Cameron Daddo: A Family Affair

As Legally Blonde prepares to close we’ve taken the opportunity to update Cameron Daddo’s views on coming home when he spoke with Coral Drouyn some months ago. See Legally Blonde this week if you can.

“Coming home to Melbourne this time is extra special. I have three families, and this will be a chance for us all to be together in my home town. We’ll even get to go to the footy. I’m still an avid Essendon fan, no matter what.” These were Cameron Daddo’s words when we spoke to him some months ago. He sounded genuinely excited about the prospect. He is a Melburnian born and bred, one of four brothers, and it’s the home of his childhood and his first family. His second family (chronologically) is wife Ali and their three daughters, (based in Los Angeles) who jumped at the chance to spend winter in Melbourne, even though it meant leaving California’s summer. His latest family is the cast of Legally Blonde, which opened its Melbourne season on May 9^th. He plays the suave Professor Callahan in this delightful musical romp and is having a ball, but all good things come to an end and sadly Cameron’s time in Melbourne ends this week on July 14^th when Legally Blonde closes. It’s been a bittersweet homecoming, which Cameron had hoped would see him through the winter, but at least he did get to take the kids to the footy.

“It’s twenty something years since I did a musical in Melbourne. Big River was a revelation for me and I loved every minute. Before that I’d been modelling, writing my own songs and hosted a kids cartoon series on TV, but I was itching to get on stage.”

It was his success in Big River that led to him going to Los Angeles to try his luck. He starred in some high profile tele-movies and hosted a TV series, but L.A has lost some of its gloss.

“Before the GFC you could earn a very nice living with one or two series episode guest roles and a telemovie every year. But it’s not that way now. Everyone, studios, producers, actors, have all taken a hit. Even veteran star Robert Wagner said he’d never seen it so bad. We were working together on an NCIS and he was giving me a reality check. Luckily I had things to fall back on.”

Cameron and Ali sold their Los Angeles home and Cam took a job as a consultant for a pure water company.

“It’s not like we were truly broke, but private school fees are very expensive in the States and we wanted to make sure the girls’ education was taken care of when the work wasn’t as plentiful.”

It was only the second real job he had ever had outside of show business.

“I helped my dad sort beads for his costume jewellery business when I was a kid, but the only paying job I had outside of performing was as a waiter in a South Melbourne restaurant, and I was pretty rubbish at it from memory.” He laughs delightfully.

Even at 48 he is an astonishingly handsome man, though the “prettiness” has gone. Were those amazing good looks a hindrance or a help? He’s disarmingly honest. “You know, they were both, and they were also embarrassing because I just had good genes. It wasn’t like I had done something special, that was just me.

“So, whatever ‘The Look’ I had, yes it opened doors and I often got cast because of that perception. Ultimately though I couldn’t rely on looks. They could pave the way, but they couldn’t carve a career for me. I had to learn my craft, so I just had to work hard and hope I would get better with each role. I remember an acting coach making me watch myself on screen in the TV series Bony. ‘Stop smiling,’ she said to me. ‘You’re investigating a murder.’ I had great teeth and I showed them a LOT,” he chuckles.

There’s no doubt that he is comfortable in the role he’s playing now, and will be sad to see it end..

“The show is pure entertainment and I have loved every minute. It’s been a fantastic cast. Lucy Durack should be on Broadway,” he says. “She has fans at the stage door every night. It’s been wonderful to see.

Now that it is ending, how did he stay fresh in a role he’s been playing for three seasons now?

“I was taught a little trick many years ago to keep varying the performance. I write a different adjective on a piece on a piece of paper each night and slip it into my pocket before I go onstage. Then I try to incorporate that attitude into the performance. It’s one way of keeping me on my toes and changing things slightly each night.

From Big River to Legally Blonde is a break of more than twenty years, but Cameron’s music is a constant in his life, as is the guitar. “I’m always writing songs. I constantly need to say things and express myself, and writing and singing are as important as breathing to me. There are little cafes and restaurants near where we live and I go and gig there when I am trying out new songs. I put out a new CD last year called Ten Songs – and Change. I’m not expecting gold records, but it was such a joy to do and so much fun to play gigs with my friends.

So does Cameron consider himself first and foremost an actor, a Musical Theatre star, a TV Personality, a songwriter or a singer if he had to choose just one. “You know” he says after thinking for a moment “I really couldn’t choose just one. I’ve loved playing a character and I’ll probably go back to L.A and be me with my music for a while. It’s all good. I hope I’ll be remembered as a storyteller…if that doesn’t sound too trite. Telling the story is all I ever wanted to do, whatever the medium.”

The Melbourne season of Legally Blonde at the Princess Theatre closes on July 14, 2013.

Originally published in the May / June 2013 edition of Stage Whispers.

Cameron Daddo: A Family Affair

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