‘Frowned upon’: Secret behind new Home and Away hunk
Home And Away’s new hottie Ethan Browne has revealed the truth about how he moved from a small country town to Channel 7’s big screen. In an exclusive podcast interview, he details his highs and lows.
Confidential
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Home And Away’s new hottie Ethan Browne had to get over his own preconceived ideas of what he thought an actor was to follow his dream path.
Giving up the stability of a nine to five job as a draftsman after three years studying civil engineering, the New Zealander landed a coveted spot at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where the likes of Cate Blanchett and Mel Gibson once honed their craft.
“I grew up in a small country town that was dominated by rugby culture,” the 28-year-old tells the Saturday Telegraph.
“Acting wasn’t the thing a man would do. I wanted to do it in high school but it was frowned upon by the boys, that sort of culture, it wasn’t the tough masculine thing to do.
“I waited until I was in Australia and no one knew me to actually give it a go just quietly.”
Browne grew up in the small town of Wairoa with a population of just a few thousand people.
“Even some of the guys I thought would frown upon acting as a career, some of them have messaged me asking how they can get into it. So a lot of it was in my own head.”
The fitness fanatic said he studied civil engineering because it was “solid and gave me a good career”.
“A lot of it was trying to impress I guess my parents, trying to keep them happy,” he explained.
“In hindsight looking back, I did it for the wrong reasons. But if I hadn’t have done it, I wouldn’t have known.”
Browne, who joins Home And Away as Uncle Tane Parata, said studying acting at NIDA taught him to “drop my barriers and be open to anything”.
And having been hesitant to tell his parents about his new career path, they in fact are his biggest supporters, along with “all of Wairoa apparently”.
As to his fitness, Browne works out six days a week and keeps to a strict high protein diet that includes around 50 eggs a week.
“I have been eating pretty badly lately,” he confessed. “I’ve been eating a lot of chocolate, a lot of sugar and bloody lollies. Chocolate is my weakness.”
Confident in his body, Browne isn’t afraid to get his shirt off to shoot Home And Away in the fictional beach township of Summer Bay.
“I don’t have any body issues myself because I guess I train hard and I am where I want to be physically,” he said.
“It is weird when it gets to the point where it feels maybe objectifying in a way.
“That is when it gets a bit funny for me. It is part of the gig too and that is fine, I have no real issues at all taking my shirt off.”
