There was a time when Stephen Peacocke found acting so stressful, it took a physical toll. “When I started work in Home And Away, I was so nervous for the first two or three months,” he confesses. “I was certain I was going to lose my job.
“When I came home from work, I could taste blood in my mouth just from talking at the back of my throat, which is the first thing you do when you’re nervous – everything constricts. I was like a ball of tension until the first episodes went to air and I realised that the audience kind of liked it.”
Thirteen years after becoming a Home And Away fan favourite as gang leader Darryl “Brax” Braxton, Stephen, now 42, is one of Aussie TV’s most in-demand actors, starring in primetime dramas RFDS, The Newsreader and now the new Human Error. But he confesses the nerves are still there.
“Oh, look, I’m endlessly insecure about what I do,” he laughs. “But with acting, you can never be too comfortable in what you’re doing. I find I’ve got to be thinking, ‘Is this really good enough?’ to get good stuff out of myself.”
Human Error follows an investigation into the fatal shooting of a suburban mum-to-be, a murder that baffles police. Stephen first heard about the series from director Fiona Banks when he was shooting comedy-drama Five Bedrooms.
“She mentioned she was about to work on this project,” he recalls. “I looked into it a bit, and the story it’s inspired by was so tragic and shocking. To play a character who’s a bit different to those I’ve done in the past couple of years was exciting.”
For Stephen, researching the role of Detective Dylan McKenzie wasn’t too hard. He just spoke to his “good mate” who’s a retired police officer. “That was the extent of my research – just annoying my mate with lots of conversations and lots of questions!”
More difficult was getting inside Dylan’s head. He’s a well-respected cop and heads the gangs unit, but he did something he shouldn’t have. Stephen says he had to do “a bit of digging” to be able to understand why Dylan did what he did.
“This whole situation would be like the worst thing I could ever imagine being in myself,” he admits. “But I thought, ‘Well, you’ve got to justify it.’”
Not that Stephen minds being cast as a flawed character. He explains, “The more flaws you can have in a character, the more interesting they are to play.”
Publicity material for the show describes Dylan as “tough and sexy”, although Stephen laughs off the “sexy” tag. “That was the one part of the casting that I really scratched my head about – why they got me!”
Stephen might deny he’s sexy, but there’s no doubt he’s popular. He’s won three Logies – the Aussie equivalent of the Emmys – and was a presenter at this year’s ceremony.
“Whenever I have to speak publicly, I can’t eat or drink, so I was sitting there with my heart thumping,” he admits. “I’m getting a little better at it, but I still get so nervous.”
When RFDS took out the Logie for Best Drama, Stephen had a reason to celebrate.
“It was genuinely a massive surprise and it made the whole night excellent for the cast,” he enthuses.
Stephen – who’s married to former Home And Away actress Bridgette Sneddon and has a young daughter – will soon be filming the third season of RFDS, in which he plays flight nurse Pete Emerson. This time, the show will be shot in South Australia, instead of Broken Hill. “I’ve only been to Adelaide briefly, but we’re looking forward to exploring that,” he says.
Having been born and raised in Dubbo, rural New South Wales, Stephen says moving back to the country to live is “probably the goal at some point”. He adds, “The good thing about this line of work is that, in between jobs, you can be anywhere, really, so as much as I enjoy short bursts of Sydney and Melbourne, I like the open spaces. It’s what feels like home to me.”
Stephen doesn’t feel worried should the TV roles ever dry up. It took him more than six years from the time he decided to become an actor until he scored his breakthrough role in Home And Away.
“I’ve done my share of sitting around and not getting really cool jobs,” he smiles. “I like the adventure of that. I chose a job that’s a bit risky, with a chance of unemployment, but the rewards are great. If you’re lucky enough to get a job, it’s so much fun. And it’s what I want to do.”
The whole first season of Human Error is available to stream on ThreeNow.
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