Actor Ryan Johnson has gone to the evil side in Summer Bay after five years of being Doctor, Doctor lovely man Matt Knight.
“I think he’s a bit of a sociopath,” says the Australian actor of his role as the wealthy newcomer, Peter ‘PK’ King, who buys his way into the poker nights run by Mackenzie Booth (Emily Weir).
“He sees an opportunity to come in and cause some chaos and that’s the thrill of it for him. These people are like playthings to him and I think he just goes from place to place and screws people over.”
Some have speculated that the newcomer is actually an undercover cop trying to arrest illicit gambling rings like the ones Mac is running in order to fix her financial problems.
“I’m enjoying the speculation but I can neither confirm nor deny that,” he says. “I certainly didn’t play him like an undercover cop.”
Johnson, 42, has worked as an actor for more than 20 years, appearing in shows such as The Secret Life of Us, Underbelly, Sea Patrol, Rake, Love Child, and House Husbands. He also starred alongside Sarah Shahi from The Rookie in the 2011 American sitcom Fairly Legal.
His appearance on Home And Away coincides with the debut of both his new film, How To Please A Woman (which also stars Kiwis Erik Thomson and Josh Thomson) and the fifth and last season of Doctor, Doctor in New Zealand.
This isn’t the first time he’s visited Summer Bay. In 2010, he portrayed Paolo Rosetta, the brother of Angelo Rosetta, a local cop-turned restaurateur (played by Luke Jacobz).
“I have a history of playing repeated characters. I did two characters on Rake and two characters on All Saints,” Johnson says. “This is my second character on Home And Away and it is a lot of fun.”
He knows his strongest Kiwi supporters, his West Auckland-based family members, will be watching, and he still hopes to work here one day.
“The closest I’ve got to getting a gig in New Zealand was a Mitre 10 commercial,” he says, laughing.
He has never portrayed a single character for longer than his five-season run on Doctor, Doctor. Hugh Knight (Rodger Corser), a disgraced big city physician, is returned to his hometown hospital in the country as a punishment for crossing too many lines. Hugh’s brother, a brewery owner Matt, is played by Johnson.
“Matt was very vulnerable, sensitive, and the kind of the moral backbone of Doctor, Doctor so to be able to step into a role where I’m the complete opposite to that was a lot of fun,” he says, adding he will miss Doctor, Doctor.
“But I don’t want to ever get to a point where I’m finding it too easy to turn up and just exist. I want to keep pushing myself as an actor.
“So being able to come along and play someone villainous, as opposed to someone who’s the moral backbone of a show, is exciting – and my next role will be even darker.”
Johnson, on the other hand, finds it amusing that he is now portraying a high-stakes gambler because he is anything but a risk-taker in real life.
That said, Johnson says it’s ironic he is now playing a high-stakes gambler because, in real life, he is anything but that kind of risk-taker.
“I think what’s great about this storyline is that it shows just how no one ever really wins when it comes to gambling.”
He does, however, make an exception for one peculiar game of chance.
“I cannot walk past those claw machines you see in shopping centres. There’s something about them that means I can drop $20 and come home with a stuffed cat for my daughter that she doesn’t even want,” he confesses. “I love the thrill of the win but I’ve never maxed out more than $20.”
He is also being cautious with his job at the moment, attempting to work locally as much as possible in order to be close to his seven-year-old daughter Alia, who lives with him part of the week in Sydney.
For the past few years, the pandemic has kept him in Australia, and his plans to move to the United States have been put on hold.
“I definitely am interested in the US, or an American production, but I’m also enjoying this period of my daughter’s life where she’s seven and she’s just so open and excited about everything,” he says. “I don’t really want to miss that so I’m quite happy where I am at the moment.”
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