Rebecca Breeds reveals Home and Away easter eggs in Kangaroo Island

Rebecca tells Chattr that the first reference to Home and Away was a complete coincidence.

“I couldn’t believe [it]. Sally [Gifford], the writer, had written this moment at the top of the film where they’re recognising me from a soap. It’s not an Australian soap, the character was on an American soap,” Rebecca explains. “They go, ‘Oh, [you were] Sasha, the tyre slasher’. And I was like, Sally, you know that my character slashed tyres in Home and Away, she went to jail, it was very contentious.”

It turns out Sally had no idea about Ruby’s scheming ways in Summer Bay, and she had put the little easter egg into the script without meaning to.

“I was like, ‘What are the odds you wrote that she’s a tyre slasher… how many characters slash tyres?’,” Rebecca recalls. “There were lots of synchronicities in the film that just made me go, oh, this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing right now. And this is definitely the right thing, to take this role.”

The second Home and Away reference is a little more blatant. After the tension ramps up between Rebecca’s character Lou, her father and sister, Auntie Rosie lets out a zinger. “There’s more drama than Home and Away,” she quips.

“Yes, she says ‘there’s more drama than Home and Away,’ which was obviously… the writer couldn’t help herself. And it’s true, there’s a lot of drama in Home and Away,” Rebecca says.

“It was actually pretty funny. But [while] there is a lot of drama in the family, I’d like to think it’s very grounded as well.”

What is Kangaroo Island about?

Kangaroo Island follows the character of Lou, a South Australian woman who left her small hometown to chase big dreams of an acting career in Hollywood. After some bad decisions and fate intervening, she ends up flying back to Australia to visit her family with her tail between her legs.

“Kangaroo Island is what has been described as a love letter to Australia,” Rebecca says. “[Lou] has to face a lot of what she ran away from. But in doing that, she kind of baptises herself in the beauty that is Australia, and comes home, not just to her family, to where she’s from but herself.”

It’s witty, tugs on the heartstrings and will likely leave you in a puddle of tears. “She finds a lot of catharsis and a lot of healing [with her family in Australia]. But along the way, she has a lot of fun,” she adds. “[Lou is] a bit of a mess… but she comes back together and comes back to life, really. It’s quite a beautiful and inspirational film in the end.”