When Bob Morley was offered a role in new drama series Love Me, filming in Melbourne, it was a “no-brainer”. Bob, who’s based in Los Angeles with his Aussie actress wife Eliza Taylor, hadn’t been back to visit his family in country Victoria for three years.
“Unfortunately for me, as soon as I landed in Sydney, Melbourne shut down, so I didn’t really get the opportunity to see family,” he tells TV WEEK from his home in LA. “I got to see them for a couple of hours before I got on the plane back to Los Angeles.
“But Melbourne was pretty wild, with the riots and the earthquake. It felt like I was in Los Angeles!”
Bob, who’s based in Los Angeles, hadn’t been back to visit his family in country Victoria for three years.
(TV WEEK)It’s now more than 15 years since Bob, then known as Bobby, made his TV debut as bad boy Drew Curtis on Home And Away.
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The role won him fans and a TV WEEK Logie nomination, and he’s still recognised as Drew when he’s back in Australia. But Bob, who was 21 at the time, struggled with the sudden fame.
“For me it was very difficult to process, the lack of anonymity,” he admits.
With a few more years’ experience behind him, Bob had a much happier time as Aidan Foster on Neighbours. He’s proud to have made history with the show’s first gay relationship.
“Aidan was just a beautiful representation of a man comfortable with himself. So yeah, I felt very honoured to be a part of that.”
In the US, Bob is known for playing Bellamy Blake in post-apocalyptic drama The 100 for seven seasons, opposite ex-Neighbours star Eliza as Clarke Griffin. Fans were devastated when Bellamy was killed off in 2020, partway through the show’s final season.
Bob is now hoping that there will be a second season of Love Me, so he can return to Australia and work on it again.
(Instagram)“I had requested to take some time off for my own mental health,” Bob explains.
“Throughout my life it’s been something that I’ve been working on, but it came to a point where I felt that I needed to put my health before the job. It took me some time to get over the guilt of not fulfilling the story the way that I felt it could have been for Bellamy, but I knew that it was something that I had to do, and I was very lucky that my wife Eliza was very supportive and helped me through that.”
For the fans who were hoping to see Bellamy and Clarke get together on the show, at least there’s the consolation of knowing that Bob and Eliza are together in real life.
“We are very happy,” he says. “I adore her so.”
Bob says when he and Eliza started on The 100, they were two Aussies in their first big American gig, and they made a pact to support each other through it.
“So it was like working with my best friend for all those years. And then that blossomed into something else, which is quite wonderful.”
The 18 months after COVID hit were “a big question mark” for the couple in terms of work. But they had each other.
“We built a lot of Lego, played a lot of Yahtzee and Uno, and watched way too many TV shows, but we’ve come out on the other side of that stronger for it.”
In Love Me, Bob plays Peter, a successful model, which he describes as “daunting”.
In Love Me, Bob plays Peter, a successful model, which he describes as “daunting”.
(ABC)“I tried to get into shape, and then you spend two weeks in quarantine, and you can’t really do too much.”
What Bob loves is that Peter has a 15-year-old son, meaning he gets to experience playing a dad.
“That’s the first time that I’ve been on set and I wasn’t part of the young crowd,” he laughs. “I’m really glad that I’ve been able to step into a more mature role.”
Bob is now hoping that there will be a second season of Love Me, so he can return to Australia and work on it again.
“I’d love it if there was. We’ll have to wait and see.”
