Nicholas Cartwright really made an impression in his first few weeks on Home And Away.
But likely not the kind he would have wanted.
Let’s just say, while he might play Senior Constable Cash Newman, a better name for his character might be “Crash” Newman.
“It’s this thing they say actors do a lot – they forget some basic things about being a human,” Nicholas, 33, tells TV WEEK.
Nicholas Cartwright stars as police officer Cash Newman
(Credit: Channel Seven)“Like putting the handbrake on or turning a car off when you pull up during a scene.”
Which is exactly what Nicholas does when he leaves the car in drive.
The crew understandably start “freaking out” as the car rolls slowly away. But Nicholas has a plan…
“The windows were down, so I thought, ‘I can save this’,” he recalls.
“I’ll jump in through the window and pull up the handbrake. But it’s a new car with a push-button brake and I couldn’t find it.”
Eventually, the car comes to a stop when it smacks into a shed pole.
The props department gallops in to assess the damage. It could have been a whole lot worse.
“It was nerve-wracking, and afterwards I had the sweats,” he says.
“The make-up girls had to come in with a fan to dry my back off.”
Fortunately for Nicholas, the rest of the drama has been confined to the screen.
His first day on location at picturesque Palm Beach was a big one – they were shooting scenes where the body of fraudster Susie McAllister (Bridie Carter) was hauled out of the Bay.
There was cast everywhere, real police divers, paramedics and even the fire brigade. Nicholas soaked it all in.
“Any time I mentioned it to the senior cast they rolled their eyes and said, ‘What a nightmare’,” Nicholas says.
“I had no idea. I thought this was normal. I was just trying to remember my lines and not be the one to stuff it up.”
Prior to graduating from Sydney drama school, NIDA in 2019, Nicholas spent six years in the Australian Army a rifleman, where he was deployed to East Timor and Afghanistan.
While he loved his army career, and the fact he was able to experience different parts if the world and cultures, he describes it as an “odd part of my life”.
“I had a rebellious moment … and I ended up in the army,” he says.
Before the army he was a singer in a blues band and, proving his current career is no accident, he was an aspiring actor as a teenager and even had a small role in All Saints alongside his future Home And Away co-star, Georgie Parker.
“When I was 13, I met Georgie and she was really nice to me in the green room,” he shares.
“I might have fallen in love with her a little bit.”
Later, when he ended up at NIDA, Nicholas was in the same class as another future co-star, Ethan Browne, who plays Tane.
Nicholas prides himself on staying in shape!
(Credit: Channel Seven)How did Nicholas feel when his school chum jagged the Home And Away gig?
“I was extremely jealous, actually,” he laughs. “We were really good mates at NIDA.
“We were a little bit older than a lot of the others there and we’d had some life experiences, so we gravitated towards each other.”
Given he’s been on the show a little longer than Nicholas, perhaps Ethan can give him some advice on how to stay in shape for those inevitable shirtless scenes.
Not that Nicholas needs any advice – that guy seems to know his way around a chest press machine.
“Being fit is part of who I am,” he says. “I probably picked that up the daily training regime from the military. But it’s really good for mental health.
“Having said that, it’s come in handy here, because they do like to take Cash’s shirt off and throw him in the sea.
“I’m still waiting for them to do a scene where Ethan and I are working out together. When that day comes, we’ll have a laugh.”
