It’s well-known that striving for a career in the performing arts can be challenging, which is why creative souls are advised to have a supportive family behind them.
And Shortland Street’s Jane Wills, 28, who plays sassy Dr Phil, counts her lucky stars to have her loving mother Catherine Farquhar on her cheer squad.
“I love my mum because she’s creative, loving and so generous,” says Jane.
Catherine feels similarly besotted with Jane, her youngest child who was born a month premature.
“Jane kept her eyes shut for most of that first month, like a little kitten,” she recalls fondly. “She was so precious and even though she was vulnerable, she fitted in with our busy routine.”

She also tells the Weekly how Jane was eager to act from an early age.
“Jane had a great sense of humour and she loved playing dress-up. She was also thoughtful and lots of fun, but because we lived in Timaru, she used to plead with me to move somewhere she could be an actress on TV or in the movies!”
Which is why mother and daughter, who both now live in Auckland, are delighted Jane is a fan fave on TVNZ’s Shortland Street, proof that dreams can come true. Jane is forever grateful to her mum for being such a rock.

“I struggled during my last year of drama school (where she met her partner, Leo) and I didn’t feel sure I wanted to continue because it was all so overwhelming,” admits Jane. “So I went to Mum. I thought she’d tell me to persevere and push through. But instead, she said I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to do, which worked wonders. It kept me going because I realised that I had a choice.”
Also mum to George, 33, and Johny, 31, Catherine advised Jane to consider other career options, just in case acting didn’t pan out.
“Mum is a big believer in doing what you love. Still, she worried I wouldn’t make a living from acting. She was very vocal about me needing something to fall back on,” recalls Jane.

“So a year after I graduated from drama school, having not been inundated with work, I took Mum’s advice and did a post-graduate teaching diploma.”
She has since spent three years teaching at Epsom Girls’ Grammar School. There, Jane found she loves teaching just as much as she relishes learning.
Jane admires her mother’s many gifts and caring nature.

“Mum is great with horses and she taught me how to ride,” she enthuses. “She’s also an opera singer and an amazing painter. While for work, she’s a nurse at Mercy Breast Clinic in Epsom, working with women who have breast cancer.
“She also has a business called Flōrēns, which combines her medical and art skills. It offers medical areola tattoos for people who have had to undergo mastectomies.
“Mum is so talented, but she loves her kids more than anything in the world. Even though she could have been a painter, singer or a pianist, she always put us first. She gave us everything she could.”

As for Catherine’s two other offspring, George is a classical guitarist living in Germany, and Johny is a mental health social worker who is based in Melbourne.
“I’m so proud that my children have all found their niche. They all work hard and use their many talents in life,” says Catherine. “I also love how they keep in contact and look out for each other.”