Actor Steve Peacocke leaving Home and Away for Hollywood

IT’S the news that will leave Summer Bay fans devastated: The country’s most popular TV star Steve Peacocke is quitting Home And Away to try his luck in Hollywood.

Pictured in Surry Hills today is Home and Away Actor Steve Peacock. Photo: Tim Hunter.

IT’S the news that will leave Summer Bay fans devastated: The country’s most popular TV star Steve Peacocke is quitting Home And Away to try his luck in Hollywood.

But before love lorn teenage girls start sending tissue sales soaring, while he has filmed his final scenes playing Darryl “Brax” Braxton on the Channel Seven soap, he will continue to be seen on our screens for most of this year.

Peacocke’s new wife Bridgette Sneddon has also finished up on the show and the pair have moved to Los Angeles to try their luck there.

“It wasn’t something I was looking forward to because I love the show and the people I work with so much,” Peacocke said.

“But I think the key to any good TV series or any good storytelling is to leave the audience at the right point, and where we got to with Brax, we hit a point where it was the best point for him to exit the show. It was just the perfect time I guess.”

Peacocke, 33, who got a taste of Hollywood with a small role in the Brett Ratner blockbuster Hercules last year, filmed his final scenes just before Christmas.

“Brax is still going to be a big part of the show for just about all of 2015,” Peacocke said.

His departure signals a big shift in the show as he was the lat of the original River Boys on Home and Away after Lincoln Younes and Dan Ewing finished up.

“It worked well because the three of us blokes acted well together,” he said. “It brought something new and injected a different sort of edge into Home and Away.

“Every time I get a tradie or a garbo recognise me on the street, I think maybe that wouldn’t have happened six years ago.

“So many footballers and professional sports people love the show and I think we injected a bit of that into it for the past four years.”

Steve Peacocke got a taste of Hollywood while filming blockbuster Hercules with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

Peacocke’s departure means the testosterone baton has been handed to a new batch of males, including New Zealander George Mason. And of course, Brax’s half brother, Kyle, played by Nic Westaway, remains integral to the show.

“Tai Hara is on there, as is Kyle Pryor and Nic Westaway, so there’s plenty of good fellas to keep up the storylines for the blokes,” he said.

Steve Peacocke married his Home and Away co-star Bridget Sneddon earlier this year.

Peacocke has also left open the option to return to Summer Bay.

“I don’t want to give too much away but stranger things have happened in Home and Away,” he said. “It is a really awesome way they’ve pulled the story together but I think the door will always be open for Brax. It’s been written in a really clever way.”

As for Hollywood, Peacocke is keen to sink his teeth into some meaty roles.

“I guess a lot of the roles I go for are for the alpha male so to speak — the cop, the soldier — but what I am looking at right now is outside the square, which is good.”