TV Week Aus – 1992

He might have copped out as a TV Policeman ...

But the force is with Simon

After only three months in E Street, the fan mail is piling up and insiders are saying Simon Denny, 22, is fast becoming the drama’s number one heart-throb.

Has he replaced TV Week Silver Logie winner Bruce Samazan as the show’s biggest drawcard for teenagers?

Simon is tipped to win a teen magazine’s heart-throb poll next month and there is talk that things have cooled between Simon and Bruce on the E Street set. An E Street spokeswoman says “There isn’t any great animosity between them but, like any cast, there is a healthy rivalry.”

Simon joined the Network Ten series at the beginning of the year as Constable Sam Farrell, who has since quit the force.

More recently, the character had a relationship with nurse Amy Preston, played by Rebecca Rigg. Off-screen, Simon has lived with Rebecca since a few months before landing this, his first acting role.

From Ballina, on the NSW north coast, he worked in pubs, did some modelling and dabbled behind the scenes on video clips before starting as a production assistant with Westside, the company which makes E Street.

He admits he fell into acting. “It was out of the blue.” Simon tells TV Week. “I was at Westside every day in a regular nine-to-five office-type situation.

“One day, Forrest Redlich’s (the executive producer) son Jason said I should audition, have a go at Scott McRae’s role as a young lawyer. “I said no. Then, a few weeks later, he said I should do a screen test. He showed it to his dad, and that’s how it was.”

Simon is now committed to an acting career. “I was just lucky ... right place, right time” he says “And that’s my attitude towards it. I love it. If I lost my job tomorrow, I’d probably try to study at NIDA or something like that.”

When Simon got the role, the producers told him that they wanted Sam to be a hero, but a reluctant hero.

“I wanted to make him more vulnerable” Simon says. “I spent a day at the police station at Surry Hills. I got a lot of help from one young guy in particular. I went out on the beat with him and asked him how policemen feel about going to work each day.

“They are vulnerable. They try hard to be pillars of society, but they’re only human and they get such a hard time.”

Simon and Rebecca, now out of E Street, share a Sydney apartment. He says their off-screen relationship never got in the way when they were working together. “It was good. We were all actors working together” he says. “When we were on the set it was just like working with any other actor. It didn’t cross my mind. We both have a professional approach to our work.”

And do they talk about work or E Street at home?

“Once I’m home, I’m at home” Simon says. “I like to keep that separate, even publicity wise. That’s when the guards come down and you relax ... at home”

Scan: http://thebakerboy.ucoz.com/photo/photoshoots/magazine_scans/1992_06/58-0-9118