Ryan Corr reveals he thought his job on Wanted might be his last

DURING his first scene on the new hit TV drama Wanted, Ryan Corr thought he might have shot his career to smithereens.

“THIS feels so wrong pistol whipping Julie Rafter … I’m never going to work again after this.”

These words echoed through Ryan Corr’s head as he and Rebecca Gibney shot their very first scene together for Channel Seven’s new dram series Wanted.

In the drama, Corr plays criminal Chris, who kidnaps Gibney’s Lola and Geraldine Hakewill’s Chelsea after they unwittingly become involved in his heist gone wrong.

In doing so, he sets off a chain of events that sees the woman become Australia’s most wanted — setting off on a Thelma and Louise-style road trip.

Corr hadn’t worked with Gibney since mega hit Packed to the Rafters and he admits he found the change in pace more than a little strange.

“It’s a long way from playing her nephew from the wrong-side-of-the-tracks-come-good,” he laughs.

“I’ll be the most hated man in Australia.”

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Man on the run ... Ryan Corr says pistol whipping Julie Rafter may have made him the most hated man in Australia. Suppled: Channel Seven

But Corr is quick to point out that he’s not the only one who’s changed since their Rafters days.

“Bec’s far removed from Julie Rafter on this,” he says.

“She’s one of the producers and creators of this series and I know it’s at the forefront of her mind to push the boundaries (with Wanted).”

Wanted is Gibney’s brainchild, conceived after a phone conversation with Seven’s head of drama Julie McGauren.

“”I just got off the phone to her and this thing just poured out of me,” she says.

Sharing the idea with her husband, production designer Richard Bell, the pair workshopped the idea before taking it to production house Matchbox Pictures.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

’He walks onto set and you want to watch him, you don’t want to take your eyes off him.’ Picture: Supplied / Channel Seven

Gibney counts herself lucky being able to land Corr for her crime caper drama.

“He’s a massive star who is going to go around the world,” she says.

“He always had that instinct and that X factor thing that you can’t define. He walks onto set and you want to watch him, you don’t want to take your eyes off him.”

And while she may have been his boss on this series, Corr says he and Gibney still shared plenty of jokes on set.

“Spending 10 or 12 hours a day with each other, and especially when you are playing a family, you get to know each other,” he says of their off screen friendship.

“Bec and I have been sending pictures to Erik (Thomson, Rafters patriarch) of us kissing his headshot recently, still taking the piss.”

All in the family ... Corr with Jessica Marais and Jake Stewart during their time on Packed To The Rafters. Picture: Supplied / Channel Seven

Since wrapping on Wanted, Corr has continued to push himself creatively.

Currently, he’s starring in Sydney Theatre Company stage production Arcadia, which is garnering huge buzz.

And he’s also generating heat in the States thanks to his roles in films such as film Holding the Man and big-budget TV project Banished.

Having shot a small scene for the upcoming Mel Gibson-directed flick Hacksaw Ridge, he’s also very open to expanding his horizons further in Hollywood.

“LA is always calling,” he admits.

“As long as the work is what you want to do, it doesn’t really matter where it is. I have this idea that if I keep sticking to my guns and enjoying the material and projects I’m doing here, then that work will get seen overseas without having to go over and say, ‘Pick me, pick me’.”

And while he says it can be tough sometimes not to know where that next job may come from, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Part of being an actor is that it’s a pretty transient and nomadic lifestyle,” he says.

“It’s kind of hard not having a base sometimes, but I love it.”

WANTED, CHANNEL SEVEN, TUESDAY, 9PM