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SHANE CONNOR - Back on home soil Shane Connor’s career came to a halt four years ago when he was abruptly fired from the set of television soap Neighbours. He then successfully sued the production company and fled to the UK. But the father of four, who started his acting career because of a ten dollar bet, has rediscovered his love of acting with his first major role since being back in Australia in the film Playing For Charlie.
Connor is an award winning Australian actor with credits to his name, such as Prisoner and The Flying Doctors, spanning over 20 years. Although with his worn rugged appearance and deeply complex eyes he could easily be mistaken for a bricklayer. “I was sorta like this working class kid with a working class chip on his shoulder, so I was very daunted by all this (acting),” he says. “(But) I think the reason I fell in love with acting is because I love disappearing and acting allows me to do that.” Shane disappeared to the UK in 2003 following his surprise exit from the soap opera Neighbours. The actor has admitted taking a bad path after his younger brother passed away from alcoholism and in 2002 he started taking amphetamines to mask the grief. “I took the wrong turn in a way. And used drugs to sort of try cushion the blow but all it really did was intensify it,” says Shane. “I got to a point where it was just like well this is just gonna kill me, what do I do? And I knew that the only way to stop it was to talk to someone about it.” Shane, father to Naomi, 23, Jessica, 20 and twins Tom and Grace, 12, was encouraged to get professional help by his older brother Danny and Neighbours Casting Director Jan Russ. In January this year Shane lost his younger sister Kate to cancer but says he knows not to make the mistake of going down that path again. “Now I’m at the point where it’s been four years and I look back and go ‘what was I doing?’ When Kate passed, if I had used drugs to help me through I’d still be dealing with it.” Shane was nervous about stepping foot on an Australian set for the first time in four years. “It’s like you’ve got a mark on your shirt that your not aware of anymore but everyone else is just noticing the mark,” he says. “The only thing that’s going to steer people through that is to just keep doing what I do. I know that’s its only being open and honest and that people would eventually see.” Although Shane was shunned by agents and denied auditions when he returned, New Zealand director Pene Patrick invited him to screen test for the part of rugby coach Jo Ruddock in her feature film Playing For Charlie. “It was a very powerful audition, it was very real and very truthful,” she said. “I was impressed he sort of had a great deal of warmth and the main character in the movie, Tony, he’s kind of looking subconsciously for a father figure, so it was important that the character of Ruddock had that kind of warmth, credibility and strength that the boy would gravitate towards. Shane has a wonderful stillness, which is quite mesmerizing, and a gruffness that works for the character.” Shane was to be perfect for the role, sharing many similarities to the character. “There was a lot I could relate to, he used to be a star rugby union player who had taken a track that wasn’t the greatest and paid the price for it and hidden himself away and was now coaching these young kids to try and redeem himself,” says Shane. “I meet Pene after (the audition), and she just said ‘oh my instincts are telling me that you can do this’ and so all I can do is repay that and the only way I can repay that is by giving everything.” Patrick recognised the similarities between Shane and the character straight away. “I could see in him.. to be honest a person with a past. He could bring all that to the character. The character is definitely rebuilding and I guess I could sense that in Shane,” says Pene. Shane did not always want to be an actor, he stared out at teachers college taking drama because he was told it was a bludge, however his competitive nature soon took charge when he was offered a challenge. “I did my first job on stage and I was so bad that I thought there’s gotta be something in this. Then one day I was sitting in the cafeteria with my drama lecturer and there was an ad for the Victorian College of the Arts and I went ‘I might go there’ and he sat next to me and said ‘oh you can audition but you’ll never get in’. So I said ‘I bet you ten bucks I do’,” says Shane with a cheeky almost boyish grin. “So I found myself in the big college of the arts not knowing anything about it or what I was doing. And I remember sitting in the courtyard on my first day going what is this place?! But it taught me to survive.” And survive he did. Shane admits making ends meet as an actor is hard and the past four years has brought an even bigger drought. “I thought I was unworkable,” says Shane. However, Patrick is certain that Shane has the right attitude on set and is very capable, “oh he was really easy… very charming and he has a great sense of humor. He doesn’t take himself to seriously,” she says. So is Shane’s career still tarnished from the press he received when exiting Neighbours? “Maybe in the minds of everyone else yes but in my mind its sort of done and dusted, I don’t think about it that much,” he says. “Through all the hard times it’s the one thing I kept coming back to do, I love what I do. So I think its coming back on track.” Playing For Charlie, Starring Shane Connor alongside Jodie Rimmer (In My Fathers Den) and Jared Daperis (Holly’s Heroes), is currently in post production and will be released in March 2008.
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Interview By YI Editor Rebecca Asha Words by Rebecca Asha Photo :: Nathan Croft |
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