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| Hi Kip, how
are you enjoying England? |
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Ah I love it! I’m really enjoying it; it’s
so exciting walking down the streets in London |
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| Lot’s of people
recognising you? |
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Ah not so much in London, but outside of
London a lot of people do. |
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| What have
you been up to while you’ve been over here? |
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Well I’ve been going to Covent Garden and
checking out what’s on in the West End. I’ve been watching
the occasional episode of Home and Away I can admit! I’ve
been watching a lot of English TV when I’m at home and I’ve
got jetlag so can’t sleep. I’ve also been going out to lunch
and having a few meetings with agents. I’ve only been here
a week so I haven’t really done much of the touristy stuff,
I kind of wanted to get busy straight away – I’ve done a
few interviews and promotions for Home and Away. |
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| So how long
are you over here for? |
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I’ve actually moved over here and plan
on living here! |
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| Did you watch
Home and Away when you were younger? |
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No I didn’t, I used to watch a bit of Neighbours
when I was a kid, but not Home and Away |
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| You were a
dancer before your role on Home and Away, can you tell us
a bit about that? |
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My sisters were at a school of arts and
I went to one of their end of year performances. I saw them
dance and a guy came on and did a solo during the evening.
I saw him dance and I just thought ‘Ah that’s what I
want to do; I want to be up there dancing.’ My mum was
a dancer so I had it in the blood; I’m about the third generation
of ballet dancers in my family. I just worked really hard
at it for a year then I got accepted into the Australian
Ballet School. I studied there on a 3 year course but in
the second year I broke my leg so had to repeat a year,
which was pretty full on!
After I graduated I was accepted into the Australian Ballet
Company, which was great I got to travel a lot going to
place such as Japan. I got to do some major tours with them
around Australia which was a great learning experience and
I got to dance some principal roles. Then I decided to go
to Perth for 6 months and I worked with my girlfriend at
the time at the WA Ballet which was great, but in the meantime
I auditioned for a film called ‘Kick’, which was
a dance film. I got the job on that and was really excited.
I left Perth and went back to Sydney to make this feature
film with Paul Mercurio and some other dancers I’d worked
with before. That was great and I really enjoyed it so I
wanted to get into acting after that.
There’s just not that much work in Australia for actors
so I didn’t really get much, so I decided to go back to
dance and I joined the Sydney Dance Company. I worked really
hard there and got lots of exposure, at the same time I
was getting more confident with my acting. I was going for
auditions and it was at that time that I got a 50 worder
on Home and Away. That was great fun but then again it was
only a 50 worder. I had a child at that stage and I needed
regular work. A lot of the acting was very part-time, so
I thought I’d go back to the dancing which was more constant
and secure, so I went back again to the Sydney Dance Company
for a couple of years and again worked really hard.
A role came up for a main cast member on Home and Away,
so I auditioned for it and I got 2 call backs. At the last
call back Tammin Sursok (Dani) was there – we got on really
well and there was a good rapport between us, so the producers
chose me! So my agent rang me up and said ‘Hey, how would
you like to go on Home and Away for 3 years?’ Of course
I jumped at the chance. |
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| And so you
came riding into the bay on a white horse! |
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That’s right, along the beach! Which everyone
remembers, I can barely remember it myself but everyone
else does! I think it’s a sight which hasn’t happened much
on Home and Away, they’ve repeated everything else, but
not the man riding in on a white horse! But it was great,
that beach that I was riding on – you could probably never
ever ride your horse along that beach! But Home and Away
managed to wrangle it and I got to ride a white horse along
Palm Beach.
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| As you said
earlier, you had an earlier role as Patrick, a lover of
Gypsy Nash, did this influence your decision to go for the
role of Scott Hunter? |
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It did, I enjoyed it. It gave me a bit
of a taste of it and it did inspire me a bit to keep trying
and to keep acting I guess. I was very nervous in that first
role I remember; it’s quite scary when you’re in front of
the cameras for the first time. But every time you do it,
it seems to get a bit easier. |
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| Would you
ever think of appearing on Dancing with the Stars? |
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Ah they wouldn’t let me do it in Australia! |
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| Because you’re
too professional? |
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That’s right. Which was really frustrating!
Because I went into Home and Away as a professional dancer
and then all these people started getting on this show and
doing really well. It was quite frustrating being a dancer
as it was sort of like, what does a real dancer do? They’re
not interested in real dancers! But then again the show
was very controversial as well. They said to me I couldn’t
do it as I was a professional dancer, yet most of the people
who were on it, like Bec Cartwright, she trained as a dancer,
she performed on stage as a dancer, yet she wasn’t classed
as a professional dancer. I felt that she had a very big
advantage, and so does Ada Nicodemou who’s just won the
last series! These girls have studied dance for years when
they were kids, and you think how can they put them up against
someone who’s never danced before and judge them equally
against each other? I just found it such a big contradiction
that they wouldn’t let me do it.
