Ryan Moloney on 25 years with Neighbours, his awful ‘90s hair and the Logies

Ryan Moloney credits one thing for delivering him the Neighbours role that’s made him famous and put him in contention for a Logie this year — and it’s not his barber.

A young Ryan Moloney and the hair that launched his acting career. Picture: Supplied

Ryan Moloney has credited Australia’s most famous mullet for his acting career.

Moloney, who this year clocks up 25 years playing Jarrod “Toadfish” Rebecchi on Neighbours, has revealed it was his horrific ‘90s hairstyle that landed him the job of a lifetime.

“I hated that hair but that is how I got the job in the first place,” Moloney said.

“I’d auditioned previously and they rang up and said, ‘Is your hair still the same?’.

“The producers wanted to give the character of Stonefish a family and I looked like a spitting image of him.

“I said, ‘Yes’, and they said, ‘Great, you have got the job. Don’t cut it’.”

“It was only to be for one scene and now we are 25 years down the line.

“I really wanted to cut it, but the producer made me keep it and he obviously knew what he was doing because it kind of took on a life of its own.”

Ryan Moloney today. Picture: Nicki Connolly

After a quarter of a century on Ramsay St, Moloney, 39, is finally being recognised for his performance on the show having been nominated for Most Popular Actor in this year’s Logie Awards.

But he said he is not used to being the centre of attention.

“I’ve been going to the Logies since I was 17 and I’d just walk the red carpet,” Moloney said.

“Press would ask me for a photo or an interview and I’d think, ‘What’s the point because I know no one actually publishes it’. I am not that cover guy, I am not really the story that people want to print.”

Moloney admits said he was young, silly and cashed up in his late teens and early 20s and burnt through much of his earnings.

Moloney with late on-screen wife Dee Bliss, played by Madeleine West. Picture: Supplied

Moloney with Eve Morey as his new wife Sonya. Picture: Supplied

Moloney with Ian Smith as Harold Bishop. Picture: Supplied

“I was 16 and was earning more money than both of my parents were making,” he said.

“Coming from a working class background and not really having anyone to show me how and what to do with that money, as a young man a lot of that got spent on having a really good time.

“I used to take my friends away for holidays and shout them here, there and everywhere.

“As I grew up, along the way I met my fabulous wife and she showed me what you can do with the job and with money and how to make a life, and that is exactly what we have done. “We have made this fantastic life for ourselves and we have been lucky enough to have two fabulous kids and now we get to create a world for them.”

MORE GOSSIP QUEEN HERE

RELATED: SOAPIE STAR FORCED ON NEIGHBOURS TIME-OUT

Despite being an integral part of Neighbours, Moloney revealed he has spent the past 25 years waiting to be sacked.

“Because we are only ever on two or three year contracts I assume at the end of the contract I am going to get fired,” he said.

“I have thought about leaving over the years, but I always relate it back to my friends who have left and two, three years down the track they are coming to talk to me saying, ‘Hey mate, do you reckon we could work the character back in? I’d really love to come back in.’

“My dad was a plumber and I live by the saying you could always have your hands in someone else’s sh*t.

“Turning up, mucking around and doing make believe is a lot better than that. It certainly beats working for a living.”

[e-mail]