Yahoo Lifestyle 
Neighbours star reveals unusual career move: 'A better place'
Matty Wilson first joined Neighbours in 2015 as Aaron Brennan and quickly became a fan favourite.
In a candid chat with Yahoo Lifestyle, he reveals why he wouldn’t consider going on Home and Away, how ‘emotional’ the end of Neighbours was, and what he’s working on now.
Australia said goodbye to Ramsay Street in July after 37 years of watching the soap. Fans around the world were devastated, and many floated the idea of some actors making their way to Home and Away.
However, Matty Wilson says he doesn’t think that a visit to Summer Bay is on the cards for him.
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“Look, I grew up watching Home and Away. Part of our routine doing homework in the afternoon, and Home and Away [is] on, but I don’t think I would,” he tells us.
“I’ll probably get shot for saying this, but I’m not a big fan of soap operas,” he laughs. “It’s just too much drama I think. In one given day you’re crying, you’re screaming, you’ve got so much going on. It’s so dramatic!”
“It was such a big part of my life”
The actor says that the end of the soap was incredibly emotional, and compares his former costars and crew to ‘family’.
“It was such a big part of my life, from sunrise to sunset. You see these are people every single day so they become family, and not seeing those family every day…it packs a punch,” he explains.
Fans will be excited to hear that the Neighbours cast still keep in touch — and even have a group chat.
Jackie Woodburne, who played Susan Kennedy, even acts like the ‘mum’ of the group.
“She’ll always write messages in there as if she’s our mum and we’re all her kids. And her and Alan Fletcher (Karl Kennedy) are mum and dad, and she’ll give us updates of what mum and dad have been up to,” he reveals.
Matty’s passion for the environment
All eyes will be on Matty as he moves into the next stage of his life, and while he’s still auditioning for other acting roles, he has an important role as a WWF partner.
As an almost father-of-two, it’s clear that he genuinely believes in his partnership because he wants to create a better world for his kids.
“I’m only 34 years old, and I’ve already seen a one in 1000 year floods, the most devastating bushfires Australia has had since records began, the national disasters seem to keep going.
“50% of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached…it feels like we’re in a downhill spiral,” he says passionately.
He wants people to know that you don’t have to feel helpful and there are simple ways to do your part. WWF-Australia has just launched an interactive tool called My Backyard, which allows Aussies to learn which threatened species might live in ‘their backyard’, and how they can protect them.
“You get to see pictures of [the animals], and learn some information and fun facts. It also has links that can help you protect them…it might be something like writing to a local member of parliament,” he explains.
“Once everybody can express their desire to protect the planet, then things happen. But just sitting there and hoping for the best isn’t really going to work.”
‘A podcast about poo’
WWF-Australia has also released a comedy podcast called Scat Chat with WWF, and Matty is keen to spread the word.
“There’s a lot you can tell about an animal from its poo,” he laughs. “Trying to find the scat of the threatened species is extremely important…there’s lots of fun little facts in there about all the types of scat.”
The star says the podcast is ‘kid friendly’, and important information is presented in a way that’s ‘easy to digest’.
“The first episode has been released and it’s about koala scat, and without giving too much away, koala scat smells delicious — like eucalyptus.”
Matty’s main hope for his partnership with WWF is that he can give people the tools to make change happen.
“If we can inspire people to do that, then it might leave the world a better place for our kids,” he finishes.
You can listen to Scat Chat with WWF here and find My Backyard here.
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