Home and Away's culture of cocaine, sex
The Sunday Telegraph
July 26, 2009 12:01am
* Former star reveals drug culture
* "Many" Home And Away stars take drugs
* Says he was hooked on cocaine
FORMER Home And Away actor Bryan Wiseman tells The Sunday Telegraph that the recent Jodi Gordon and Lincoln Lewis scandals are but a hint of the cast's behind-the-scenes party culture.
I'm surprised the stories of sex, drugs and alcohol abuse haven't gotten out earlier.
Drugs are common. A lot of people do it, apart from the older cast like Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart).
Generally speaking, the younger cast members come in, they like the lifestyle and they have drugs offered to them.
I'd go to parties and nightclubs, and I didn't ever have to pay for it. It was offered to me.
I got addicted to it (cocaine), and it was very, very hard to come off the stuff.
It's a part of the culture and, especially if you're a younger cast member, you get caught up in it.
There are no role models. If they're in a series and suddenly shoot to fame, they're on the cover of TV Week. It's very easy to get caught up in all of that.
These guys don't realise they may come out of the show and never work again.
It's commonplace in the green rooms. Some of the kids would turn up, they hadn't been to bed all night, they didn't know their lines.
I'd like a dollar for every time I'd go in there and an actor would have a script beside them, checking their lines between takes and we'd all have to cover their scenes.
They'd say, 'I went out last night, had a few snorts, racked up, took some pingers, pills, that sort of stuff.' It was talked about very, very openly.
And some of them would turn up on the set with it still in their system. Because some hadn't been to bed, to keep themselves awake they'd do a few more snorts of cocaine to get them through the day.
It was well known that if you want a good performance in that instance, you'd have a few lines. It was extremely common.
I'm surprised this hasn't come to light earlier because I've partied with a lot of people over the years and the things we used to get up to, if a photo was taken, it would have been splashed everywhere. But I guess it is a common law that you don't speak about it.
I've been to the Logies a few times, and everyone gets trashed. There's a lot of drugs that goes on there, especially in the toilets.
Then, when actors or celebrities are found in the gutter, nearly comatose, and one of the paps takes a shot, TV networks actually pay a lot of money to take the photos and do away with them to cover it up.
I think that's why it hasn't come out until now. If any scandal breaks out, they need to do their best to nip it in the bud. They're just trying to protect their show.
It's a big business for them.
My advice for parents is to keep a stern eye on their kids on the show because it's very easy for them to get caught up in it.
