A-list Confidential: Why Hugh Sheridan was ‘written out’ of Five Bedrooms
While hit series Five Bedrooms is returning for a third season, Hugh Sheridan might not be a part of it due to a logistics headache
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While hit series Five Bedrooms is returning for a third season, Hugh Sheridan might not be a part of it.
The actor, who is currently in Brisbane, faces an ongoing logistic headache with filming on the drama series in Melbourne clashing with Sydney-based Back to the Rafters – the reboot of popular series Packed to the Rafters which dropped on Amazon Prime Video on Friday.
“Last (season) it clashed as well and they had to rewrite a lot of stuff,” Sheridan told Confidential.
“So they had already written (my character) Lachlan out of series three but we are trying to get him back in.”
Season two of Five Bedrooms is now streaming on Paramount Plus as production begins on the third season.
“Back to the Rafters had to shift the dates so that’s not until the end of the year now. Hopefully I’ll be able to get down to do a little bit of Five Bedrooms,” Sheridan said.
The actor is in Brisbane filming Stan movie Christmas on the Farm, alongside Poppy Montgomery and Darren McMullen, while performing his show Hughman as part of the Brisbane Festival late last week.
Sheridan had arrived in Brisbane after returning from the US, completing hotel quarantine in Sydney. They subsequently got the call up to open Brisbane Festival early this month to replace David Campbell, who was stuck interstate.
It has been a challenge for the actor, who had to find new dancers in Queensland after their cast and choreographer were unable to enter the state.
They were finding and training dancers in between filming the Stan movie on location in Brisbane.
“For Hughman I’ve got like eight tap dancers and they are the focus of the show … but all the dancers are in Sydney and Melbourne,” Sheridan said, still living out a suitcase they packed four months ago.
“People think there are special deals; there’s not. I’ve had more Covid tests than anyone else.”
“For the opening night I put together a whole new show. I only had one band rehearsal. It’s been quite stressful just trying to find the time … but I’m so grateful to be busy.”
“So many of my friends don’t have work so I keep thinking how lucky I am.”
PLUS TWO
Toasting the AFL off season was a little sweeter for Jed Adcock and partner Amber Ward this week.
The pair stepped out at Sunday’s Brisbane Lions club champion awards sharing the news they are expecting another child, due in January.
Adcock, a former Lions star turned coach, and Ward defied the odds last year when their son Hugo was born 13 weeks premature, weighing 940 grams.
They spent 89 days caring for Hugo, now one, in Mater Mothers’ Neonatal Critical Care Unit.
“(It’s) definitely daunting,” Ward said of falling pregnant again. “But our obstetrician is amazing. He’s been awesome and made the process a breeze. It has been a lot easier this time round.”
In February the couple launched their own label, Sunday Sands, which stocks clothing accessories for children and their parents. They share a blended family including Adcock’s two children, Lily and Archie, Ward’s daughter Lilly, and their son Hugo.
A NEW JESS
Jessica Mauboy is promising to continue releasing “unapologetic” music.
The Australian singer is currently recording a new album over Zoom from lockdown in Sydney, a follow up to her groundbreaking album Hilda in 2019.
“Releasing Hilda was really the ultimate gateway of discovering a little bit more about myself and acknowledging certain things I wouldn’t have spoken about or said,” Mauboy told Confidential. “I’ve really dived into that. There’s a sense of unapologetic-ness about who I really am.”
In December 2020, Mauboy, who got her start on Australian Idol as a teenager, left Sony after fourteen years and signed a new deal with Warner Music Australia.
“I have gone through music business challenges and stop signs where it’s kind of allowed me to come to a halt but you have to find a way around,” she said.
“You’re always going to get that noise from many different directions and people who think they know you. It’s going back to who you are and what you’ve been taught. It’s all been a bubble of unapologetic story telling where I’m unveiling things I didn’t even know about myself or my strength or how to deal with certain things that make you feel disconnected or unappreciated.”
Mauboy last week announced she would headline the Yarrabah Music and Cultural Festival in a coup for the small far north Queensland community next April during her national tour.
It comes off the back of her first year coaching The Voice Australia.
“It was really daunting at first,” she said of the role.
“I remember walking in those footsteps. I remember when I came home from school and my parents were like ‘Mum and I have been talking and we think you should enter Australian idol’. It makes me be very considerate and understanding of these artists.
