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March: How did you get involved in Prisoner in the first place?
Simon Clews: A fairly long time before I appeared I, like all hopeful actors around at the time, did the standard casting call audition for Grundy's with a bit of a chat and a read straight to camera. This would have been part of the very demoralising process of having photos taken and then making endless phone calls begging to meet people which, if you were lucky, would result in being looked over by various casting agents and producers. With Grundy's, I remember reading the part of a North of England prison guard. About six months later I got a call with about a week's notice offering me three episodes playing a completely different character. Jan Russ, who went on to become bigger and bigger in Australian television over the years, did the original audition, and I do recall her being one of the few genuinely pleasant and intelligent people I encountered along the way. Many were not.
M: How much did you know about the series before then?
SC: Given I was fairly new to Australia at the time, I basically knew nothing about the show. All I knew was that, in acting circles, it was considered a 'nice little earner' especially if you could get a regular part. Grundy's also produced other shows so it didn't hurt to be in their good books, either. I subsequently watched a few episodes and thought that it was standard superficial soapie crap.
M: Did you have much flexibility with the way you portrayed the character of Tiny Clayton?
SC: If you have ever seen a TV script you will know that very little of any character is dictated by the writers - especially the smaller parts. You get about two lines of briefing/character synopsis and that's it. You show up, hit your marks, say your lines and you might get the odd word of encouragement from a director or one of his/her many assistants, but that would be a rarity, I'd have to say. If by flexibility, you mean being completely out there on your own, then flexible is very much the word.
M: Was Tiny's 'campness' deliberate (for comic effect perhaps) and if so, was it your decision to play him that way?
SC: I do have a vague memory of a director making reference to camp hairdresser stereotypes which, I would imagine, would have been their idea of light comic relief. I think the whole little sub-plot was encouraged to go into charicature and overacting, then pretty much left to it.
M: Did you have any contact with the main cast at the time (at the 'Prison') or were your scenes filmed separately or at another location?
SC: Some contact - the sets were built in the same studio. I do remember quite vividly how it was very much like entering an institution of some sort - not really that different to the one they were living in on a fictional basis! Everyone had their favourite spot, their favourite chair, their locker (with their half bottle of gin in it, in some cases); their were obvious social rules and hierarchies at play. Some regulars were very welcoming and some were decidedly standoffish. It brought it home to me how the so-called glamorous world of television is not that different to most workplaces if you engage with it on a regular basis. This could easily have been the staff room at a school or the tea room of a factory.
M: What was it like working with the other actors?
SC: I remember a certain camaraderie between those of us playing 'bit' parts. There was also a lot of humour around the whole process which is, for the most part, extremely tedious - especially for the actors who are at the very bottom of the food chain. The script, for example, was the subject of many unflattering jokes. As were the directors - there was one director, for example, whose whole directorial style consisted of having the actors read through once while he clicked his fingers in front of their faces as he chose his camera angles - and that was it! I remember everyone being very friendly apart from young Vicki [Mathios - Nikki Lennox] who was not unfriendly but, if I remember right, was heavily 'minded' - presumably due to her age.
M: Were you aware that the episodes featuring you were being broadcast again recently? Did you see them?
SC: No, nor would I have done if I had known. I watch very little television these days and certainly have no need to see myself acting badly. I've always got the bathroom mirror for that.
M: What other acting jobs have you done? Why did you decide to stop acting?
SC: I did all the usual shows around that time - Prisoner, Neighbours, Cop Shop, The Dunera Boys, Anzacs, etc., etc. - all very small parts. All in all, I would have earned the equivalent of about two week's work a year out of acting - which would be one of the reasons I stopped. The other reasons pretty much revolved around getting sick of the whole superficial world of actors with inflated impressions of themselves, massive oversupplies of technical staff hanging around doing nothing, and tedious days spent waiting for the second assistant eyeliner applier to come on set to touch up someone's makeup only to be told that the light had gone and we were breaking for an hour. Getting mostly small parts (my fault for being a very average actor, of course) also meant that I was often herded together with the extras - people whose lives revolve around which famous names they get to stand next to (but not talk to) in between polystyrene cups of coffee. Finally, I worked out that I was much, much better at organising large-scale events than acting, and could even make a living out of it. Now I sit in the house that I own or drive the car that I own, fairly well aware of my own not particularly important place in the great scheme of things (whatever that may be), and look back in horror at the young, ego-driven, loudmouth smart-arse I probably was, who thought that what I was doing was so important that it was worth staying broke forever for. Maybe I just grew up??
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