Brenton Thwaites has just got off a flight from Canada. He’s chatting to TV WEEK via Zoom about his new drama series, Two Years Later, while also trying to wrangle his muddy dog.
“It’s raining on the Gold Coast and he’s trying to get in. Out! Good boy!”
The 36-year-old always has a lot going on these days. As well as an acting career that takes him around the world, he released his first album last year – and he’s dad to five kids.
“I was in Toronto for six weeks and I got back an hour ago,” he says. “That was a hard stint on the family. But I try and take them wherever I can.”
A lot has changed for Brenton since 2011, when Australian viewers got to know him as Stu Henderson, one of the River Boys on Home and Away. Brenton, who grew up in Cairns, says he has “great memories” of that time.
“I remember dying on a rock, hitting my head on a rock!” he recalls. “That was good fun! I just had a great time. I was 20 years old, I was living in Sydney by myself and driving to Palm Beach every day.”
After Home and Away, Brenton starred in a string of movies, including Maleficent and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. It was while he was filming the latter on the Gold Coast that he moved into a share house. One of the girls living in the house was Chloe Pacey. Before long, Brenton and Chloe were dating. They had their first child, Birdie, in 2016. From 2018 to 2023, Brenton played Dick Grayson, aka Robin, aka Nightwing, in superhero series Titans, filmed in Toronto.
So is it hard for him to have a job that involves so much travel when he’s a dad of five?
“It is hard,” he says, “but I look at my mates and my neighbours, and what they do is hard. I think it’s just hard for everyone.
“I think the life we live is just getting harder, to be honest with you. It was quite easy when I was on a show that had the security of season after season and good money. But now I am trying to do different things and produce and write and play music, and I’m finding the scheduling and the travel is getting a bit hard.”
One thing Brenton loved about Two Years Later is that it was shot in Brisbane.
“It was an hour away from my house!”
Two Years Later is the story of two millennials, Ryan and Emily, who meet on a bus. Their budding flirtation is interrupted by Covid lockdowns, and when they meet again, Ryan proposes to Emily – and then suggests they go on eight dates to make up their minds, because his grandparents got married after just eight dates.
Brenton says he got “really emotional” reading the script, due to his character Ryan’s close relationship with his grandfather Morgan (Roy Billing).
“My grandfather passed away a couple of years ago,” he explains.
Another thing Brenton loved about Two Years Later was the chance to act opposite Phoebe Tonkin, who plays Emily.
“I’ve always wanted to work with her,” he says. “She’s been someone who I’ve watched for years and always admired. And we know the same people in the same circles in America and Australia.”
Ryan is clearly a romantic, so is Brenton a romantic, too? He says he is.
“My wife might tell you something different,” he adds with a laugh. “I missed Mother’s Day and our 11-year anniversary because I was in Toronto, so I rescheduled… but I did the same thing last year and I forgot about the reschedule!
“I mean, we’ve got five kids, so we’re trying to be as romantic as we can. But we are more than we were, for sure.
“I’m learning how to be a romantic again. There’s a song in that!”
Two Years Later is available June 4 on Paramount+.