“Yes you know the industry is really hard but there’s a vulnerable and sensitive side where they just want support.
“For me being on The Voice was really about holding these artists up and giving them confidence and knowing outside of that… it’s not just a dream it’s going to eventually become a business. There’s so much to think about.”
CHRISTMAS SCARE
Erin Holland has revealed three men broke into her Brisbane home while she slept alone on Boxing Day in a home invasion that left her feeling vulnerable and powerless.
The presenter and model signed up to Channel 7 reality show SAS Australia early this year in a bid to regain her confidence following the home invasion, which came when cricketer husband Ben Cutting was away over Christmas due to the Big Bash League’s Covid bubble.
With the unexpected separation and the recent loss of a family member causing bouts of insomnia, Holland had taken medication prescribed by a doctor on Christmas night to help her sleep and woke up to find the side gate of their home in Hawthorne, in Brisbane’s east, was open.
“Ben watched the footage back and said ‘Babe, you got robbed by three men’,” Holland said.
“I didn’t wake up, which is in some ways a good thing but it also made me feel even more vulnerable.”
The thieves stole Cutting’s road bike and a few belongings from under their house.
Holland, a former Miss World Australia, broke down while she spoke about the incident during an interrogation on SAS on Tuesday.
“As someone who lived alone for most of my adult life in Sydney and felt independent it actually really affected me. It took the interrogation to really realise how much it affected me,” she said.
“I couldn’t sleep after that. I’d always felt independent on my own. All of a sudden it just completely changed for six months.”
“It (the show) was about getting power back and feeling capable again. That was the thing that was taken from me the most in that moment.”
But Holland was disappointed on Tuesday’s episode when, during a brutal physical challenge, she was singled out and told to carry actor Dan Ewing around the course.
With the rest of the recruits suffering physically until she completed the task, Holland eventually called it quits to spare them and was forced to leave the reality show.
“There was no part of me that wanted to leave,” she said.
“To be given an insurmountable task … was really frustrating.”
She said she was “disappointed” to not be able to push herself further in the show.
“It’s been difficult to live with that for the last couple of months,” Holland said.
“The thing I’ve been most worried about is how that’s perceived and hoping I didn’t come out looking like that typical weak beauty queen, model, presenter, whatever you want to call it.
“I’m really proud I gave it a red hot crack and had I not been given that task at that moment I think I had a few more days left in me.”
TEN QUESTIONS WITH... JAY LAGA’AIA
1.Who was your teen idol/crush? Linda Carter (Wonder Woman) Farrah Fawcett Majors (Charlies Angles) Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia)
2.Who are your three ideal dinner guests? Jesus. Judas and Stephen Hawking.
3.What’s your worst date experience? I was singing in a band in the early 80’s and I saw a pretty girl on the side of the stage. When I came off stage, she smiled and approached me. As I got closer, she grabbed my face and brought it down to hers and I thought she was going to kiss me but because it was so loud, she just wanted to get closer to talk to me. Her perfume was sweet and as I lent my head down to her mouth, she asked me, in a breathy tone if I could introduce her to the guitarist because she found him cute!
4.What’s the movie that made you cry? Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. I worked on this movie for over two years with Zack Snyder and just before it was released, they decided to replace my voice work with a more well-known actor which was devastating. The guy that replaced me changed the feel of the character and I have never watched the movie since. I am still paid for my work but that was tough to take.
5.Which song do you sing in the car? I sing a lot of songs out loud on long haul trips, but you will always find the children’s group, Hi 5’s Christmas Album blaring in my car throughout December!
6.What’s your favourite movie or TV series you never admit to loving? Below Deck Mediterranean
7.What’s the most sentimental thing you own? My second wedding ring. I lost my first wedding ring and my wife decided to give me one that I wouldn’t forget so she bought me a Lord of the Rings gold wedding band. The one ring to rule them all. I will never take it off.
8.What was the last thing you googled? How far can I travel out of my LGA during the day!
9.What’s your most embarrassing moment? I was sitting signing autographs after my children’s show and a child bounced up and asked to sign her fan card. I looked up and saw she was accompanied by an older lady and I said that it was nice that she came with her Nana. The lady was her Mother!
10.What’s on your bucket list? To get healthy, to smile more and to try and rant less on social media!
Jay Laga’aia presents Lost for Words premieres 8.30pm Wednesday 22 September on SBS and SBS On Demand
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