Guy Pearce on his new project, the future of Neighbours – and THAT Twitter scandal

After returning to Ramsay St for the Neighbours finale, Guy Pearce reveals whether he’ll be back for the reboot - and what he really meant by THAT controversial tweet.

Stellar: You appeared in the Neighbours finale last year, with your character buying a house on Ramsay Street. Now the show is coming back later this year, does this mean you are obligated to, as well?

Guy Pearce: We are in discussions about how we sort that out. I’m very glad the show is back but, at the same time, it feels like it sucked the air out of the finale that we did. I was happy for Henrietta [Graham], who is a mate of mine and played my daughter. I [had] said that if I came back, I want to play her dad.

S: Neighbours catapulted you, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan into superstardom as teenagers. What do you remember about that time?

GP: I actually had a bit of a tough time with it. I struggled with the attention. One part of my ego probably loved it – at the same time I felt it wasn’t really warranted. I’ve got a sister with an intellectual disability, so I’m very aware of the imbalance of things in life. And so, I think somewhere deep down I was like, I need to stay as grounded as I can because I have my sister to look after, and she doesn’t have anything in life that is anywhere near this. So, I was having this – not exactly a struggle – but I was just trying to figure it all out. We would go to these shopping centre appearances and have our clothing ripped off us by 5000 crazy fans. Kylie, Jason and I once did an appearance at a local music festival up in Queensland – you might have heard about this – and they drove us into this field where there was a big stage and caravans at the back for the music acts. They put us in one of those caravans and 25,000 people swarmed the caravan and turned it upside down. Kylie, Jason and I were inside this van as it’s getting tipped over. The police came, got us out and took us straight to the airport back to Melbourne and I remember the three of us just going, “What the f*ck was that?” We didn’t even do the appearance onstage. It was just crazy.

Australian actor Guy Pearce has opened up about his return to Neighbourne, the Twitter scandal that made headlines – and his latest project, The Clearning on Disney+. Picture: Getty Images

S: One of your most ardent fans was your friend and Mare Of Easttown co-star Kate Winslet …

GP: She sang the Neighbours theme whenever I [walked] on set. And that’s in America, where they don’t even know what Neighbours is. And I am just like, “Shut up!”

S: Next year marks the 30th anniversary of The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert. Does that give you pause to reflect on its place in cinematic history and popular culture today?

GP: Very much so. The film itself is great as an entity, but what it was representing and what it was enabling was something I certainly wasn’t ready for – and didn’t really understand [at the time]. In the years since, I’ve had so many people coming up to me – primarily gay guys – saying, “Your film allowed me to come out. That film was the moment that changed my life.” And you sort of go, whoa.

S: When your co-star Hugo Weaving sat down with Stellar, he was adamant that he’d have no qualms about playing the same character today. Do you feel the same?

GP: I feel like I would want to make the same choice today, and I feel like I should be allowed to make the same choice today. I find it hard to articulate this stuff because often the words I use are not exactly what I think – and these days you’ve got to be really careful of what you say. But I do get that the times are a-changing, and we perhaps need to look at things differently. But at the same time my belief, and I know what you’re asking, is that as an actor – when you look at the craft of acting – it would be like telling a painter you’re not allowed to paint that anymore. It’s a really tricky arena. I get why things are an issue. And I would be really curious to see whether I would say yes now to a role that was outside

of my universe. I mean, every role I play is outside my universe, but there are some universes that find it more difficult to accept an actor stepping into that universe. This question feels hypothetical so it’s hard for me to answer but when it’s real, that’s when my drive comes to the forefront and I go, “This is what I’m doing and I don’t care [what people say], I’m ready to take that on.” Obviously that tweet that I sent out and that question shows that I do take issue with it. [In March, Pearce raised the issue of limiting character portrayals via a tweet questioning whether those who identify as transgender should be the only actors to portray trans characters.]

S: Perhaps Twitter is not the place to have those more nuanced conversations because you don’t have the ability to articulate views in detail, and comments can be taken out of context.

GP: Yes, and it was totally wrong of me to throw that question out there because it was inflammatory – I get it.

S: Yet you have long used social media well to speak honestly – and with humour – about issues you’re passionate about. Will you hesitate about what you post in the future?

GP: What’s funny, really, is that I’m copping far more abuse for my apology letter than I did for my original question. I’ve got people now saying “You gutless prick.” And I feel like a gutless prick because I still believe the question. So now I’ve given in because I got hammered – really hammered – and I had people saying to me, “You need to do something about this because you’re going to get cancelled. You’re a middle-aged, white, heterosexual, successful guy. You’re going to be f*cking wiped off the face of the Earth unless you apologise for this!” So, I was like, you’re right. This is society now. I realised Twitter is not the place to do that, in that way. I wasn’t apologising for what I asked; I was apologising for the way I did it on Twitter.

S: Your new series The Clearing has eerie parallels to the Victorian cult led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne from 1963 to 1987 that was famous for its child members who had bleached hair and were drugged with LSD.

GP: Funnily enough, I became fascinated with cults while I was in America, which is the home of the cult. The culture of cults there is incredible, things like David Koresh’s Waco [siege]. When I was working in Austin, Texas, I drove out to Waco to check it out but of course there was nothing there because the building burned down in 1993. So, there are no remnants of it, but just the fact that I was there [made an impression]. America is the sort of place that, wherever you go it’s like you’re meeting a famous person because there’s some street you’ve seen in the movies. It’s so intoxicating in that way.

S: A common thread with most cults seems to be a very seductive leader. Do you agree?

GP: I do. I’ve often thought, how did David Koresh do what he did? How did Charles Manson do what he did? They must be incredibly magical people. But you’ve got to look at the vulnerability of people when they join them. And that’s the thing that dawned on me when I was a bit obsessed with David Koresh’s cult and others like Jonestown [where more than 900 people died in a mass murder-suicide in 1978]: I’ve met some very seductive people, I’ve met very coercive and controlling people, I’ve met people who I’ve very quickly felt like they are trying – when you’re an actor and a bit well-known – to get you in their group because that’s a real coup for them. But all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I got out of there.

S: You became a father relatively late in life. What are the challenges and benefits of parenting your six-year-old son Monte in your 50s?

GP: I had never considered [fatherhood] before. When I was married to Kate [Mestitz, Pearce’s ex-wife], people would say, “When are you guys having kids?” And we’d always say, “We’re not.” Having Monte [with actor Carice Van Houten] … I spent the first three years [in disbelief]. Of course, I’m absolutely besotted with him. It’s ridiculous. My body struggles a bit. I have to make more effort to stay fit. My friends laugh at me, going, “Yeah, good luck with that.” They have 25-year-old kids and I’m there crawling around on my knees going, “Monte, look! [This game] is all set up.” So it’s tricky. But he likes that I like to be silly. It’s so divine.

The Clearing premieres on May 24 on Disney+.

Originally published as Guy Pearce on his new project, the future of Neighbours – and THAT Twitter scandal