Former Home And Away star Bruce Samazan has lifted the lid on the dark side of soap opera fame, following the tragic death of ex cast-mate Dieter Brummer last weekend.
Samazan, 50, who quit acting in 2000 to become a real estate agent, told Private Sydney on Sunday that the blessed life of a soap star can also become a curse.
‘There is definitely a shelf-life to that sort of fame,’ said Samazan, who also appeared on Neighbours and E Street in the nineties.
‘There is definitely a shelf-life to that sort of fame’: Former Home And Away star Bruce Samazan 50, (left) has lifted the lid on the dark side of soap opera fame, following the tragic death of ex cast-mate Dieter Brummer (right) last weekend
‘I’d go to auditions and be told that I was too commercial, that I had no creditability as a serious actor because I’d done soaps,’ he lamented.
Samazan said he had no choice but to turn his back on acting and find a more reliable source of income.
‘For a while that was hard to accept, because TV was the most fun you could ever imagine for a young bloke,’ he said.
‘For a while that was hard to accept’: Samazan, who quit acting in 2000 to become a real estate agent said he had no choice but to turn his back on acting after being repeatedly told he was ‘too commercial’ and had ‘no credibility’ as a serious actor
While the former soap star has since returned to acting for fleeting guest roles over the years, Samazan said he’s thankful to have real estate as his back-up plan.
It comes days after Hey Dad! actress Sarah Monahan reflected upon the stigma attached to being a child star who leaves the acting world for a ‘normal job’.
The 44-year-old, who met Brummer during her brief role on Home and Away, said on the TV Blackbox podcast that former child stars often face criticism and humiliation when they decide to quit showbiz and take up a normal job.
‘People like to call us has-beens’: It comes days after Hey Dad! actress Sarah Monahan, 44, (pictrured) shared an important message about the stigma attached to being a child acto
Monahan noted that Brummer may have faced similar struggles after he retired from acting to become a high-rise window cleaner.
‘I think a lot of people are very unsympathetic when your flame burns early,’ she said.
Monahan, who quit acting in the early 2000s after she was sexually abused by paedophile actor Robert Hughes on set of Hey Dad!, said former child stars are held to an unfairly high standard.
‘I think a lot of people are very unsympathetic to when your flame burns early’: Monahan, who met Brummer during her brief role on Home and Away, said that former child stars often face criticism and humiliation when they decide to quit showbiz and take up a normal job
‘People like to call us has-beens if we don’t stay in the industry and people will be like, “You’re just a washed-up, has-been former child star.” And it’s like, “I’m sorry if I did more before I was 18 than you’ve done in your entire life,”‘ she said.
‘Just because you have not accomplished anything doesn’t mean you should put down what I’ve done,’ she said.
Monahan pointed out that teenagers who work at McDonald’s aren’t shamed for leaving the restaurant industry, yet child actors are almost always made to feel bad when they choose not to pursue a lifelong career in the spotlight.
‘People believe that you should just keep staying in the industry’: Monahan, who quit acting in the early 2000s after she was sexually abused by paedophile actor Robert Hughes on set of Hey Dad!, said former child stars are held to an unfairly high standard
‘Maybe Dieter was happy cleaning windows’: She speculated that Dieter (pictured) may have struggled to cope with the weight of other people’s expectations after turning his back on showbiz
‘For some reason, if you are a child actor and you find success, people believe that you should just keep staying in the industry and become bigger and bigger and bigger,’ she explained.
‘I was on the most successful TV show in the country. I’ve done it, I’m happy. I’m no longer finding joy in this, and I prefer to move on to a different industry. And nobody else will f**king accept it. And they keep telling you that you should be doing something else,’ Monahan added.
She went on speculate that Dieter may have struggled to cope with the weight of other people’s expectations after turning his back on showbiz.
Vale: Brummer, best known for playing Shane Parrish on Home and Away in the 1990s, was found dead at a home in Glenhaven, in Sydney’s north-west last weekend
‘Maybe Dieter was very happy cleaning windows, and he found joy because it was something that was easy and simple and it didn’t have the pressure of the industry,’ she said.
‘But I’m sure people were still like, “You should be, you should be, you should be.”‘
Brummer, best known for playing Shane Parrish on Home and Away in the 1990s, was found dead at a home in Glenhaven, in Sydney’s north-west, last weekend.
Feud: Brummer was involved in a Home and Away storyline with co-star Melissa George (right), who played his on-screen wife Angel Brooks. He said in 2012 they hated each other off screen
Career: After turning his back on acting, Brummer started up a window cleaning business, telling TV Tonight in 2010: ‘People say that I’m just a window cleaner; in reality it’s substantially more involved than that. Working at heights, it’s a relatively specialist trade’
The two-time Logie winner starred on the Aussie soap from 1992 to 1996, and later had roles in hospital drama Medivac and crime series Underbelly.
After retiring from acting, Brummer started a window cleaning business, telling TV Tonight in 2010: ‘People say I’m just a window cleaner; in reality it’s substantially more involved than that. Working at heights, it’s a relatively specialist trade.’
Brummer said he was able to employ his rock-climbing skills in his new profession, and was appreciative of the ‘life experience’ it had given him.
‘I just wanted to get a bit of real life experience under my belt, but I’d always intended on coming back to the acting game at some point,’ he added.
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New chapter: Brummer said he was able to employ his rock-climbing skills in his new profession, and was appreciative of the ‘life experience’ it had given him. Pictured in 2010