Aussie soap went through 16 babies

Bonnie Sveen cuddles up to her new Home And Away co-stars - twins Sebastian and Xavier Sloan

Taking a starring role in Presto’s new Home And Away telemovie, An Eye For An Eye (8.30pm, Wed), the babies who play Casey Braxton have made an impressive start to their showbiz careers at the tender age of one.
Cuddling up to their TV mum, Bonnie Sveen the identical pairing are the latest in a long list of infants who have appeared as the offspring of Ricky Sharpe (Sveen) and her former bad boy love, Daryl ‘Brax’ Braxton (Stephen Peacocke) - with a staggering 16 other babies substituted between scenes this year on Seven’s award-winning soap.
The drama’s executive producer Lucy Addario figures eagle-eyed fans may have spotted the difference this year, as each of the babies started growing into their own.
“Bonnie’s character would go from one set, say her home, to another like the diner and she’d have two babies on the go. When we’d go to edit, we’d be like ‘oh my gosh, that baby suddenly has brown hair.’ That’s why Casey was always wearing little hats.”
While the affable Tasmanian-born actor counts herself a dab hand when it comes to handling bubs (babysitting her way through high school and playing mum to her younger cousins), working with all 16 babies under the age of eight months was “a really weird, jarring experience,” Sveen said.

“It’s hard enough because you can’t control them, having to then get to know a baby’s personality immediately and then try to work the scene to them, it’s really difficult.”
Still, Sveen loves the energy and spontaneity the bundles of joy can bring to the serious business of filming.
“It just brings real life to set. It can either make people tense or more relaxed in their performance,” she said.
“When you’re working with 16 different kids, you’re trying to settle them and treating them like your own...then they will giggle, or snuffle or instinctively grab your boob thinking I’m their real mother and I just crack up. I can see the camera crew laughing and you’re like, ‘alright guys!’
Heaping praise on her young co-stars, Sveen described the Sloan brothers as “so placid and calm and comfortable and inquisitive.
The fuss-free, pint-sized stars are central to the Presto spin-off’s storyline, with Sveen taking the lead among the adult cast, which includes the return of former regulars Peacocke, Dan Ewing and Lisa Gormley.
“It was like an actor’s dream to have a story focused around your character’s drama. In the world of Home And Away, which has to switch between storylines, it was massive for me to just drive this. I felt a little bit like the CEO of a business or something,” she said.