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Home and Away EXCLUSIVE: Lukas Radovich reveals if he would return
The star played Ryder Jackson on the soap from 2017 to 2022.
Home and Away fans have been calling on producers to bring Lukas Radovich back after he quit the soap last year. The star, 28, played Alf Stewart’s (Ray Meagher) long-lost grandson Ryder Jackson for five years.
Although he has been busy working on his own projects and will soon appear on stage at the Kings Cross Theatre in May, his character’s departure definitely left the door open for a return.
After working as a dealer in an underground gambling ring for Mackenzie Booth (Emily Weir), the Salt bartender scored a job working on a cruise ship. With his grandfather Alf and aunt Roo Stewart (Georgie Parker) still in Summer Bay, it makes sense for Ryder to visit from time to time — even if it is just a short stint.
Lukas tells Yahoo Lifestyle that he is definitely open to returning to the soap at some stage.
“I’d love to [go back]. I’d love to see Ryder at some point in the future. It doesn’t have to be in the near future,” he muses.
“But it would be interesting to see [what] that character is up to, I mean, who knows? Maybe [for] the 40th anniversary of the show!”
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Former co-star Penny McNamee, who played Tori Morgan from 2016 to 2021, recently made a return to the show as a writer. With Lukas exploring his creative side in the form of directing and producing, he says he would be open to working behind the scenes in some capacity.
“I love the creative control that you get, and the agency you feel with [seeing] the story from its inception to the final product,” he explains.
“I love seeing the overview of the entire product rather than just being like a cog in the machine. I’d love to potentially do a director’s attachment or something like that,” he adds.
Lukas’ ‘tough goodbye’ from the show: ‘Right decision’
Many viewers were brought to tears when Lukas had his final farewell scene with real-life and onscreen best friend Courtney Miller, who played Bella Nixon.
He says that the pair were “holding back” during the scene because they didn’t want to say goodbye to one another. Once the director told them it was their last take, the young actors let their emotions out.
“All bets were off, we were bawling our eyes out. I think that made the scene even more special, considering that was my last scene with Courtney,” he recalls.
In terms of actually walking away from what he considered his “home for the last five years”, he doesn’t hesitate to admit it was really “tough” to say goodbye.
“We’re with each other every day of the week, almost six days of the week. It was difficult, but I think I made the right decision,” he tells us. “The people who I was really close to, I still get to see all the time, so I don’t feel like I’ve lost them in my life.”
Fans share ‘support’ after Lukas speaks out about his sexuality
Earlier this month, Lukas finally addressed his sexuality in a candid interview for Sydney Confidential. While the openly gay actor has shared snaps with his long-term boyfriend Liam Forcadilla on social media, he hadn’t spoken about his sexuality publicly before.
He recalls being both ‘excited and nervous’ once the article was released, but thanks his fans for showing him ‘support’.
“It’s been really overwhelmingly positive as I’ve had a lot of messages from fans who have showed their support. It feels good to just talk about a little bit more about myself because a lot of the projects that I’m working on relate to who I am as a person, and it would be amiss to not talk about myself, and how or why, or the reasons why I’ve chosen these projects,” he explains.
When pressed to answer if he sees wedding bells in his future with his professional netballer partner, he tells us it’s not the first time he’s been asked this question.
“Oh no, you can’t ask that question,” he laughs. “Look, I’m open to it. That’s probably something that comes up on a daily basis, either from [Liam] or from his mum.”
Ryder’s kiss with Ty: ‘We did the best we could’
In 2018, Home and Away portrayed a same-sex kiss between Ryder and Ty Anderson (Darius Williams), for the first time in years. While Lukas’ character didn’t reciprocate Ty’s strong feelings, the star said there was ‘a lot of care’ taken with the storyline.
“I think, at that time, we really tried to make it the best story possible. But I definitely think that there is room for improvement and there’s room and space for more representation as well,” he says.
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“Australia has quite a conservative view when it comes to representation on TV. But I think it definitely is changing, very, very slowly.”
The star says that the media landscape is changing, with people in power using their voices to make sure every story is being told, and adds that there’s now more diversity in writers’ rooms than five years ago, which filters to the screen.
“I definitely would have loved to explore more of that storyline. But for the time back in 2018, it’s only been a couple of years, but the world has changed rapidly. And I think we did the best we possibly could with that storyline.”
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