Samuel Johnson on Meshel Laurie’s ‘Nitty Gritty Committee’ podcast

IN A surprisingly honest interview, the ‘Secret Life of Us’ star has confessed that he felt like a ‘TV whore’. He also opened up about his harrowing past.

31/07/2003 Samuel Johnson and Claudia Karvan from the tv series Secret Life of Us.

SAMUEL Johnson has confessed that he was a “f**khead” at the height of his Secret Life of Us fame.

In a revealing new interview on Meshel Laurie’s podcast, The Nitty Gritty Committee, the actor looked back on his time playing Evan Wylde on the hit Channel 10 show.

“I was young so I was having an active kind of social life, so Secret Life was an annoyance that I had to fit in,” said Johnson.

“I had to squeeze in 12 to 14 hour days with this piece of shit that had no credibility whatsoever. I couldn’t even believe I was on it. I couldn’t believe my life had come to that and I’d ended up being just this TV whore.”

Johnson blames his attitude at the time on the fact he was a “pretentious young artist”.

“I even donned a beret at one point,” he said, “I was that much of a f**khead.”

The 2004 cast of Secret Life of Us.

“When I was that age, TV meant less to me then than it does now and it means pretty much nothing to me now.”

In the self-deprecating interview, Johnson also opened up about his life after the show, including the death of his girlfriend.

“I met and fell in love with a beautiful young lady called Lainie,” he said to Nova radio host Meshel Laurie.

“She was a bit too amazing though and I couldn’t quite handle it so I kind of bailed on her and then she killed herself, which was charming, so considerate.”

The actor admitted that “shit got pretty heavy” the night she died, but he quickly made a conscious decision not to blame himself for her death.

“I was happy to be the trigger boy but I knew I wasn’t the cause,” he said.

Johnson will next be seen as Molly Meldrum in the upcoming miniseries, ‘Molly’.

“I’m OK with being the straw that broke the camels back and that’s how I can choose not to feel guilty about it because ultimately there are a lot of other things that went into that act that she committed to.”

After Lainie’s death, Johnson turned to his father for advice, who heartbreakingly had been through a similar experience.

“My mum killed herself when my dad left her, so, there was an interesting continuity there,” said Johnson.

“So I was able to ask my dad about that and see how he coped when mum did that to dad.”

You can download the full Nitty Gritty Committee podcast here.

If you or someone you know is in need of crisis or suicide prevention support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au/gethelp