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A chat with the mean man of Neighbours

by Ann Mathews

Stefan Dennis is well known as the mean and moody character, Paul Robinson, in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.
He is the only current cast member who appeared in the first episode.

Firstly I must say that Stefan was a very kind and thoughtful man, indeed he is the exact opposite to his character. A colleague told me that because his family were at home in Melbourne, including his 1 year old daughter Darci, on Christmas day he visited two children’s homes and purchased presents for all of the children there.

I went to speak to him as I wanted to know how he had prepared for his character’s loss of a leg and if it had altered his thoughts as to what challenges people with prosthetic limbs face.
He explained to me that when he read the storyline about Paul Robinson losing his leg, he first thought about asking to go to a rehabilitation centre to see how people cope with this kind of news.
However time constraints with filming prevented this and so instead he talked in length with the trained nursing staff at the studio, he wanted to play his character as realistically as possible which meant gaining as much information as possible.
He wanted to find out how people learn to live with a limb missing, how they learn to walk again and the complications they can find with prosthetic limbs.
One of his close friends is Adam Hills, a comedian, who was born without his right foot. Stefan said he often went to Adam for advice as he did not want to let down the viewers by giving an unrealistic view of living with a prosthetic leg.

Stefan went on to say that many people tell him he does not limp enough, however he insisted that his actions are a result of talking to many people living with this and that it is part of his character’s progression that the limp becomes less noticeable over time. However he did say that if you watch closely when his character is tired, in a bad mood or moving up stairs, his limp becomes worse. This is again because of the talks he has had with people who live with prosthetic limbs and he wants his character to be believable.

He also wished to make it quite clear that he takes the storyline very seriously and does not want the disabled fans to feel let down by him, in fact he wants to show the viewers that anyone could lose a limb, but that it does not have to change the person‘s personality!

Photographs by One Voice.