Matt Wilson: 'I've gone to some dark places on Neighbours. You get confused and angry' (VIDEO)

Neighbours star Matt Wilson reflects on his big first year as Aaron Brennan, saying the role has been challenging and he hasn't always been able to switch off from the drama.

Aaron is about to deal with a twin whammy on the Channel 5 soap – first his ex, Nate, returns to Erinsborough without telling him (hint, hint) and worse, he thinks the fight just before Lassiter's explosion has led to Tom Quill's death.

Matt told What's on TV: "The stuff that we're filming now and the stuff that's going to be on air next week has been challenging. I've had to go to some dark places for that where you've got a lot of inner conflict. When you go to those places in your mind, you just jump in you car and you drive home and you're just confused... You just want to go to bed and you get angry with people you shouldn't be angry at just because you're testing yourself mentally.

"That stuff we're doing and we've just done has been a stretch, but opposite to dancing!" he said, referring to his flamboyant entrance on Neighbours last year as a topless dancer.

Does he switch off easily from the drama? "I think I'm getting better at switching off. The way I like to think of it is with acting, to get into a character it's like a race car. You've got be able to accelerate but you also have to brake, otherwise the race car is useless. So you need to learn how to step out of it as well as in – and that's another skill altogether. Some people can't do that and they struggle."

Matt rules out trying to crack Hollywood – in the the short-term, anyway – like many previous Neighbours stars, but is emphatic about who his role model is.

"Hugh Jackman, hands down," he said. "I think he represents Australia perfectly. He's still quite modest. He lives his life in public, but he doesn't put himself on a pedestal. He can sing, he can dance, he does theatre, he does film, he does one-man theatre shows in America... I look up to him."

Watch the interview with Neighbours' Matt Wilson, above."]

Neighbours screen each weeknight on Channel 5 at 5.30pm

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.