Guy Pearce has opened up about a potential return to Neighbours in the remake set to launch in 2023.
The 55-year-old actor appeared on This Morning and revealed to Holly Willoughby and Phil Schofield that he has been contacted by producers of the Australian soap to see if he’d return in the Amazon Freeve revival.
Guy reprised his role as Mike for the final episodes of the soap in the summer, when it was axed by Channel 5 after 37 years. However, Amazon’s new streaming platform Freeve has now saved Neighbours and is set to kick start a brand-new series next year.
Speaking about his time on the show in the 1980s, Guy admitted: “It means a lot to me, that show and I don’t shy away from that.”
He added that he was “devastated” when it was announced that the show would end.
Guy continued: “We all experienced the difficult news at the start of the year when we found out the show was being axed, and personally it was quite difficult as a friend of mine [Henrietta Graham] had only just been cast on the show.
“So when I heard she’d just got on the show it was very exciting, then I heard the show was ending of course it was quite devastating.”
Guy decided to say his own farewell to the show by appearing in the final few episodes as Sam’s (Henrietta’s on-screen) father and rekindling his relationship with Jane Harris.
“When I was asked to come back and reprise the role of Mike for the finale, I said ‘of course, absolutely, but I want to play my friend’s father,'" Guy shared, “and it gave me reason to be there and it allowed me to be the nostalgic person that I am.”
However, after he re-established Mike’s character on the show, Mike even moved into Ramsey Street to live with Jane… which means he could appear in the future revival.
“I’ve got to talk to Annie Jones as apparently we now live on the street and giving it another go,” Guy joked, before he teased: “I’ve actually had the producers of the show contact me – so…”
The actor also resides in Australia and admitted he is “a lot closer to Ramsey Street” so could easily film the soap in the future.
Holly suggested that Neighbours had known all along that the soap would return and just wanted Guy back on the show.
She suggested: “I think this is maybe a genius casting ploy of Neighbours just to get you all back!” As Guy replied: “I think they knew, didn’t they!”
