Morris relished Jazmyn\u2019s storyline that delves into the darkness of fast and intense female friendships, in parallel with a fictitious 1968 double-murder cold case.<\/p>\n
![\"Hanah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/35d7a10c04536180a975b68a00223508887dfe27.jpeg\")
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Hanah Tayeb (left) as Gretel with Nathalie Morris as Jazmyn in The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer.\u00a0Credit: <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really liberating,\u201d Morris says. \u201cI love Oly, and I think that she\u2019s a very complicated and three-dimensional character, but she\u2019s become like second skin. Sometimes I feel like I\u2019m not acting any more. I always joke with Claudia, \u2018Are we doing our job, or are we just being ourselves at this point?\u2019 So it was really great to step into a character that did feel like I was exercising some muscles. It was a very creative experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The 28-year-old actor, who in 2023 was named as an international rising star by the Casting Guild of Australia, joins a stellar cast that includes Sam Neill, reprising his role as defence lawyer Brett Colby, Danielle Cormack as the prosecutor, William Zappa as the accused, Sarah Peirse as his wife, and Eryn Jean Norvill<\/a> as a recently slain true-crime author.<\/p>\n Among the actors playing jury members are Ewen Leslie<\/a>, Paul Tassone, Phoenix Raei and Bessie Holland.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were really great, funny, intelligent cast members in that jury,\u201d Morris says. \u201cAnd we spent so much time together \u2013 all of those court days. Every witness was essentially two days\u2019 filming. So if you count the number of witnesses in the show, we were in that courtroom for a month, just sitting there together, observing.\u201d<\/p>\n Just like a real jury, the actors were left to crime-solve by themselves, only finding out the identity of the killer as close as possible to filming. Having never done jury duty in real life, Morris says she would one day \u201clove to\u201d, though she does not indulge in the popular fascination with true crime<\/a>. She didn\u2019t even follow closely the recent headline-grabbing Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ava Cannon, Claudia Karvan, Nathalie Morris and Carlos Sanson Jr in the final season of Bump.Credit: <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a very sensitive person and I get quite disheartened with the media portrayal of people and the sensationalised drama of it all,\u201d Morris says. \u201cBut I do find it fascinating that a group of people that are randomly selected have to decide on the fate of a person or of a case \u2026 It\u2019s such an incredible idea for a show [such as The Twelve] to centre around these people that have to come together with all of their different existing prejudices and backgrounds and hash things out. It\u2019s such an interesting way into understanding the society that we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n With New Zealand actor Hanah Tayeb, who plays more reserved jury member Gretel, with whom Jazmyn quickly forms a destructive bond, Morris enjoyed \u201cunpacking\u201d their characters\u2019 intense relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cI got invested in that dynamic between Gretel and Jazmyn,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat we\u2019re exploring between with them as friends is narcissistic personality traits \u2026 In the rehearsal process, we were all sharing about different relationships that we\u2019ve had or observed, and different versions of Jazmyn that we\u2019ve all had in our lives, or versions of Gretel. I\u2019ve definitely had people come into my life that I\u2019ve really admired and been drawn to and felt like I wanted to latch on to for some sort of personal transformation. And I think I\u2019ve been that for other people at different times.\u201d<\/p>\n Having taken the unusual step for an aspiring Australian actor and undergone training in New Zealand at acclaimed Wellington drama school Toi Whakaari, and then getting her start on iconic Kiwi soap Shortland Street, Morris was right at home with The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer\u2019s Kiwi cast (Neill, Peirse, Cormack).<\/p>\n Marlon Williams as Xavier Colby and Sam Neill as Brett Colby in The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer.Credit: <\/p>\n \u201cI loved my time at Toi, and I think that New Zealand is a really creative place, like Tasmania,\u201d she says. \u201cSmaller places end up being so much more innovative because they have less money, but so much heart. I\u2019m seeing more and more New Zealanders across a lot of different casts. Even on Bump we had Arlo Green. I think that New Zealanders are very grounded and there\u2019s a connection to culture there that is a little bit stronger than in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n Having experienced the buzz of the writers\u2019 room when she penned an episode of Bump (the series has just wrapped its apparently final incarnation, a Christmas movie), Morris is keen to explore a holistically creative path in the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a really good role model in Claudia [Karvan], in terms of how she works,\u201d Morris says. \u201cHer heart and her mind are very much in the right place. In this industry, especially when you\u2019re so young, it\u2019s such a big world, and you come out of school, and you really have no idea \u2026 I\u2019ve learnt the things that I want to prioritise, and the way I want to engage with writers and directors, and how I want to work because Bump was such a collaborative show. I like to be involved in that storytelling process. It really is where my interest lies.\u201d<\/p>\n She hopes one day to collaborate with her partner, Safe Home director Stevie Cruz-Martin, who, before the couple met, directed two episodes of the second local season of The Twelve.<\/p>\n \u201cStevie\u2019s on her path at the moment, and I\u2019m on mine, and one day we will definitely do something together. She\u2019s such a phenomenal director that I would be honoured to be directed by her. I would definitely one day love to work with her, and I think she feels the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer premieres at 8.30pm on Binge and Foxtel\u2019s Showcase from August 4. <\/p>\n *Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.<\/p>\n![\"Ava](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/191cf66e31a14abf35dbad34be0918332ef66e1b.jpeg\")
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