He played hunky ‘bad boy’ Josh Barrett on Home And Away from 2013 to 2016.
And now Jackson Gallagher claims his latest TV role as an AFL captain in Channel Ten’s Playing For Keeps has challenged his way of thinking.
Speaking to Sydney Confidential on Saturday, the 26-year-old actor said: ‘The more I worked on this, the more my view on what it means to be masculine is changing.’
Playing For Keeps: Jackson Gallagher said goodbye to Summer Bay two years ago and has traded in sand for footy boots in his new role as Connor Marello (Pictured in character)
Jackson plays AFL star and captain Connor Marrello on Channel 10’s new show Playing For Keeps – which debuted last Wednesday.
He told the publication there was an element of fear going into the role and he felt as though it was very different to him as a person.
‘That was my own initial baulking at that — an AFL football captain and that world, it was the superficial stuff that I thought I couldn’t inhabit.’
AFL forever: He acts alongside Olympia Valance, 25, who plays WAG Tahlia Woods, and Madeleine West, 38, on the new show (Pictured: Playing For Keeps cast)
‘It is my job to inhabit that and in terms of masculinity, the more work I did on Connor and the more I read the scripts, I realised that beneath all of that is a young man who I could very much relate to.’
He has previously said that his character is just trying to figure out who he is and navigate his relationship with Tahlia Woods (played by Olympia Valance), who is using his celebrity status for her own benefit.
The show surrounds the drama-filled lives of the wives and girlfriends of the fictional players and coaches of the Southern Jets team in Melbourne.
Changing perception: Jackson said he initially felt really different to his new character but the more he studied the role the more he could relate, and that changed his view on what it meant to be masculine
Jackson told Sydney Confidential that he tends to go for roles that scare him and that his latest is so far removed from his one on Summer Bay.
Jackson departed Home And Away in 2016 after his character was revealed as the person who shot Charlotte King.
Despite the fact his character Josh was thought to be blind when Charlotte was killed, a 90-minute episode revealed he was the culprit.
Playing For Keeps airs on Ten at 8.30pm on Wednesday
A little bit scared? Jackson said that he tends to look for work that scares him and takes him out of his comfort zone