When Netflix’s Heartbreak High reboot became a global smash hit, it not only catapulted a group of previously unknown Aussie talents into the spotlight, it also introduced the world to a uniquely Australian stereotype: the humble eshay.
Ca$h, played by Will McDonald, was initially your typical eshay – living his best girl boss life as a street pharmacist (IYKYK), wearing all the iconic eshay brands and gabbering it up. However, as the series went on, we discovered a softer side to the fan-fave eshay, particularly through his relationship with Darren Rivers (James Majoos).
Reflecting on such an iconic character, McDonald revealed that he drew inspiration from Campbelltown’s Kerser and Western Sydney’s diverse hip-hop scene.
“I tried to just like make it feel real and lived in and organic because you always want it to feel like a real person rather than like a caricature of someone else,” McDonald told PEDESTRIAN.TV
“There is an eshay in everyone. It’s inside all of us.”
When asked about what it was like bringing eshays to the global stage, McDonald revealed that he didn’t expect the show to receive the reaction that it did, and that the outpouring of love for the character “[blew] the whole group away”.
“Like, we always really believed in it, but the fact that everyone connected with it and identified with it so much is just still something that I think really blows the whole group away,” he continued.
“I’m glad that I had that opportunity to play that character, who was such an amazing character. So complex. So beautiful.
“And yeah, [to] show a side of like Sydney culture that I think is up until that point like was never really spoken about or people didn’t really sort of acknowledge, or if it was acknowledged, it was the butt of a joke, it was just like something very kind. So I’m really happy that he got to be exactly who he was.”
While we don’t have any spoilers on Heartbreak High‘s final season, McDonald spilled that season three is “the craziest one” they did. I mean… again, no spoilers, but if it’s anything more intense than season two, I will probably need to be hospitalised.
“I really can’t say too much, just that it’s an emotional roller coaster,” he added.
“I think hopefully people will be really happy with the way that we say goodbye to this cast of characters.”
As McDonald prepares to kiss Ca$h and Heartbreak High goodbye (with the third and final season waiting on an official premiere date), he’s stepping into something completely different: the titular role in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Made famous by the 1999 film (starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow), The Talented Mr Ripley is a glamorous thriller about Tom Ripley (McDonald), who has an amazing talent for deception. After being mistaken for the friend of Dickie Greenleaf — the wayward heir to a shipping fortune — Tom is asked to bring him home from Europe.
But after being introduced to Dickie’s extremely luxe lifestyle, Tom gets a bit too comfortable with his new persona, and it becomes something he would kill to keep.
When debating whether he’d rather be on stage versus on screen, McDonald admits that there’s nothing that compares with interacting and transporting a live audience through storytelling.
“I think a big difference between being on stage versus screen is that with a screen, you can shoot on location for certain things, whereas with the stage, you’re just up there,” McDonald shared.
“In our version of this story, you know, we’re in Rome and Naples and all these beautiful places in Italy, whereas when they did the film, they could actually go to those cities and shoot there. And I think with theatre you have to sort of kind of work your imagination a little bit more, because you’re not just trying to transport yourself there, but you’re trying to transport the audience there as well.”
The Talented Mr. Ripley, starring McDonald, Raj Labade, Claude Scott-Mitchell, Faisal Hamza, Andrew McFarlane and Johnny Nasser, is on now at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.
And while there’s no gabbering or muzzing, it truly is a delight to be a witness to a suspenseful story in Euro summer. It might just be the thing Sydneysiders need to escape this dreary winter.
The post Will McDonald On His Eshay Inspiration & Kissing Heartbreak High Goodbye appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
