Bob Morley on acting his age in Love Me and why he felt guilty for leaving The 100

Former soap star Bob Morley reveals why he jumped at the chance to act his age in Binge drama Love Me.

There were many reasons Bob Morley was keen to sign up to the new Australian romantic-drama Love Me – and not least among them was the chance to grow up at last.

Like so many Aussies in Hollywood before him, the Victorian-born actor first shot to fame in soaps, first with a two-year stint on Home and Away from 2006 and then a recurring role in Neighbours that wound up in 2013.

That same year, he was cast as Bellamy Blake in the young-adult, sci-fi drama The 100, which introduced him to a huge global fanbase, before wrapping up last year after seven seasons.

In Love Me, however, the 36-year-old finally gets to play his age as Peter, a model dealing with ageing out of his chosen career, a fractured relationship with his son and the prospect of a new romance with Bojana Novakovic’s lead character, Clara.

Bob Morley and Bojana Novakovic in a scene from the new Aussie drama Love Me.

“It was cool to come back to Australia and to be playing in an older age bracket,” he says from the LA home he shares with Australian wife and The 100 co-star Eliza Taylor and their new puppy. “I think the last time I was there was probably eight years ago, when I was playing a high school student or something like that.”

Morley admits there were times he was worried about making that very transition, especially having spent so much time in the soap and YA world, with their passionate, but mostly younger fanbases.

“I think for most guys, there’s certain periods in your life where you’re too young to play old and too old to play young,” he says. “So that transition is always one that I knew was coming. And I’m so glad that it’s this show and allowed me to step up.

“It’s the first time I’ve played a parent – albeit a pretty crappy one. For me, it was a shift I was looking forward to.”

Morley describes Love Me, adapted from the Swedish show Alska Mig, as a “very authentic, heartfelt show” that deals with grief and love across multiple generations and also stars veterans Hugo Weaving and Heather Mitchell, along with rising stars William Lodder, Mitzi Ruhlman and Shalom Brune-Franklin.

Bob Morley, with Bojana Novakovic, says it was surreal shooting in locked down Melbourne. Picture: Sarah Enticknap

While he’s been based in LA for best part of a decade now, Morley says he’s always on the lookout for opportunities to work in his homeland – and the fact that the six-part series was to be directed by Emma Freeman (Stateless, The Newsreader) sealed the deal for him to make the long trip back across the Pacific to film in the middle of locked-down Melbourne earlier this year.

“It’s full of really genuine moments,” he says. “It was funnier than I thought it was going to be. It’s a drama, but there are funny bits in it.”

Morley says the Covid-safe bubble helped bond the cast together during the tricky shoot as they really only had each other for company a lot of the time.

Not only did the safety protocols add a degree of difficulty to the filming itself, there were also anti-lockdown protests and even an earthquake to contend with. And frustrating though it was to come all the way back to Melbourne and not be able to see his family, Morley says he had a feeling that they were making something special.

“The vacancy of Melbourne actually adds to the show in a way,” he says. “I’d never seen Melbourne like that before – just totally empty – and I kind of had to stop and take stock and just be like, ‘wow, like this is this will probably never happen again’. If was really kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Bob Morley with wife and fellow Aussie Eliza Taylor in a scen from The 100.

Morley says he was grateful for the chance to be working again after the coronavirus pandemic had wrought such havoc on the TV and film industry in his adopted home of LA. Like many actors he’d had “a bit of an existential crisis” but also embraced the chance to take some forced down-time after his seven-year stint on The 100 and spend some time with Taylor, who he married in 2019.

“We ended up playing a lot of Yahtzee and Uno and we started building a lot of Lego,” he says. “I mean, she’s my best friend so it was kind of fantastic in that sense.

“When the pandemic had hit and we’d finished (The 100) and Eliza had come home, we hadn’t spent that much time together. With us both being actors, there’s a fair chance that she’ll be away or I’ll be away, so it was quite nice to have some time together.”

Morley hasn’t had the chance to fully process his “life-changing” experiences on The 100 yet. He took some time off from the seventh season of the show to deal with some mental health issues – about which he is a passionate advocate – and ended up being killed off by Taylor’s character just a few episodes before the finale.

He says he still feels guilty for not being able to finish Bellamy’s story in the way the production or the fans might have liked but insists that his own wellbeing must always take priority.

“It was an interesting experience, that’s for sure,” he says.

“But I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to kill me. Eliza is my favourite acting partner of all time to I knew it was going to be a very honest acting performance out of both of us. So, if anyone was going to kill me, I’m glad it was her.

“The fans that I’ve spoken to, they kind of understood.

“Mental health has always been a huge part of what I am about and will at least use my platform for. There’s been a lot of understanding but also I felt quite guilty for not finishing the story for Bellamy as it could have been.

“But I also knew that for me personally, it was a step that I had to take. It’s taken me some time of accept that because I felt guilty about taking that time off and not fulfilling the show, but at the end of the day, it was a job and I have to put health first.”

Love Me premieres December 26 on Binge with all six episodes.