Trivia / H₂O: Just Add Water

• Actor-Inspired Element: Nate becoming a musician in Season 3 was inspired by Jamie Timony, who took up guitar during filming.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Emma is a champion swimmer when the series starts. Claire Holt was also the most experienced swimmer of the main cast.
  • Phoebe Tonkin didn't have too much swimming experience and lied in her audition that she was a strong one. This actually paralleled how Cleo was the most reluctant mermaid of the three.
• …But I Play One on TV: Brittany Byrnes and Cleo Massey had to deal with lots of cyberbullying from fans who couldn't quite understand that they were playing characters. The latter even had to post a video on YouTube calling her bullies out by name to get them to stop.
• Cast the Expert: Claire Holt had minimal acting experience when she was cast as Emma, and maintains that she was cast for being a strong swimmer.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Jamie Timony auditioned for Lewis, which went to Angus Maclaren, and then was given the role of Nate instead.
• The Cast Show Off: Indiana Evans is a singer and sings the opening theme in the third season, as well as being shown singing at Rikki's club.
• Contractual Purity:
  • A few fans were annoyed at Phoebe Tonkin being photographed smoking shortly after the second season aired.
  • Claire Holt managed to avoid being typecast as a goody-two-shoes by playing a Really Gets Around character in Mean Girls 2 and a vampire in The Vampire Diaries.
• Creator Backlash: Executive producer Kay Ben M'Rad later said she disliked the 'one drop of water turns them into a mermaid' concept; feeling it made little sense as to how the girls washed, and it would have been better to keep it to transforming only in seawater.
• Dawson Casting: Averted in the first two seasons as the three leading actresses were still in high school, but the gap between Seasons 2 and 3 left them playing high school seniors while they were 20/21 in the final season. Luke Mitchell is a straight example, being about 24/25 and playing a high school student.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • All three lead actresses had to train for eight weeks with a professional stunt co-ordinator to be able to swim in the mermaid tails.
  • Brittany Byrnes, a natural brunette, dyed her hair red for Charlotte.
• Dueling Dubs: Poland redubbed the first season when the show was put on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
• Fake Australian: Downplayed. Cariba Heine is South African born, though Rikki is a transfer student so she could be the same nationality as Cariba.
• Follow the Leader:
  • This marked the third attempt at a mermaid drama in the 2000s. The CW had tried a pilot with Mermaid that wasn't picked up in 2001. Viacom tried in 2003 with Mermaids (which was also filmed in Australia) but ended up as a Made-for-TV Movie.
  • Word of God is that the show was created specifically to replicate the international success of Ocean Girl. Both Jonathan M Shiff and Kay Ben M'Rad had been executive producers on that too.
• Friendship on the Set:
  • Burgess Abernethy and Jamie Timony had grown up together beforehand and became good friends with Angus McLaren, the three of them living together after Season 1. The latter two also played in a band together.
  • Cleo Massey is still in touch with Deborah Coulls, who played her mother in Season 1, and considers her a family friend.
• I Am Not Spock: As she is the only one of the three leads not to act in America, Cariba Heine tends to be more associated with the show than the others. She appeared as Rikki in the spin-off.
• The Merch: CDs and books have become available in Australia; Kate Alexa's made herself famous by the CD. In the US, dolls of the 3 mermaids were available for a short time.
• Meme Acknowledgment: Cleo Massey (Kim) poked fun at the "nooorr Cleoorr" TikTok trend in a 2022 interview. Brittany Byrnes and Phoebe Tonkin have acknowledged it too.
• No Export for You:
  • In the US, the last half of Season 2 and the entire third season were held up substantially. The show ended half-way through Season 2 during re-airings in 2008. When TeenNick began re-airing the series in 2011, the remaining episodes still weren't being aired - instead cycling through the same aired episodes again and again. Finally averted on January 16, 2012, where the final thirteen episodes of Season 2 were aired in a TeenNick marathon leading into the US premiere of Season 3. (3 Years after the UK aired the 3rd season.)
  • The rest of the world, including its native Australia, didn't get the 3rd season until 2010, whereas the UK got it first in 2009.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Phoebe Tonkin would later get cast as lots of bitches or Action Girls. Her breakout role as Cleo is a dorky but cute Shrinking Violet.
  • Brittany Byrnes usually had been cast as heroic or sympathetic characters. She jumped at the chance to play a villain (although Charlotte starts out as a Girl Next Door before becoming the season's antagonist).
• Post-Script Season: Only two seasons were planned. But the sheer popularity of the show led to a third being commissioned, as well as two spin-offs. As a result, Claire Holt was already committed to a film in America when the third season was greenlit - resulting in Emma getting Put on a Bus and replaced with Bella.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Lewis is Put on a Bus halfway through Season 3 because Angus McLaren was filming Packed To The Rafters.
• Reality Subtext: Phoebe Tonkin confesses to hating swimming before she was cast in the show, but grew to love it. Just like how Cleo grew to accept her mermaid powers.
• The Red Stapler: The Gold Coast, where the show was filmed, saw an increase in popularity as a tourist attraction as a result.
• Romance on the Set:
  • Cariba Heine dated Jamie Timony, who played Nate, while the show was filming.
  • Angus McLaren and Indiana Evans dated in real life too.
• Star-Making Role: For Claire Holt and Phoebe Tonkin.
• Underage Casting: Christine Amor was three-years-old in 1955. In contrast, her character of Louise Chatham was in her mid-teens.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: The actresses admitted to using the various beach scenes as excuses to have fun between takes.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The initial idea was about a boy with a pet shark, but networks weren't keen on it. The idea would later be incorporated into Mako: Island of Secrets.
  • A pre-fame Emily Browning was in talks to play one of the three leads. She however had a role in America that meant she couldn't commit, and they instead opened casting up to unknowns.
  • Gemma Forsyth was nearly cast as Charlotte before the role went to Brittany Byrnes. She would later get to play Evie in Mako Mermaids.
  • Producers wanted Cleo Massey to dye her hair black to look more like she could be related to Phoebe Tonkin. She was unwilling to at eleven, and they relented when they found out Phoebe's real life sister was blonde too.

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