For many Australian actors, landing a role on long-standing drama Home and Away is the first step towards a career in Hollywood. But for Logie Award-winning actor Cameron Daddo, his new role has brought him full circle.
WATCH: Cameron Daddo’s dramatic Home and Away debut
At just 27, he and model wife Alison Brahe left Australia to try and make it in Tinseltown – and it wasn’t long before Daddo, now 55, landed a role in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise series, Models Inc., then secured parts in other series and films.
Now, as the Aussie favourite gets ready to make his Home and Away debut, he is as humble as ever and grateful for the opportunity after his international success.
“It’s all a cycle, it’s just where you jump on,” Daddo tells WHO. “Where I’m jumping on, I’m having a new beginning and that’s what I’m seeing it as. I’ve not done a soap before, but I just really loved the character and I know a few of the cast members.”
In fact, he’s worked with some of his fellow Summer Bay faces before.
“Georgie Parker and I worked together on a show called Scorched a few years ago and became friends from that,” he says. “So the opportunity to work with her again was really exciting. This is what it’s about; it’s about going to work and enjoying doing the work with people that I know who are really good – so it was a bit of a no-brainer.”
His character, Evan Slater, joins the cast as a Summer Bay favourite’s long-lost father, who put his music career above being a dad, despite never quite making it in the industry. Tune in tonight to see the big reveal!
The role is in stark contrast to Daddo’s own life, in which he’s successfully navigated a stellar career while remaining a doting husband and father to daughters Lotus, 24, and Bodhi, 14, and 20-year-old son, River.
“I feel like there’s time for everything – you just have to ask for it and you make the time for it,” he explains.
“As far as work goes for me, if something clashes with a family thing like a birthday or a graduation, I’ve always been upfront with producers about what dates I need out so I can be present. Sometimes I’ve got to be away on location and it’s hard for everyone, but we just try and do our best to be present when we can’t be [physically] present – so if you’re on the phone, you’re available to them, even if you can’t be there physically.”
While he may seem to have found the winning formula, the actor maintains that his life isn’t perfect – and that includes his long marriage to Brahe. Their podcast, Separate Bathrooms – and Other Handy Marriage Tips is a place where the couple share everything they’ve learnt from their nearly three decades together.
“The whole thing about marriage is that it really is about good communication. We would post things on our Instagram accounts and people would say #couplegoals and ‘You’ve got it so easy,’ but any couple who’s been together for a decent amount of time knows that you work at it and you have to continue to work and evolve,” Daddo reveals.
“We thought it was a great opportunity to let people know what we’ve been through in terms of how we made things work and some of the choices we made, because it’s not all roses all the time – but nothing is.”
In terms of evolving and growing, one of the biggest changes Daddo says he’s faced was the decision to relocate back to Australia in 2017, after living in LA for 25 years.
“Our family is here, who we used to only have three weeks a year with, so we have no regrets about our decision to move,” Daddo says.
“We use our technology to stay in touch with our friends and we just feel really blessed we had 25 amazing years over there. But Australia is home.”