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| Yeah, they’ve
actually managed to incorporate your dancing into the show
a couple of times though haven’t they? |
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Yes they did have me dance on the show
a couple of times, which was funny. On TV they work so fast,
whereas in dance you rehearse. rehearse, rehearse. On TV,
you don’t rehearse. They give you maybe one day to put something
together, and then another day to shoot it. I remember one
of the dancing scenes I did on Home and Away, they brought
in a choreographer to choreograph this dance with Beth.
They gave us a piece of music we had to work to, when you’re
given a piece of music there are accents, beats and crescendo’s
in the music that you choreograph the dance to. And that’s
what we did.
We shot the dance to that music – and then when they edited
it later on, they put a completely different piece of music
to it! So I’m sitting at home with my wife, we’ve got a
glass of wine ready to watch me dance, and all of a sudden
this scene came on, I walk on stage and then this music
started! And I was like: ‘Hang on, this isn’t the music….’
For some reason they think it’s ok to put an entirely different
piece of music to a dance that’s already choreographed to
another piece of music! So you can imagine that the dance
was totally off the music |
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| Yeah I watched
it and thought that it didn’t seem quite right! |
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Exactly! And that’s what everyone said
to me! Can you imagine it, knowing that I’m a professional
dancer, with people coming up to me saying ‘Yeah, I don’t
know mate, it looked like you were off the music…’ I
just gave up answering and said ‘Yeah, yeah I don’t know
what happened’ It was really frustrating. But that’s
TV, Home and Away’s not really about dance. They haven’t
got time to rehearse as they shoot 5 episodes a week; it’s
just such a fast turnover. But that’s the nature of the
beast and you just have to accept it. |
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| What has been
your favourite storyline that you have been involved with? |
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My favourite storyline was when Alf and
I busted some drug dealers on the Blaxland one day. That
was great fun!
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| Oh yeah, that
was with Pia Correlli wasn’t it? |
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Yeah that’s right, she was gorgeous! I
remember her! I loved working with Bec Cartwright that was
lots of fun, and the storyline of when we finally got together
and we had a really romantic date, that was great. Also
when we lost some divers off the Blaxland, that storyline
was pretty cool. Oh and when Scott got drunk and angry after
Dani split up with him, that was kind of fun!
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| Yeah Scott
and Colleen taking a dip in the sea together! |
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Yes! And I got to walk in front of a car
and got to do my own stunts, that sort of thing. |
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| What were
the hardest scenes for you to do as an actor? |
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The hardest scenes for me to do were…probably….any
scene with Ada Nicodemou! (laughs) Nah she’s lovely! Hmm
the hardest scene? Ah there were some really funny scenes
when Scott’s character somehow goes a bit crazy, it hasn’t
happened in the UK yet, but he does some things which are
completely out of character, with Kim. They wanted a scene
where Kim punched me out. Scott’s really quite a nice guy,
but they wanted Kim to punch him in the head – so they wrote
this scene where I just walked up to Kim and just basically
abused him! And said the nastiest things! I found it hard
because I just kept saying to myself ‘Why is he doing
this?’ Then I thought ‘Well of course he’s doing
this, cos they want him to punch me in the head!’ Do
you know what I mean? That was really hard! There were 2
scenes like that with just really childish stuff – that
stuffs really hard, as you work for 2 years of your life
creating a character, a nice character, then all of a sudden
they turn it around and make him this monster just for the
sake of one scene. |
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| How did you
feel when Ella Scott Lynch took over the role of Hayley
from Bec Cartwright? |
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Ah she was fantastic! I really enjoyed
working with her, she was a very natural, professional actor.
She was a REAL actor, someone who had studied the craft
for years, she went to NIDA. It was very hard I think to
take on that role. A lot of people were sort of like
‘She’s not blonde’, ‘She wasn’t Bec Cartwright’ – and
people can’t get used to that fact. But that’s the producers
fault, it’s not her fault. Everyone was saying ‘She’s
not this, she’s not that’, but I think she was a really
good actor and she did a really good job. It would have
been the toughest acting job in Australia I think, taking
over from Bec Cartwright as she was so loved.
