May 1992 - TV Hits

TV HITS magazine, May 1992, “The Life and Times of Simon Denny”

The extremely cute Simon Denny may be the new boy on “E Street”, but you’ve probably already seen him on TV heaps of times. Long before he arrived at Westside, Simon was causing a stir as the Hypercolor T-shirt boy and in the videos for No. 1 one singles by Melissa Tkautz and Euphoria. And now he’s here to tell his story to TV HITS …

My full name is Simon Lucas Denny. There’s a Baker in there somewhere too, but that’s off the record (laughs). I was born on the 30th of July, 1969, in Launceston - Tasmania. I think I was only in Tasmania for a couple of weeks, not very long, and then we moved to New Guinea. My father went up there to work. He was a mechanic at that stage. Then we moved back to Sydney, which was quite strange after New Guinea. We moved to a place called St. Marys and then we moved up to the north of New South Wales to Lennox Head. I did most of my growing up there. I started primary school in St. Marys, then jumped around Lennox Head Primary School before I went on to a catholic school called St. Francis Xavier and that’s where I began my service as an altar boy. It even crossed my mind once or twice to become a priest. Heaps of friends at school had a nickname. What was mine? Oh, it’s a bit embarrassing. Okay, I’ll tell you: it was Smiley.

We were all pretty well at school. We were young, surfer boys. I started surfing in fifth grade at school. I was pretty average at sport. I never excelled at one in particular. I was a bit of an all-rounder. The ones I did best at were probably surfing and water polo. I played rugby league and union, but I was never … I dunno, I just didn’t look like a football player. I looked like a surfer on the football field (laughs). My body wasn’t big enough for football. If you’re small, you dodge people. If you’re big, you run into them and I forgot that.

At school I always thought that acting was a bit of a wussy thing to do and it’s not at all. I loved doing it. I did one school production, a musical called The Boyfriend. I’ve never been much of a singer, but that was fun. All my life I’ve clowned around and been a bit of a show-off, actor type. Once I left school I went to study nursing, which is quite strange now I think about it. I always had a problem knowing what I wanted to do and what I thought other people wanted me to do. My marks weren’t that great because I really didn’t do much work and nursing meant that I could move to Sydney. Kids that age want to be independent and show their parents they can do it on their own. So I started nursing in Sydney, but then I quit straight away.

After that, I started working in a pub next to New South Wales University. That was the only area in Sydney I could afford to live in at the time. It was an old, run-down pub, but I liked working there. I started to learn a little about what life’s about. Then I went to Surfers Paradise, which was a bit of a learning experience too. I was working in pubs and cafés again and then at The Hyatt at Sanctuary Cove. There I was working down by the pool as a lifeguard type and I played volleyball with the guests and took the kids fishing. That was fun. There were some interesting people there. I met Richard Pryor (the comedian). He gave me a nice tip (laughs). From there I went to Japan on a modelling contract because, while I was at The Hyatt, I was doing some commercials.

I wanted to get into television somehow and I had a friend who was doing it and making good money and he told me to come along to a casting. I didn’t get the job, but I met the casting lady and I got some other jobs. Then I became known and it started to roll. Japan was good. You don’t have to be extremely amazing looking to go there. I could never make it modelling in Sydney or Milan or New York because those models are all six-feet-two with chiselled chins and dark hair, whereas I just had a bit of character and I was short and had blond hair. In Japan they like you to be short so you can fit into their clothes. So it’s kind of the Clayton’s modelling trip (laughs). When I moved to Sydney I knew that I couldn’t model forever, but luckily I ended up making friends with one of the directors of my commercials, Nick Vale. We hung out together and I asked him if I could help out on Melissa’s first clip. Now you’re probably gonna put: Simon’s big break came starring in Melissa’s first clip. They’ve all been saying that and it’s not really right. Anyway, I helped Nick out on the production side of the second video too.

I got onto E Street because the production company that made these clips was Westside, that made E Street as well. They saw me out of the production office working with Nick a few times and one day they asked me to take a screen test. I didn’t think a lot of it, but then the character was offered to me and I took it. Why not? It’s a regular wage and I went for the money (laughs). Sam’s opening scene on E Street was a dilemma - shooting someone - and he goes a bit tense. Of course I was nervous too. I didn’t know anyone there. It was the same kind of feeling as going to a new school. Sam’s not a lot like me really, which is good. He’s a lot more serious, I’m a bit more laid back. There’s plenty of action with my character. Actually, there’s always plenty of action on E Street. I had a scene the other day where I was going to court and I punched out a journalist. Is that enough action for you? (laughs) It went a bit like this … (Simon takes a playful swing while I duck for cover under the table).

Working on the show is like any other job really. I mean, people have probably got this idea that Bruce Samazan is driven to work in a limousine or something, but it’s not like that. It’s not as glamorous as people think. Bruce and I get on really well. He likes his surfing. I haven’t been with him yet, but he often surfs with Adrian Lee. Bruce has got a very busy schedule, he’s always working. It’s almost his life, you know? Whereas I like to get home from work, scrub the make-up off and forget about it. I like to have my own world. It’s good that up till now nobody knows who I am. Some people did recognize me from the Hypercolor ad, I suppose. I don’t go out very often, but I did go out the other night with a mate from school who I hadn’t seen for a while. As the night went on I had these people coming up to me and saying: You’re the bloke from that ad. And I would say: Yes. Now can you leave? But I know how it is. About a year ago, I’d see someone that was on television and I’d want to see what they looked like. But when the shoe’s on the other foot, it’s very different.

What does my girlfriend think of my performance on the show? (goes very shy) I dunno, she thinks it’s okay. She thinks I’m improving. What does she do? She’s an actress. What’s her name? Her first name is Rebecca. Is she working at the moment? Yeah, yeah, she’s working (laughs). She’s working (in a teasing voice). We later discover the reason for Simon’s coyness. He is actually dating his E Street co-star, Rebecca Rigg.

Thanks to:

https://www.facebook.com/simonbaker.meantalist &

http://sarapettarini.tumblr.com/post/116912841994/sarapettarini-tv-hits-magazine-issue-45-may