Hey Todd! What are you up to today?
Today I've got the morning off, which has been nice! I got it off because I worked 17 hours yesterday though! It's the first time I've had a shoot like that. It was 15 scenes from 7.30 in the morning to 11 at night! Madness.

How did you get the role of Aden?
I just kept auditioning! My first ever role was two and a half years ago on Home and Away playing Aden for eight weeks. Then I just did a few different roles here and there on other stuff and then they called me back as a regular, which was awesome. I love my character!

Do you remember what you were doing when you got the call to say you had the part?
Oh man, yeah, this is a good story actually. I was in the bush playing paintball! Me, my dad and my borther are bog paintball kind of people - so is my mum really, she's really into paintball, well, maybe not so much actually... Anyway I was literally in the middle of nowhere and I was surpised my cellphone was actually getting a signal. I was with one of my dad's friends and a mate when I got the call. It was my agent and he really played it down. I thought he was just calling me about an audition I could go to. So we were having this regular conversation when he says, "Yeah so Home and Away want you back as a regular" I just lost it. I literally did. I was yelling and just going crazy, and the rest of the guys had no idea what was going on!

What's it like playing Aden? He's a pretty complex guy...
To be honest, i love it. I absolutly love it. I wouldn't want to play anyone else. I love that he's edgy and spontaneous and all the rest of it. From an acting prospective it's brilliant - you have all the trauma, the abuse, the neglect, all of that background to work with to make him a complex character. It's great getting to play something totally different.

So you're not much like Aden at all?
Oh yeah. I guess our only similarity is that we play sport. I'm fairly inyo sport and being active. I wanted to be a professional sportsman when I was growing up. Either that or a policeman. So yeah, I couldn't really be any different to him really.

Weel, to be fair, you do look kind of similar...
Ha! Yeah! You're right... although we do dress pretty different, so even then we look different! [Laughs] I'm much more placid than Aden.

What was your first day like?
I was a nervour wreck! It was the first gig I ever did! I'd had one year of training in Sydney but I hadn't actually done anything filmed on TV like that. The pressure was really on, you know they're short of time and time is money and all that, so yeah, I was so nervous! On my first day Mark )who plays Ric) and Lynne (who plays Irene) were there and they really settled my nerves. They just sat me down and said "Look, you got this role for a reason. You're meant to be here mate." I had killer nerves, but I got through it. I had to just stop thinking about the one and a half million people watching the show and then all the international people watching! I have really high expectations of myself. I always wanna do the best job possible, y'know?

Were you a fan of the show before you got this gig?
Not hugely. I knew who the cast were. Wehn I first got the role I would religiously watch it for a few months leading up to going on the show, so they filled me in and I got the gist of it. Now I watch it as often as I can to se what else is going on in the show.

Have you filmed a kissing scene?
Ph yeah I have and they're soooo weird! They're not as glamorous or intense as they look on TV. There's so much set up it's unbelievable, well there's a lot of set up for all scenes, but particularly for a kissing scene. They have to work out exactly where you are and what you're doing coz it's normally a pretty tight shot. So it has to be rehearsed heaps! Where are you going to start, where do you end. It's so not a regular kiss. It's pretty weird!

Who do you hang out with most from the cast?
It's going to sound corny, but everyone on the show really is brilliant and it's great to work with all of them. I probably spend more time with Lincoln than anyone else though, coz we actually live together! He's my flatmate. It's funny coz we're great mates, but our characters hate each other!

How do you feel about smoking?
I'm the anti-smoking authority on set! I'm not naming names, but a few of the people on set do smoke and I give them a really hard time about it. I'm eally against it. I'll hide their smokes and everything.

Do you have a girlfriend?
No I don't.

Are you looking? Would you ever consider dating a fan of the show?
Ah, it depends I guess on what type of level of fan they are. Are they crazy fans, or just someone who kind of watches the show? See, it definatly is more difficult now that I'm on the show when it comes to that sort of thing or just meeting new people in general. You never really know what their intention is. Are they speaking to you because they just want to, or are they speaking to me because I'm on TV. It's hard! So, to answer your question, if they watch the show, that's cool. They have to like me for me though.

What were you like at school?
I was just your regular student really. I didn't get into much trouble. Although, I did get told off for talking quite a bit and all my report cards would say something along the lines of: "Todd's a good student but he would excel if he was not so easily distracted by his peers".

If a celebrity could come on the show as a guest actor for a day, who would you want it to be?
Without a doubt, Leonardo DiCaprio. He's my idol. I think he's brilliant. I'd go as far to say as the day I work with him, that could be the day i retire.

Do you have a message for your fans in NZ?
I was just speaking to Lincoln about New Zealand and about how amazing it is to get so much fan mauil from there. We'd love to come over and meet all out fans. That would be brilliant. All the Kiwis we've met have been so nice. We met a few guys once who were these massive, really huge guys who walked over and we were like "Uh oh, here we go..." but they wanted to come up and shake our hands and say how much they love the show. It's great! I do try to reply to as much fan mail as I possibly can and I do appreciate hearing from you. Thanks so much for your support and for watching the show. Hopefully we'll be in NZ sometime soon!

credit to [.maori gurl.] from HomeAndAwayCentral for scanning the interview which i used to write this up.

[back]