Not even death threats on social media can dampen Nic Westaway’s enthusiasm for playing Home And Away newcomer Kyle Braxton.
“It was kind of playful,” says the 24 year old, brushing off the hate messages he received from some of the show’s fans after his character kidnapped half-brother Casey (Lincoln Younes) and kept him tied up in the Australian outback.
Westaway says some fans do engross themselves in the drama and attributes the threats to anger over show favourite Casey being treated so badly.
“They love Casey,” Nic says. “Hopefully, one day I can win them over and they’ll be that loyal to me when something bad happens to Kyle.”
Happily, Westaway’s castmates were far more welcoming towards the acting newcomer from Western Australia.
“Everyone on the show is amazing. There’s such a high turnover of people on the show that, with the regulars and the guests that come on, at any one time there’s probably 30 cast members,” he says.
“I guess people are just used to being friendly and professional. I just felt a part of it from day one.”
Unlike Kyle, who is still battling to find acceptance from the Braxton clan, Westaway has hit it off with the actors who play his screen brothers – Steve Peacocke, Dan Ewing and Lincoln Younes.
As well as working together, the guys often catch up for a drink out of work as well.
For Westaway, it really is a dream come true.
“Back home, when I said I wanted to be an actor, a family friend said, ‘I can imagine you in something like Home And Away’,” he says.
“But that was all a vague dream in the distance so when it became a reality we had to have a laugh about it. It actually came true and I’m loving it.”
And it appears plenty of people are loving him as well.
Despite making his screen debut only last August, Westaway is a nominee for the best screen newcomer at Australia’s leading television awards, the Logies.
“It’s very scary,” he says. “I haven’t been on the show very long so I don’t know what they looked at to give me that nomination, but I feel very honoured by it.”
However, he is gobsmacked by another award he is up for – Cleo’s Bachelor of the Year contest. Both Westaway and co-star Lincoln Younes are finalists in this year’s contest.
“I wasn’t aware of that until a couple of weeks ago when I got told by a few people,” says Westaway, adding he has been seeking advice from co-star Dan Ewing who finished runner-up to Olympic swimmer Eamon Sullivan in the 2011 contest.
“I don’t really know what that means at this stage.”
While the attention might be daunting for some, this small-town boy seems to take it in his stride.
Although he admits it is “daunting” being part of a show that has been on screen since before he was born, he is having too much fun to be nervous.
“To be honest, I don’t get hugely star-struck,” he says, of being launched into a world full of celebrities and household names.
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“I admire a whole lot of people, but I’m not one of those people who is too nervous to talk.”
Westaway says if he meets one of his heroes he is more likely to ask as many questions as possible, “so I could see how they got where they are”.
Ray Meagher, who has played Summer Bay’s Alf Stewart since the soap’s first episode in January 1988, is one of those people.
“Just talking about where the show’s come from and where it’s going and everything else, the phases it’s been through, watching old episodes – it’s always a lot of fun,” Westaway says.
That’s probably quite helpful, given Nic admits to not seeing as much of Home And Away as he could have while growing up in Margaret River – a town much like Summer Bay.
“I didn’t watch it a lot when I was young, partly because I was busy (with sport) and partly because my parents didn’t really let me,” Westaway confesses.
“But you’d always hear about it. It’d be a hot topic in the schoolyard and everywhere else. There were a few times I felt left out when I hadn’t watched it.”
Those days are, it seems, well and truly over.
-TV Guide
