Vince Colosimo returns to TV screens in Sunshine amid court battle

EMBATTLED actor Vince Colosimo is returning to TV screens, taking up a role in a new SBS crime drama as he continues to fight his own court battles.

Vince Colosimo outside Melbourne Magistrates’ Court during a court appearance. Picture: Josie Hayden

VINCE Colosimo is back on TV screens, starring in a Melbourne crime drama Sunshine as he fights his own court battles.

The actor is getting his life back on track after being charged with driving while on ice.

Colosimo plays a father of a young girl who is put in a coma in Sunshine, which airs on SBS on Wednesday, October 18.

Colosimo is one of Melbourne’s most experienced actors, but his Underbelly role as Alphonse Gangitano and his character Neville Bartos in the film Chopper have been his most well known.

Sunshine director Daina Reid said that she chose Colosimo for the role of Tony Messina, a father caring for his ill daughter, because it was different from his previous work.

But she said that Colosimo brought a “vulnerability” to the role as he showed the emotions of a worried parent.

“That’s not Neville Bartos in Chopper, he’s a father who is used to having power and now he has none and its how he responded,” she said.

Vince Colosimo at the 2015 Logies after-party. Picture: Gina Milicia

The character has some parallels with Colosimo’s own life as the high-flying actor awaits a court appearance next month on drug driving charges.

He has been accused of being under the influence of ice when he was pulled over in his black Saab in Melbourne in March.

He had been suspended from driving a month before he was stopped by police.

Magistrate Ross Maxted criticised Colosimo for failing to turn up to a court appearance in August.

But Reid, who also directed the INXS telemovie, praised Colosmio’s support for the young actors on the set, some of whom has never acted before.

“He’s so experienced and he really embraced these very new actors. He was very supportive on set,” she said.

Sunshine, which is based on the experience of the South Sudanese community in the Melbourne suburb of the same name, also stars Anthony LaPaglia.

Colosimo did not comment when contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun.

Sunshine airs on SBS at 8.30pm on Wednesday, October 18.