Advertisement
Home Celebrity Celebrity News

EXCLUSIVE: Erik Thomson reveals why he will never play Dave on Packed to the Rafters again

''It was hard to recapture the magic that we had.''
Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson look back at Packed To The Rafters
0 seconds of 35 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:35
00:35
 

Itโ€™s hard to imagine Australian TV without Erik Thomson. Who would have had a tragic romance with Georgie Parkerโ€™s Terri in All Saints? Who would have headed up the beloved Rafter family with Rebecca Gibney? As for Aftertaste, that most likely wouldnโ€™t have existed at all.

Advertisement

The unimaginable nearly happened. Erik had only been on All Saints a couple of months when he got the call that could have changed his life.

โ€œI got offered an audition for Lord Of The Rings and I turned it down because Iโ€™d just signed a two-year contract with All Saints,โ€ he tells TV WEEK.

Erik played an off-the-rails chef in Aftertaste.

(Image: ABC)

โ€œIn retrospect, I should have done the test, and if I got it, I probably could have got out of All Saints, because I would have been doing Lord Of The Rings, and that would have launched an international film career.โ€

Advertisement

Of course, sticking with All Saints turned out pretty well for Erik.

โ€œMy chemistry with Georgie and the Mitch and Terri thing set up my career here in Australia. But I look back at that moment where I said to my agent, โ€˜Oh no, I wonโ€™t put [an audition] down,โ€™ and I go, โ€˜I wonder what would have happened if I had?'โ€

Growing up in New Zealand in the 1970s, Erik didnโ€™t dream of becoming an actor.

โ€œI loved doing school plays and reading things out loud in class, but I never really thought, โ€˜Oh, Iโ€™ll make it a career.'โ€

Advertisement

Growing up in New Zealand in the 1970s, Erik didnโ€™t dream of becoming an actor.

(Image: TV WEEK)

But, after doing a bachelor of arts, he decided to go drama school. He kept getting roles, including a stint as Hades in Xena: Warrior Princess.

โ€œIt just kind of happened. I wasnโ€™t driven to be an actor.โ€

Moving to Australia, his first major role was as a gigolo in Pacific Drive, which was Australiaโ€™s answer to Melrose Place.

Advertisement

โ€œI think Pacific Drive wasnโ€™t a great TV show,โ€ Erik, 55, admits. โ€œIt wasnโ€™t really what I expected it to be.โ€

Pacific Drive led to All Saints, and from there he went on to The Alice โ€“ where he co-starred with his wife Caitlin McDougall โ€“ Packed To The Rafters and 800 Words.

Last year he got back together with Rebecca and the rest of the gang for Back To The Rafters, but he wonโ€™t be playing Dave Rafter again.

Erik played Steve in the 2022 comedy How To Please A Woman.

(Image: Feisty Dame Productions)
Advertisement

โ€œRafters will never come back,โ€ he says. โ€œI was really proud of what we did, with the difficulties that we had with Jess [Marais] not doing it at the last minute and COVID in the middle of it.

โ€œI think we made a really good show, but I think it was just evident that time had moved on. It was hard to recapture the magic that we had.

โ€œPersonally, I wonโ€™t be involved in any more. I think itโ€™s done. Done, completely.โ€

Last year marked the beginning of a new chapter in Erikโ€™s career, when Aftertaste, the first series he produced, made it to air, with him starring as bad boy chef Easton West.

Advertisement

โ€œBeing my age and being at my stage in the industry itโ€™s a natural progression to want to tell stories and be more part of that side of things,โ€ he explains.

For Aftertaste to get a second season was โ€œreally excitingโ€.

Who interviews Erik Thomson at the AACTAs
Who interviews Erik Thomson at the AACTAs
0 seconds of 1 minute, 32 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
01:32
01:32
 

โ€œThen we had to go about the process of writing it,โ€ he adds. โ€œAfter the initial elation you suddenly go, โ€˜Okay, we gotta do this again.โ€™ Itโ€™s the classic difficult second album.โ€

Advertisement

Despite his long-lasting success, Erik still isnโ€™t sure how โ€œdrivenโ€ he is to be an actor.

โ€œSome actors work it really, really hard,โ€ he says. โ€œI live away from the mainstream. Iโ€™m not on the red carpet all the time. I have a fairly low profile and a fairly normal life.โ€

Erikโ€™s โ€œfairly normal lifeโ€ is lived in Port Willunga, just south of Adelaide, with Caitlin and their children Eilish and Magnus.

Although work takes him away for weeks at a time, he tries to make up for it when heโ€™s home, volunteering at school like any other parent.

Advertisement

Erikโ€™s โ€œfairly normal lifeโ€ is lived in Port Willunga, just south of Adelaide, with Caitlin and their children Eilish and Magnus.

(Image: Supplied)

โ€œLast year we had the school fair and I knew I was going to be there so I thought, โ€˜Well, Iโ€™ll cook all the wood-fired pizzas,โ€™ and I cooked 240 pizzas. I did that knowing that I might not be able to do anything for the rest of the year.โ€

Eilish, a talented violinist, is 14 and Magnus is 11. Erik says theyโ€™re reaching the age where he needs to โ€œlet goโ€.

โ€œYouโ€™ve got to accept as a parent that the majority of your work is done. I look at my kids and I go, โ€˜Theyโ€™re both good people, theyโ€™ve got consciences, theyโ€™ve got hearts, theyโ€™re nice.'โ€

Advertisement

Caitlin, who starred in Always Greener as well as The Alice, has established a new career as an artist. Erik says sheโ€™d like to get back into acting but โ€œthe same womenโ€ tend to get the roles for women of a certain age.

Erik would still love to work overseas or star in a โ€œmassive international blockbusterโ€.

(Image: TV WEEK)

โ€œItโ€™s very difficult if youโ€™re not in that inner sanctum of the Miranda Ottos and the Rebecca Gibneys and the Claudia Karvans. If youโ€™re not those people itโ€™s hard to get in there because theyโ€™re the ones that people will sign off deals on.โ€

As for Erik, heโ€™s got a role in a new series he canโ€™t talk about just yet, plus a few other ideas for shows โ€œbubbling awayโ€.

Advertisement

Heโ€™d still love to work overseas or star in a โ€œmassive international blockbusterโ€. But he doesnโ€™t want to say he has any regrets.

โ€œIf you say you regret something then it means you might not be happy where you are. Iโ€™m happy where I am.โ€

Related stories


Advertisement
Advertisement