Rodger Corser on 25 years in showbiz: ‘I am shocked I’ve lasted this long’
One of Australia’s most popular actors has revealed the TV show he refuses to do and why he’s put his hand up to host season two of the global smash hit The Traitors.
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It’s been a quarter of a century since Rodger Corser burst on to the stage in the lead role of stage musical Rent. He never quite imagined he’d go on to become one of Australia’s most recognised and popular actors with lead roles on Underbelly, McLeod’s Daughters, Water Rats, Five Bedrooms, and a five-season stint as Dr Hugh Knight in Doctor Doctor.
“I am shocked I’ve lasted this long,” he says.
“You like to think you’ll have some longevity but it doesn’t happen to everyone. So to be going into my third decade – I’m pretty lucky.”
It’s the day after The Logies when we chat and Corser jokes that he hopes Aussie acting legend Ray Meagher will retire and he can squeeze into Home And Away for the next 20 years.
“Although (Sam Pang) said last night that he’s signed a new four-year deal, so I’ll just have to wait, but surely they need a new school principal or something.
“I’m think getting too old to be a jobbing actor. You know, get a gig and then it gets cancelled and you get thrown out there again. I’m just too old for that roller coaster.”
Fortunately, he’s off that ride for a bit as he heads into the second season as host of Ten’s The Traitors, filmed last year. Hosting was a career move he’d been previously reluctant to accept. But there was something about the format that intrigued him.
“It was the right time and show, but also there’s a theatrical premise,” Corser explains.
“It’s a bit of Cluedo-esque, Knives Out kind of vibe.”
He also made the decision to play the host role as character, just as Emmy award-winner Alan Cumming is a heightened version of what he refers to as “an imaginary me” on the US iteration.
“Production said ‘you can do and say what you want to a certain extent’,” Corser says, and he works with a writer to come up with his mini-monologues and some of the banter with the contestants.
As Corser says, at the end of the day, it’s about the contestants. And there’s 20 new duplicitous players, dubbed Faithfuls, who enter the mysterious manor in this second instalment. They have to manipulate their way through their stay, trying to figure out who have been nominated as the Traitors of the title to avoiding getting “murdered”, to reach the prize pot of up to $250,000 in silver bars.
There’s an interesting group which includes some familiar faces such as Logie-winning actor Gyton Grantley, Australian Survivor favourite Luke Toki, Below Deck’s Hannah Ferrier with some fresh talent including lawyer and Miss International Australia 2022 rep Anjelica Whitelaw, shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder and influencer and volunteer firefighter Sam McGlone.
Many were surprised when Ten commissioned a second season, given the relatively low numbers of the first. Channel 10 has a long history of allowing shows to settle – Think Have You Been Paying Attention which is now in its 11th season and drawing consistently good numbers after a somewhat shaky start.
And the Australian version of Traitors has gone gangbusters overseas on the BBC, while the overseas versions have become some of the most watched series on 10Play.
“Just finished watching Traitor Australia, after UK and US versions. Pretty convinced it’s the most compelling new TV format of the last 20 years by a mile,” one British viewer posted.
Corser’s been enjoying engaging with the overseas fans on social media who love our game play. And he hints there’s a whole lot of devious manoeuvres to look forward to in this second series – including an ending “no-one will see coming”.
He doesn’t rate his own game play though – the only reality show he might do OK on is network stablemate MasterChef.
“I do fancy myself in kitchen a little bit, you know?,” Corser shares.
“I’ve got one skill in life, I can fine dice an onion.”
But forget I’m a Celebrity, with the eating of bugs and weird animal parts. Plus the 50-year-old says he could only keep up his “amiable facade” for so long.
“I don’t want people to see the real me,” Corser says.
“I’ve spent 25 years trying to hide that.
“And I think people would end up saying ‘Oh, my God, what an obnoxious prick’.”
He also knows he wouldn’t fare well in the world of reality – especially Traitors – because he’s an abominable liar. Corser says wife Renee Berry can pick it a mile away.
“How many beers have you had? I’ll say ‘two’ and she’ll be ‘yeah, right’.
“I’m horrible – I’m a bad poker player.”
Corser says there’s a perception that actors are going to be great liars – because, well, they can act.
“Take Gyton. I think someone says to him ‘We’ve got a trained actor here’ and I think his response was ‘so what’,” he shares.
“It’s one thing to a hold a scene down – especially in TV and film – for four minutes tops and then switch it off again. To hold it up for weeks is not exactly the same skill.”
Corser’s hoping – with the huge overseas interest in the Aussie Traitors – there’ll a succession of seasons commissioned.
Things are a bit quiet on the work front – he’d been toying with an overseas role. But the joint US actors and writers’ strike put paid to that.
He jokes there’s potentially a lot of school pick-ups of his three kids with Berry – Budd, Cilla and Dustin – in his future. And time to write some scripts.
“I’ve previously written and pitched some scripts – but given there’s likely to be a little bit of a dry spell, now’s the time,” Corser shares.
Although he admits – like all good writers – there’s a fair amount of procrastination which comes with writing.
“It’s amazing the jobs you get done – you know, I must just go clean the garage,” he said.
The Traitors, Sunday, August 13, 7.30pm, Ten and 10play
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