THE PRO-FILE

SERIAL TELEVISION (Part Two)

CHALLENGES AND CHANGE In Part Two of this interview Jonathon Dutton discusses coping with a long run on a serial; line learning; his decision to leave; the pressures of being recognised by the general public and what it was like when he finally left Neighbours. We began by talking about the second phase of settling in to a long running serial. This is the point at which the actor starts to get the hang of it.

Photo © Alan Fletcher

Richard: So when it started to become your territory what other differences were there?

Jonathon: Just that increase in comfort with everyone. But with the comfort there came slackness as well. Not a knowing slackness, but because you have been there for a while suddenly you don't have to learn the lines as well as I did before.

When I think about my time on Neighbours there were so many stages that I went through which … it's quite a journey

Richard: No doubt if you talked to Guy Pierce you would discover a similar pattern. I can remember maybe on my first block of Neighbours that Guy had got to the point that he thought he didn't have to learn lines at all and he turned up on location appallingly under prepared opposite a young guest actor who had put an enormous amount of work in but couldn't survive opposite him because he couldn't deliver the goods. I am sure he was going through that phase of finding out how little he could do but still get by.

Jonathon: Absolutely. I went through that.

Richard: Did you ever push it to the degree that 'the wheels fell off'?

Jonathon: I don't think I ever pushed it to that degree. I always learnt my lines. I never went in one day without learning my lines. But when you are on a show like Neighbours and you are using your short term memory so often, you do become very good at learning lines. Towards the last year and a half I would only need to spend five minutes on a scene where I would have had to spend forty five minutes on the same scene when I first started. But its not just that, the learning the lines - it's the actual preparation. There was a lot less thought that went into that later on because I probably took it for granted. Which was one of the stages that I went through.

Richard: Do you think that was something to do with the nature of the material?

Jonathon: I think it was definitely to do with the nature of the material. With Neighbours you go through phases of having fantastic story lines. For example, I had an adoption story line that really went for the better part of three months and during that time I worked SO hard. I thought about every little piece of it. I just loved it. I wouldn't have mucked up my lines once. And then after that I went through four or five months of having nothing to really sink my teeth into and so my efforts dropped right off again. Yeah, I thought the amount of work I put in went up and down depending on the story lines.

That was the reason I had to leave. That was the sole factor behind why I left because I thought I'm not doing myself justice because I am not putting in one hundred percent. I wasn't doing myself any favours.

Richard: So you can get too lazy in that environment?

Jonathon: Yes - but because it's so relaxed and everyone's so friendly. That adds to that environment that allows you to get lazy. It's not anyone's fault - it's a wonderful place to work. But it does make you so relaxed that you can get very careless, I think.

Richard: And what about coping with the publicity?

Jonathon: That's a whole other aspect of it. Because when I first went on air I remember
thinking I don't know how I can do this, it was so …in your face. Suddenly you are being recognized by everyone. The recognition factor was significant. I would just be walking down the street and someone would go "you're on Neighbours!" Some people put you down because of it. I had a lot of young guys being aggressive. I had to get myself out of a lot of fights. If I had been the aggressive type there would have been a lot of fights, but because I have always been very small I have had to use words to get out of these situations and I became quite good at that. But, yes, that would have happened five or ten times I reckon that I found myself in a situation I had to be clever to not get hit. Maybe I had spoken to a girl friend or I said the wrong thing to this person or this person took it the wrong way or this guy didn't like me because I was on Neighbours or this guy wants to hit a Neighbours guy so he can brag to all his friends … there was a lot.

Richard: What are the good things about being recognized for being on Neighbours?

Jonathon: The good things? There are lots of good things. It's nice to go into a room and have people come up to talk to you. You get to meet so many more people. People come up to talk to, and you automatically have a little bit of respect in their eyes because you're on television. This happens more often than not. Especially when you are younger. So it was great for my confidence because you get to speak to a lot more people than you normally would. And you get lots of freebies. (Laughs) Lots of people look after you which … certainly they might not be doing it for the right reasons but it's certainly a nice little incentive for being on the television -. a bonus.

Richard: So you left because you felt you needed to challenge yourself a bit more?

Jonathon: Yes. I knew I had got to a point on Neighbours where I wasn't going to learn a great deal more. I had been challenged with some heavy story lines and I knew it had got to a point that if I stayed the quality of my work would go down hill. If I didn't have challenging story lines I found it very very hard to challenge myself. In the last year I realized this and I used to give myself little projects to keep myself interested. I would go and see the drama coach and say, "What can I work on?" And she would say "I want you to really focus on this for the next month." And so that's what I tried to do in the last year. But even with that I still struggled to keep interested.

Richard: So what happened when you quit?

Jonathon: When it all stops. The first realization is that you are out in the real world. It hit me very very quickly. And it's interesting I think because you do get caught up in a bit of a bubble as to how different the outside world is.

Richard: There's a Neighbours 'bubble' is there?

Jonathon: I think so. I think that when you work Neighbours you sort of forget that when you leave the likelihood of you going straight into another job is very very low. The fact is you will spend a long time unemployed. And you go, "Yeah, I might spend three months unemployed." But you don't realize, I mean … what are you going to do for three months. So, you've got to learn how to adapt to that environment - and it's hard. Especially for me because I went straight from school to Neighbours - so I always knew what I was doing. I always had had a structured life style. And then I got of out of Neighbours and there I am. Nothing. Nothing to do.

Richard: So, what did you do?

Jonathon: Well, I developed a lot of hobbies and then I went to the UK.

Richard: What sort of hobbies? Acting related ones or time filling ones?

Jonathon: Voice lessons. Singing lessons. I took up sport again. All these things are useful. I started reading as many scripts as I could and started getting interested in short films and stuff like that. Guitar, golf … all that. I wanted to learn accents because I found when I left Neighbours I was going for a lot of American auditions and I couldn't do an American accent so I worked on that. But then I realized the value of voice training as well.

Richard: You were looking for stuff that you thought would be productive in the long run? So what sort of work did you then start to get?

Jonathon: Well I didn't get anything for the first two months after I left and then I went over to the UK. That was one of the reasons that I left, because I wanted to travel. So I thought "I am just going to get on a plane and go." And I had to start the whole thing again over there. But I had an agent over there because of pantomime, so I went and saw her and she started putting me up for stuff and I was pretty fortunate really because within a month of being there I got the comedy series "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" which I did last year.

Jonathon's next interview explores the challenges of working on a different series in a different country.