Todd Lasance’s countless shirt-free scenes and steamy on screen kisses in Home and Away have quickly made him one of the show’s most popular talents. Here, the 23-year-old hunk reveals all about his love life, living with Lincoln Lewis and that kiss with Jessica Tovey.

Q. Are you seeing anyone at the moment?

A. No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I did have one back in Newcastle and she’s beautiful. We’re still really close, but we’re not together due to the commitments I have in Sydney. It makes it hard.

Q. What do you look for in a girlfriend?

A. A nice butt! No, I love someone who can laugh. I like a natural look. Girls don’t have to wear as much make-up as they think they do- a gorgeous smile kills me. I like someone who you could go have a beer with one minute, and the next minute get dressed up and go out, or chill at home watching a DVD.

Q. About a year ago you’d just started filming a guest role as Aden, now he’s one of the main characters. How do you feel about the big change?

A. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. It still feels surreal and I don’t know if that feeling will ever go away. Maybe it will when I’ve done 15 years of acting, as I want to do this forever, but I still walk out of the studio and stop myself to take it all in. I’m so grateful to be a part of it all. My character is beautifully written. I’m really happy with the direction Aden has taken, the interaction with Belle (Jessica Tovey) and the father/grandfather storyline.

Q. What do all your mates in Newcastle think of your fame?

A. They take advantage of it, if anything. If we go out, its like, “My mate’s on Home and Away, can we get a free drink?” They lap it up, especially with girls. I’ll get random calls in the middle of the night because they’ve met some girl and want to prove that their mate’s in the show.

Q. How do you feel about ex-cast members doing well in Hollywood?

A. Proud. It sounds corny as I’m not their mother, but I do feel proud because they’ve come from where I am now. I just watched the clip of Sharni Vinson’s CSI:NY episode…I admire Sharni (who played Cassie). I also caught up with Chris Hemsworth (Kim) a few weeks ago and said to him, “We’re so proud of you, dude.” I’d definitely like to follow in his footsteps and do films.

Q. Who do you get along with best from the Home and Away cast?

A. Jess is brilliant. We have so much fun on set and we obviously have that energy on screen. Off-set, it’s clichéd, but everyone’s beautiful. You could ring anyone from the cast at anytime of the day and they’d be there to help you out. I hang out with Lincoln (Lewis, who plays Geoff), Paul, (O’Brien, Jack) and Conrad (Coleby, Roman) – they’re sort of the main crew. We go into the city, out for dinner or to the gym. It gets pretty full on with the fans sometimes if we all go out as a group.

Q. Where are the worst areas to go? Shopping malls?

A. When you say “worst areas,” it doesn’t actually faze me. But, yeah, shopping centres do get pretty full on, especially when the school-kids are out. Surprisingly, if we go out in the city at night, even though everybody’s over 18, there’s a lot of support out there. They always want to chat and get a picture with us. It’s great! I get heaps of questions about Belle, if someone on the show is a good kisser and if they’re hot in real life.

Q. There was tongue action in Aden’s first kiss with Belle. Did you broach it with Jess first?

A. Oh, I was hoping everyone would blink when that went to air! It was funny because I didn’t know (the tongue contact) happened at the time. It wasn’t planned. It’s hard with a kissing scene – how do you fake a passionate kiss? You can’t really. When I saw it I thought, “Here we go, I’m going to cop it now!” Jess didn’t notice at the time either. We came to work the day after we saw it on air and had a good laugh.

Q. Have you had to step up every other kiss scene?

A. I suppose I have! You don’t know what you look like when you’re kissing, you just do it. I’ve never thought about this before, but I’ve had girls coming up to me with great compliments, so I must be doing something right.

Q. You also tend to have your shirt off more often than on.

A. Mmmm. Every second scene they ask me to take my gear off. A couple of scenes I’ve worked my way out of it- I don’t want to come across as a “himbo”. It works because it’s a beach town and I’m all for that sort of stuff, but you don’t want to overdo it. If you’ve got your shirt off in every single episode, it might get boring.

Q. What’s it like sharing a house with co-star Lincoln?

A. We have heaps of fun, but I usually don’t get the TV because he’s watching Stargate all the time. We’re about as messy as each other.

Q. Who cooks…or do you get pizza delivered?

A. No, we’re health freaks. We don’t do that much cooking because there’s a Thai restarant down the road. Otherwise, I sometimes make spaghetti bolognaise, Linc makes pasta or we have steak.

Q. We hear that Cornelia Frances (Morag) cooks for you, too…

A. It’s happened a few times; she’s an absolute weapon in the kitchen. She made a three course dinner last time with dips and wine. We’re like, “Yep, we could live here”.

Thanks to adelle at back to the bay for typing up this interview.

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