Home and Away has launched a number of Australia’s most well-known actors, including Chris Hemsworth, Naomi Watts, Guy Pearce, and Heath Ledger, after 34 years on the screen and around 8000 episodes.
However, once they’ve made it big in Hollywood, not everyone wants to talk about their time in Summer Bay.
Brook Hall, Channel Seven’s Director of Content Scheduling, spoke openly with TV Tonight about the long-running soap opera’s heritage and the undeserved criticism it frequently receives.
“I’m very proud of Home and Away, and it’s arguably our most important show and our biggest cash outlay. We don’t have to do it. We believe in it,” he said.
“Our most successful acting exports over the last 20 years have come from the show that people don’t want to count as premium drama.”
Brook also appeared to take a go at stars who had tried to disassociate themselves from the show after relocating to the United States.
“It’s a great thing on actors’ resumes for LA because it has such good training,” he continued, before adding, “Even though some of the actors don’t like talking about it when they get over there”.
Melissa George, who played Angel Parrish in 466 episodes of Home and Away from 1993 to 1996 and was nominated for a Golden Globe, notably said in 2012 that she didn’t want to be asked about the serial opera in interviews.
“I don’t need credibility from my country anymore, I just need them all to be quiet. If they have nothing intelligent to say, please don’t speak to me anymore,’ Melissa told the Sun Herald.
“I’d rather be having a croissant in Paris or walking my French bulldog in New York City.”
‘It would be fun’
Brook Hall’s comments come after Isla Fisher, alum of Home and Away, opened up to Yahoo Lifestyle about whether she has ever contemplated returning to Summer Bay.
“Of course I’ve thought about it!” she admitted. “I’ve thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be hilarious?’ But then the reality of it is, obviously, you have to give lots of notice and then it gets written in and then you have to commit.
“But obviously it would be fun just to sort of like, walk by with a surfboard or something at some point.”
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