Todd Lasance made the age-old leap from Home And Away to Hollywood, but there’s a reason he brought his family, including his American wife, back home.
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When Australia met actor Todd Lasance in 2005, he was another hungry newcomer with frosted blond tips – and not long after, a Logie for Most Popular Actor in his pocket thanks to his breakout role as Aden Jefferies on Home And Away.
“You’re thrown in the deep end… and then one day you step outside and people know your face.” (Picture: Paul Broben)
So it stands to reason that he grew even hungrier, and like hundreds of young breakouts before him, soon followed the well-worn path from Summer Bay to Hollywood, where he spent six-month bursts on the Los Angeles audition trail and rooming with another Australian actor.
His decade in the US worked out well – he not only racked up a list of credits that included stints on popular TV series such as Spartacus and The Vampire Diaries, but he also found love when he met his now-wife Jordan Wilcox while filming the latter series in her home state of Georgia in 2015.
The pair – who have a four-year-old daughter called Charlie Rose – got married in a lavish ceremony in NSW’s Hunter Valley last year.
It was only after coming home to Australia in mid-2019 – in a bid to give them the settled family life he couldn’t as a journeyman LA actor – that Lasance landed another big break in a major US film, playing a Navy SEAL in Without Remorse, an adaptation of Tom Clancy’s 1993 novel, opposite Michael B. Jordan, Guy Pearce and Jamie Bell.
Todd Lasance and long-time girlfriend Jordan (Wilcox) Lasance wed in a beachside celebration in January 2020. (Picture: Instagram)
“LA is great in short bursts, but raising a family there was never an option for us – it’s the land of opportunity but it has a very dark underbelly, too, and you can see how people get swept up,” the actor says candidly to Stellar over Zoom from his new home on the Gold Coast, where he and his young family ultimately settled five months ago.
“We sort of didn’t have a home because we were constantly travelling, which is a lot – my daughter was about to start school, so it was a decision for my family. I love being a dad, I love being a husband; I love the normality that comes with it.”
Lasance heard about the role shortly after arriving back in his hometown of Newcastle – where he moved after growing up in the nearby small town of Medowie – and after recording his audition from the lounge room, sent it off with a concurrent text to his brother-in-law that succinctly pronounced: “I’m never going to get it.”
“I wouldn’t change a day of it.” (Picture: Home And Away)
Not long after, he found himself doing a final callback audition via Zoom alongside his fellow Home And Away alumni Luke Mitchell, who arrived with a bottle of whisky.
“I took a shot before the audition because I was peaking out. We both did,” he recalls. “I lived down the road from Paramount [Studios] in West Hollywood and I’d drive past and go ‘That’s the dream.’ It’s that LA story. My team called and said ‘You’ve got it, you’re going to Germany.’ I haven’t picked the easiest career, but the payoff in those moments makes all the thousands of ‘Noes’ worthwhile.”
Two days later, the young family was en route to Berlin, where the actor spent three weeks doing intensive Navy SEAL training before filming for 10 weeks across Germany.
“LA is great in short bursts, but raising a family there was never an option for us.” (Picture: Supplied)
Lasance puts his hands to his face as he recalls how, after 15-hour days that ended at 5am with a gym session, Black Panther star Jordan would arrive on set and give him a hug. “He was so warm and collaborative and genuine. He just gave you time.”
The movie marks a summit of sorts for Lasance, who was a teenager with a promising future in state baseball and no links to acting when he found himself captivated by movies like Good Will Hunting and Saving Private Ryan. “I distinctly remember those films, the way they affected me, going on this journey that was completely manufactured,” he says.
After briefly cautioning him to “have a back-up”, his father pointed out an ad for an acting school in Sydney, to which Lasance would travel from Newcastle three times a week. He landed Home And Away in 2005, and became a recurring character in 2007.
“I look back on [that] and have nothing but joy. I wouldn’t change a day of it,” he says, smiling. “It preps you quickly because you’re thrown in the deep end… and then one day you step outside and people know your face. My wife trips out all the time. She knew none of this stuff when we met.”
But it was the Australian accent that really swayed her. “I literally spotted her across the room and, not gonna lie, dropped the accent [on her],” Lasance tells Stellar.
Todd Lasance features in this Sunday’s Stellar.
After returning from Germany, Lasance was offered the lead role in the recently released thriller Kidnapped, which filmed in Far North Queensland last July. With border closures looming, his family packed their bags and flew north.
Seven months later, they haven’t looked back. After falling in love with the Gold Coast, they brought up their belongings from Newcastle and the rest of their life from LA is now on its way on ships across the Pacific.
“It’s the dream,” Lasance says. “Being able to work back home is what I feel like I’ve worked towards for more than a decade. Once you get that momentum, if you can ride it, you can get that breakthrough. People will say, ‘Oh you’ve made the break.’ But for me, I haven’t. I have a lot more I want to achieve.”
