Many stars will be braving the wild Hollywood world throughout their careers. The town is riddled with foreign exports, all searching for one thing: a lifetime job.
However, the search to discover their “big break” also creates a gap with the town itself and what it has to bring. Life can be a hamster wheel with almost infinite auditions, rejection, and uncertainty instead of being glamourous.
Cameron Daddo wasn’t resistant to the scrappiness of making ends meet when he and his wife Alison Brahe moved to Los Angeles. Yet he wanted to discover something other people miss – a lifestyle.
He and Alison moved to the US after tying the knot in Australia for 25 years, raising their children Lotus, now 24, River, 20, and Bodhi, 14.
Cameron had already found a loyal audience as a host of Perfect Match dating show at the time and received two silver Logie awards for his performances in Golden Fiddles and Tracks Of Glory.
Alison was a star in her own right as the ’80s and’ 90s modeling “It” girl. Yet they both longed for something – and they knew just where to look.
“The carrot was always Hollywood for me and it jumped into movies and entertainment,” Cameron, 55, tells TV WEEK “Simply there were more projects available in the US than in Australia, but we also made wonderful connections there, particularly through our children and their school.”
Cameron was fortunate enough to land roles in shows such as Models Inc., NCIS, The Mentalist, and The West Wing.
But after several homecoming visits, each more brief than the previous, Cameron and Alison returned permanently to Australia.
Job wasn’t like before the drive, but merely the need to be with the family for their sake and for the children.
Cameron is the oldest of five brothers, two of whom are Andrew and Lochie Daddo, celebrities and presenters.
“We’ve had our times over the years [of having to return home],” Cameron says. “We skipped a lot of major events here, including the 2000 Olympics in Sydney – we saw it in Los Angeles. But we witnessed 9/11 [the 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attack] and there were earthquakes, flooding, fires, etc.
Homeward bound
Although years have passed and the family has adjusted to life in Aussie, Cameron acknowledges that when you start anew, “things take time.” All the children are grown up and they find their own course, while Cameron and Alison are creating a new society.
But lately Cameron, due to the latest global COVID-19 pandemic, finds himself in the hustle again.
Although the actor works in an unknown area, he is lucky to have his fingers in many pies, including television, radio, theater, and even podcasting. And he’s trying to tolerate quietness in the downtime.
“It is a little like Groundhog Day [isolation],” Cameron says. “It’s a Sunday month, isn’t it? The interesting part for us actors and artists is that our days are not normally different from this unless we’re employed, so it’s about being creative and finding things to do.
“Isolation wasn’t terrible for me; I’ve had my radio gig at Smooth FM for several years now; I’ve built up a studio at home and it’s sort of a blessing keeping the kids at home.”
With Bodhi at school in eighth grade, Cameron and Alison were, like so many other parents, thrown into the throes of home-schooling. Although it’s a “massive endeavor,” the pair have had some previous experience. For the second time, does it get any easier?
“A little bit,’ says Cameron with a grin. “When I came back from the US for The Sound Of Music [he played Captain Georg Von Trapp], we tried home-schooling. After that, we had a big appreciation for the teachers! It’s been three months and, my Goodness, it was crazy!”
Cameron has taken comfort in something he can’t do in the uncertainty of getting through another day. No better time to reflect on the way we think, work, and behave.
“It was changing things, but I have learned to calm down,” he says. “It’s 20/20 hindsight, you can see that now. We’ve had a little break and we’ve had everything to gage about now; what we’re going to embrace.
“Unfortunately, it has come at a huge cost of living and economy, but it is important to focus on what we are going to achieve. Be a little more compassionate in it. We got greedy and now we’re being shown a different way.”
In the age of social media, where all is readily possible, Cameron has instilled in his children a meaningful ethic – and now it may be more important than ever.
“At dinnertime, we have a tradition where all screens in the house are switched off and we’re hanging out,” he says, adding that shockingly the practice hasn’t received any pushback from their teenage daughters.
“Lotus was born in 1996 before [mobile]phones and River was born in 2000. Bodhi, thus, is the only one to consider getting a phone,” he says.
“It’s never been a concern. I have more of a concern when the kids sit down at the dinner table with the dogs on their laps.
“It’s never been a concern. I get more of a concern when the kids sit at the dinner table with the dogs on their laps.
“We saved one of them from South Central LA-he’s a mutt and he thinks he’s a cat. The other we had for keeping him company in Australia. He is a terrier, Jack Russell.
Our evening schedule consists of walking the dogs, relaxing, and eating dinner together. Perhaps we’ll look at his education or something like a family.’
Summer job
The family of five’s watched Home And Away lately. Cameron’s starring in this year’s long-running series, playing not one, but two roles!
He’s not only excited to be alive, but his kids are starting to appreciate the show he’s watched for much of his life.
“My children are American and had no Home And Away frame of reference when we came here,” he says. “We just started watching it after I joined the show and they start getting into it a little bit more. Plus, they’re still happy after Dad performs and I’m less grumpy.”
Cameron has joined the show as Ryder’s terminally ill (Lukas Radovich) father, Evan. His role was never supposed to go past Evan ‘s character but producers realized that they couldn’t let him go that easily. A couple of weeks after Evan’s death Cameron reappeared as his long-lost twin brother, Owen.
“I took the job knowing there was a beginning, a middle and a finish,” Cameron says. “So I was wondering, halfway through shooting, ‘How can I stay?
Can’t Evan get better?’ [Laughs]. Everyone was glad to have met on the set, and I had a great friendship with the cast so we tried a different idea.
“Home And Away has never done such a storyline before – getting the same star back to play a new lead role – so I was proud and glad that it was me.
Cameron, who is himself a talented musician, has played his own songs on the show and will continue to tie his character to his music. In addition, it was a pleasure to work with TV WEEK Gold Logie champions including Ray Meagher and Georgie Parker future.
“Georgie and I have had a relationship for a couple of years, so working with her was wonderful,” he enthuses. “And Ray is a fantastic bloke; I’ve just come to know him through Home And Abroad, but we’re getting along well. I enjoy being on the set.
As we press Cameron on whether he should create a Summer Bay residence, he does not delay in his response.
“From your mouth to the ears of Heaven-or, in this case, the makers!” he says with a grin. “In my early years, someone said to me, ‘Acting is a noble profession and let no-one tell you otherwise.’
“In times of trouble, people turn to it; they want to relax, or be amused. I do think so and I am proud to be part of it. I’m so stuffed!
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