Matt Le Nevez may have been sworn to secrecy over the past year when it came to the fate of Patrick, the doctor-love interest he plays on Offspring, but his mother wasn’t having any of it.
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“She came down to visit me earlier in the year, she was on-set one day and I think she sort of sussed something might be up, because everyone was sort of saying, ‘Does she know?’” he said.
“Then she went back to the place I was staying in Melbourne and, little bugger, she went through my scripts and she read the ending.”
Speaking to Fairfax News on Tuesday, the Canberra-born actor admitted it had been a “bit of a weird week”, having watched the country go nuts over the shock death of his much-loved character on the hit Channel Ten show.
“It’s a bit of a gift for an actor to have an exit like this,” he said.
“I've done that many other jobs that either no one’s ever seen or the way that the character’s left is a little bit innocuous or tepid or whatever, and when it’s something like this and you’ve struck a chord, it’s nice.”
He said while he was initially upset when he found out last year that his character would die tragically, he quickly understood the kick it would give to the show’s narrative, not to mention to his own career.
Le Nevez had been living for some time in Los Angeles when he landed the role of Patrick, and has been flying back and forth between here and the United States ever since.
“I’ve been coming back and forth between LA and here for about four or five years,” he said.
“LA’s a big city, it’s different than here, but I’m lucky enough that I get to spend time here working and seeing family and friends and then going back there to spend time there as well. I’m still trying to break in over there.”
He said he was unprepared for the reaction to the death last week, and was bemused by the constant references to Molly from A Country Practice, another infamous onscreen death that has stuck in the nation’s consciousness.
“That’s the one everyone seems to talk about, the big death on television,” he said.
“Whether people hold onto it or not, I’m really proud of [Offspring], and especially that finale episode. Asher [Keddie] and Kate [Jenkinson] who plays my sister did some incredible work. I’m there lying on the table while they’re grieving and I watched it for the first time with fresh eyes last week and I just thought they were fantastic.”
Le Nevez will be spending the rest of the week campaigning for the You Are My Sunshine Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that raises awareness and funds for research into neuroblastoma, a cancer that affects children.
Although he’s heading back to Hollywood next week, he said he’d be more than happy to come back to Australia if another television role came up.
“Hopefully the networks here will continue to make good drama, and if they do, I’ll probably spend more time here than overseas, because I think right now there’s a bit of a purple patch for Australian television,” he said.
And while as recently as a month ago, he was able to go to a Raiders match in Canberra without anyone recognising him, everything has changed in the last week.
“I’ve had a few people look at me and double take, and say, ‘Geez, you shouldn’t be poking your head in here, you’re brave’, and stuff like that,” he said.
“If people remember me for Patrick for a little while, that’s nice, but I’m also completely aware that you’re only as good as your last job.”
And he has no illusions about the short attention span of the television-watching public.
“If someone says they’re not going to watch [Offspring] now, I don’t believe that for a second,” he said.
“Before me there was a different doctor, so after me I’m sure the writers will come up with a great storyline. They’ve probably been plotting it for over a year now.”