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| I would have
rather have a really good actress who wouldn’t have looked
like Bec, rather than a clone that wasn’t as good an actor! |
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Well that’s what they went for, the producers
decided to go for a really strong actor. In the auditions
I was there for the call backs, and they had a lot of blonde
girls who looked like Bec, but they thought the strength
of the actor was far more important. |
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| The show has
changed a lot on the three years you have been on, becoming
a lot more melodramatic. Have you noticed these changes
on set… |
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Yes! Definitely! |
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| OK, so what’s
your opinion on the route that Home and Away is now taking? |
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I don’t know, I find a lot of people saying
too me that it’s getting too much. Who would live in Summer
Bay?! Honestly! Who would want to bring their kids up in
that town?! With all the stalkers, crazy lunatics, developers….But
I think that’s what the producers know that people love.
They like the dramas, the producers have to get people in,
you know with things like (puts on dramatic voice) “Next
Week, Who Dies in Summer Bay?!”
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| Yeah every
other week it seems that someone’s fighting for their life
at the moment! |
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Exactly! And no-one does die! I get kids
coming up to me going ‘Does she die, does she die?’
and I go ‘I can’t actually tell you’ and then
they’re like ‘Aw I bet she does!’ The thing is, does
anyone ever die on that show? No! (laughs) I keep wondering
whether it’s false advertising! Because in the voiceovers
in Australia they’re like (dramatic voice again) ‘One
of these people won’t live’ |
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| And they either
all survive or it’s a minor character that we don’t really
care about! |
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That’s right! But that’s soap, that’s Home
and Away! But I loved it, I had the best time. They’re a
lovely bunch of people. It’s not an easy job I must admit,
especially the way my character was written I always seemed
to be put with one of the main female characters – he was
with Dani and then he was with Hayley, who were both really
popular girls. I felt like I really worked hard all those
years, but I did learn a lot!
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| This week
in Oz saw the conclusion of the Hayley/Scott/Kim paternity
triangle - what are your feelings on the storyline and do
you think it went on for too long? |
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Definitely! What do you feel? Do you think
it went on too long? |
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| Yeah, I haven’t
seen the storyline in full yet but from what I’m getting
on the forum it definitely went on for too long |
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Yeah that’s the feedback I’m getting. This
is what’s really hard! They brought in Ella to play on the
Hayley character, but to also carry on a storyline that
everyone was already bored with. I felt that would have
been so hard for Ella. I read magazines in Australia that
said ‘She’s bloody this and she’s not bloody that’
and it was just so horrible for the girl! She’s come
into the toughest job, with the toughest storyline! But
you know who suffers the most out of this storyline? |
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| Who’s that? |
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Scott! Because he’s made out to be this
complete f*****g idiot. All my mates are going to me
‘Could anyone be that stupid?!’ Imagine what that must
have been like for me, I worked hard for 2 years, I get
to my third year and they give me this storyline – I remember
going into the meeting and they were like ‘Yeah we’ve
got this great storyline, blah blah blah!’ and when
they told me I thought ‘That sounds great!’ But it
took me a year to do it! They dragged it out and people
stopped caring! It became like ‘Oh god, somebody please
tell him!’ I think they finally realised that, and when
they did they went ‘Oh well let’s just write them out’
and they go off. I think they just wanted a way out of it
as they realised it was going on for too long and that there
was no weight to it anymore. But can anyone be as stupid
as Scott? He got involved with that Amanda girl, and she
just lies to him and he walks around in this complete stupor!
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| Yeah it always
seemed like he was so close yet so far! What with Josie
telling him in the letter and then him ripping it up! |
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Yeah I know. I remember one of the head
writers saying that to me at the time, ‘We want the audience
to be going ‘Oh no it’s so frustrating!’’ But instead
I think they were going ‘Oh boooring, just tell him!!’
The thing is people don’t look at it like ‘Oh the writers
did really bad there’ they look at it like ‘Oh that Scott’s
bloody boring, that storyline’s so boring.’ It’s a bit
unfair cause I thought I did really well and I tried really
hard.
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| Looking back
on your character, how do you think Scott will be remembered
in years to come? Hopefully not as being a bore? |
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(laughs) No, hopefully he won’t be remembered
as being this stupid dude that was just too nice. I think
most people will remember him as riding in on the horse!
But it’s funny how his whole image changed. He started off
as a real country boy, and then they sent him to Paris and
he came back with a haircut and wore some funky clothes.
Then he kept wearing the ‘flannies’ – I think he’ll definitely
be remembered for wearing the flannelette shirts! Cos so
many people say that to me ‘You’re wearing one of those
bloody flannelette shirts in every scene!’ (laughs)
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| Have you got
any other projects lined up for the near future? |
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Hopefully I’m doing a show in the West
End next year, but really I’d love to work in film. |
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| Any plans
for panto? |
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Not as yet, I had an offer for a panto,
but I held out on this other show that was happening in
London. I was going to be doing it in Australia, but they
extended the season of the chap that was currently doing
it, so I thought I’d hold out and see if I could get it
over here. |
