’s dealing with that too, so I’ve got to learn to put different emotions into the part. There’s really a lot to learn, but I’m loving it.”
And, of course, she can surf rings around the rest of the cast, but she was too polite to mention that.
Surviving Summer, created by Joanna Werner and Josh Mapleston (Dance Academy) and written by Mapleston, Marieke Hardy, Magda Wozniak, Keir Wilkins, Gemma Crofts and Kirsty Fisher, concerns a “fierce and fearless Brooklyn teen”, Summer Torres, whose Australian mum has sent her to live on Victoria’s Surf Coast for bad behaviour, staying in the Gibson household, where the kids are all surf mad. Unless you’re under 18, that’s probably all you need to know.
But the Werner Productions crew have plenty of runs on the board, and Surviving Summer is poised to become a global teen hit for Netflix. So will we ever see Lil’s smiling face again? You bet. She’s missing the warm water of Noosa, as well as family and friends, and she’s keeping up the schoolwork, with a tutor on set for the duration, and on-line work from Sunshine Beach High keeping her busy up to three hours a day.
Will acting be her career choice? “We haven’t started filming yet, with 30 people looking at every scene you do, so I’m not sure yet that acting is the career for me, but I’m looking forward to finding out.“
