Neighbours legend Ryan Moloney surprised fans across the world earlier this year when he announced he’d be leaving the cult Australian soap after almost thirty years as Toadie Rebecchi.
He’s one of the Amazon Freevee soap’s most familiar names, joining as a troublesome teenager back in 1995 and remaining as a firm fixture for literally thousands of episodes following.
Actor Ryan Moloney has grown up on the show – by his own admission he’s spent more of his life as Toadie than he has himself – but it was some years ago that he decided it was time to move on.
Those plans were soon halted when British broadcaster Channel 5 suddenly cut funding, and the show was axed in 2022. Ryan realised it was best if he stayed on to be part of television history in the ‘finale’ episode which saw Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan reprise their roles for the first time since the late 80s.
Fast forward four months and he was one of the faces announcing that streaming giant Amazon Freevee were launching a revival. After agreeing to sign on the dotted line for the ‘new chapter’, bosses decided to hand him a year-long contract to finally fulfil his desires to move on.
Ahead of a nationwide UK tour coined ‘Toad on the Road’ (clever, ay?) which kicks off tonight, and plans to spend more time renovating his unusually-named farmland in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Metro.co.uk caught up with Ryan to discuss his future, and the best bits of Great Britain.
Did you always want to be an actor?
No, and I still don’t want to be an actor! I actually wanted to be a pilot and join the Air Force. I was doing acting just for fun and then it turned into a job. Here we are!
I used to use Neighbours as an excuse to get out of class – especially Geography, I hated Geography. They couldn’t really argue with it, I’d just say ‘Excuse me sir, I’ve got to go to work.’
Did that cause some jealousy amongst your classmates?
Erm… I don’t know. If they were, it didn’t come across like that. Everybody at school just treated me as if I was that really annoying nerd.
A number of Neighbours stars have made it big in the music industry. Have you ever been approached to follow in their footsteps?
In terms of creating an album? No, I think executives may have heard me sing and thought ’No, that’s not an avenue for him.’ I think we’ll leave that for other people. Unless you want a really crap Christmas album, we could do that. I’m really happy to do that.
You must love a bit of karaoke though!
Oh well, yeah. Daughter by Pearl Jam is probably the one that always kind of comes out. My wife likes hearing me sing that song. She always tells me to bloody sing it! And I’m like ‘oh, alright, here we go…’
You’re in the UK throughout September. Where’s your favourite place to visit?
Oh… my favourite place. I’m going to go with The Pot Still which is a whiskey bar up in Glasgow. I want to see more of Scotland actually. Is that controversial to say?
Toad on the Road tour dates
- Tuesday, 3rd September: Birmingham Town Hall
- Wednesday, 4th September: Newport Riverfront Theatre
- Thursday, 5th September: Malvern Festival Theatre
- Friday, 6th September: Poole Lighthouse Theatre
- Saturday, 7th September: Yeovil Westlands Ballroom
- Monday, 9th September: Norwich Playhouse
- Tuesday, 10th September: Worthing Pavilion
- Wednesday, 11th September: Maidstone Hazlitt Theatre
- Thursday, 12th September: Clacton Westcliff Theatre
- Friday, 13th September: Basingstoke Haymarket (Anvil)
- Sunday, 15th September: Blackpool Grand Theatre
- Monday, 16th September: Buxton Opera House
- Thursday, 19th September: Peterborough New Theatre
- Friday, 20th September: Shrewsbury Severn Theatre
- Saturday, 21st September: New Brighton Floral Pavilion
- Sunday, 22nd September: Chesterfield Winding Wheel
- Monday, 23rd September: Bradford St. George’s Hall
- Tuesday, 24th September: Glasgow Pavilion
- Thursday, 26th September: Whitley Bay Playhouse
- Friday, 27th September: Haddington Corn Exchange
Tickets can be purchased from the Maple Tree Entertainment website.
What does Ryan Moloney drink on a night out?
It depends who’s paying really! I do like whiskey though – Irish whiskey as well.
We have so many culinary delights here. What’s your go-to UK food?
It’s gotta be bangers and mash. And you’ve got really good flavours of crisps. There was like a roast chicken one that was like you were [actually] eating a roast chicken, it wasn’t like that kind of crappy flavour.
There was like a pork and apple one as well. They’re good. Anything that goes good with a pint.
What’s been your biggest achievement in life?
Probably staying married for 20 years, that’s a pretty big achievement. To the one woman. Having just one wife [unlike Toadie], that’s a good start.
Who has been the most inspirational person in your life?
Right now I’m gonna lead with two people I actually worked with – Shiv [Palekar, who plays Haz Devkar] and Georgie [Stone, Mackenzie Hargreaves], I think they’re both incredibly inspirational.
Shiv because of the crap that he’s had to go to in order to get an Australian visa and stay in the country as an immigrant. His story is just amazing, it’s phenominal the stuff that was happened to him.
Georgie is a very impressive humanbeing. Talking to parliament [about trans rights for children] at age 15 or 13, and now she goes off and has big talks in front of thousands of people.
Is it a gaffe? Not before the watershed.. oooh.. (laughs). Oh but I did! There we go. Sometimes you’ve just got to shake it up a bit.
We’ve built a new house now, and it’s ready to move into, which is what we’re doing today and tomorrow and over the weekend. The kids have been in there since the start of the week and they think it’s brilliant because they’ve got a whole house to themselves.
In 2013 you were a finalist in Celebrity Big Brother. Would you like to do more reality TV?
As long as its interesting, why not? I kind of like the show ‘Alone’. There’s like twelve people and pretty much they set off into the wilderness with ten items and they’re alone, on their own. It’s whoever can last the longest. Hunting, gathering and survival skills, that sort of stuff, is more me. I’d like to do something like that.
How about I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!? Surely you’d have to do the Australian version which is filmed in South Africa…
My wife keeps wanting me to do that, [but] it just doesn’t look appealing to me. We live on a farm, and quite often I’ll go to work and smell my hands and I’ll be like ‘oh my god’. We play a fun game of ‘whose sh*t is that?’ – is it goat sh*t? Or sheep sh*t? Or owl sh*t or horse?’ As long as it’s not mine I’m okay.
Everyone’s scared of the big scary things in Australia but I’m like ‘oh well’. Eating horrible things and that kind of stuff, I don’t think it’s that hard to be honest. It’s not too far from my real life.
It wasn’t your decision to leave Neighbours. How did that come about?
When Neighbours came back, we’d got a 12 month option [on the] contract, and I guess that was sort of their plan to kind of wind up Toadie in a way.
When Neighbours wrapped up the first time from Channel 5, I was thinking ‘I’d like to leave, but I think it’s finishing so I’d like to be there for the end of the show.’
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When they said Neighbours was coming back I thought ‘I want to be there for when it comes back.’
The producers well and truly knew that I wanted to move on and do other things, but at the same time I’m a sucker for experiences. So who knows, I might end up on ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!’
You’ve taken a step behind-the-scenes and have directed an episode. How was that to work on?
Yeah, I absolutely loved that and it felt very natural, kind of where I should be. I just loved the whole process, being able to be that creative right from the get-go, and not just for my character but everybody else’s characters. Not just being creative but also to help and guide it in a way, whether or not it’s crew or cast.
The whole process, being able to navigate and problem solve. If I can see that something can be better, being able to make it better really got me going.
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