Hey Dad! star shares a powerful message about the stigma of being a child actor after the heartbreaking death of Dieter Brummer
Hey Dad! actress Sarah Monahan has shared an important message about the stigma attached to being a child actor following the suicide of '90s heartthrob Dieter Brummer on Saturday.
The 44-year-old, who met Brummer during her brief role on Home and Away, said on the TV Blackbox podcast that former child stars often face criticism and humiliation when they decide to quit showbiz and take up a normal job.
Monahan noted that Brummer may have faced similar struggles after he retired from acting to become a high-rise window cleaner.
'People like to call us has-beens': Hey Dad! actress Sarah Monahan, 44, (left) has shared an important message about the stigma attached to being a child actor following the suicide of '90s heartthrob Dieter Brummer (right) at the age of 45 on Saturday
'I think a lot of people are very unsympathetic when your flame burns early,' she said.
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Monahan, who quit acting in the early 2000s after she was sexually abused by paedophile actor Robert Hughes on set of Hey Dad!, said former child stars are held to an unfairly high standard.
'People like to call us has-beens if we don't stay in the industry and people will be like, "You're just a washed-up, has-been former child star." And it's like, "I'm sorry if I did more before I was 18 than you've done in your entire life,"' she said.
'I think a lot of people are very unsympathetic to when your flame burns early': Monahan, who met Brummer during her brief role on Home and Away, said that former child stars often face criticism and humiliation when they decide to quit showbiz and take up a normal job
'Just because you have not accomplished anything doesn't mean you should put down what I've done,' she said.
Monahan pointed out that teenagers who work at McDonald's aren't shamed for leaving the restaurant industry, yet child actors are almost always made to feel bad when they choose not to pursue a lifelong career in the spotlight.
'For some reason, if you are a child actor and you find success, people believe that you should just keep staying in the industry and become bigger and bigger and bigger,' she explained.
'People believe that you should just keep staying in the industry': Monahan, who quit acting in the early 2000s after she was sexually abused by paedophile actor Robert Hughes on set of Hey Dad!, said former child stars are held to an unfairly high standard
'Maybe Dieter was happy cleaning windows': She speculated that Dieter may have struggled to cope with the weight of other people's expectations after turning his back on showbiz
'I was on the most successful TV show in the country. I've done it, I'm happy. I'm no longer finding joy in this, and I prefer to move on to a different industry. And nobody else will f**king accept it. And they keep telling you that you should be doing something else,' Monahan added.
She went on speculate that Dieter may have struggled to cope with the weight of other people's expectations after turning his back on showbiz.
'Maybe Dieter was very happy cleaning windows, and he found joy because it was something that was easy and simple and it didn't have the pressure of the industry,' she said.
Vale: Brummer, best known for playing Shane Parrish on Home and Away in the 1990s, was found dead at a home in Glenhaven, in Sydney's north-west, on Saturday afternoon
'But I'm sure people were still like, "You should be, you should be, you should be."'
Brummer, best known for playing Shane Parrish on Home and Away in the 1990s, was found dead at a home in Glenhaven, in Sydney's north-west, on Saturday.
The two-time Logie winner starred on the Aussie soap from 1992 to 1996, and later had roles in hospital drama Medivac and crime series Underbelly.
Feud: Brummer was involved in a Home and Away storyline with co-star Melissa George (right), who played his on-screen wife Angel Brooks. He said in 2012 they hated each other off screen
Career: After turning his back on acting, Brummer started up a window cleaning business, telling TV Tonight in 2010: 'People say that I'm just a window cleaner; in reality it's substantially more involved than that. Working at heights, it's a relatively specialist trade'
After retiring from acting, Brummer started a window cleaning business, telling TV Tonight in 2010: 'People say I'm just a window cleaner; in reality it's substantially more involved than that. Working at heights, it's a relatively specialist trade.'
Brummer said he was able to employ his rock-climbing skills in his new profession, and was appreciative of the 'life experience' it had given him.
'I just wanted to get a bit of real life experience under my belt, but I'd always intended on coming back to the acting game at some point,' he added.
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New chapter: Brummer said he was able to employ his rock-climbing skills in his new profession, and was appreciative of the 'life experience' it had given him. Pictured in 2010
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