Heartbreak Kid reflects on hitting rock bottom and transforming into a leading man:
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It didn’t start out that way; after breaking out in the title role of The Heartbreak Kid opposite Claudia Karvan in 1993, his CV grew patchy. And yet, he tellsStellar, “I thought it was the other way around! I felt like when I was younger I was overexposed.” So when Dimitriades hit what he refers to as “rock bottom” nearly a decade ago, he tried a different, more low-key tack. And in the intervening years, the kid actor we took for granted has clawed his way back with a bounty of good work, adding something crucial to many of the best television series of the era. “I’m happy with how it’s fallen into place,” he says. “But there’s always room for growth and improvement and elevation.” This quieter, more mature Dimitriades feels comfortable. “Now I’m consistently working on very good projects. Good sh*t.” He is collaborating with people he admires yet, he says, “I don’t get my balls busted.” His new four-part ABC miniseries The Cry features Ewen Leslie, Asher Keddie and British actor Jenna Coleman. The drama filmed early last year in Melbourne and Scotland and has already aired in the UK, much to his chagrin — he was fielding excited text messages from friends there as they watched it. Still, he says, “It’s a great series with a phenomenal structure — and it has the kind of scope that can really latch on to a wider audience.” In this second phase, any adulation or respect coming his way is “more engaged — and it’s not just hype. People really mean it,” says Dimitriades. At the start, he was enveloped by hype and teenage enthusiasm. “Now I’m in the shadows doing interesting stuff. The quality’s high — but also, my privacy is high somehow.” It’s not luck: there’s been a conscious effort to pull back from the hedonism of his youth. Episode one of Dimitriades’s story was a boy’s own adventure of work, travel, parties, romances (including an eight-year relationship with shoe designer Terry Biviano) and tabloid troubles. Given his second TV role was in the seminal crime series Blue Murder, one presumes life must have looked easy. “Look, we were living in the moment and doing the thing,” he muses. “You do a couple of weeks or months out of your life and then you move on to the next thing. Or nothing. And there’s lots of nothing. And that can test you in many ways. You start to question things — what am I doing right, what am I doing wrong?” The nothing period led to some dark years, including a drink-driving arrest in May 2008. He found solace in a DJ career, and drew on the discipline of 300-plus performances of his Wogboys comedy stage shows with Nick Giannopoulos and Vince Colosimo to help straighten him out. Episode two finds the man at its centre calmer, wiser and more focused. He has wound it all back: there are no controversies; he’s rarely in the social pages. If he has hobbies, he won’t divulge them. If he has a partner, he’s not telling. In fact, when Stellar admits to finding no trails of evidence around his current love life, he laughs: “Well
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