The perfect caveman: 800 Words lovable larrikin wants to be more like his character.

Rick Donald, who plays 800 Words larrikin Woody, tells Sarah Nealon why he wishes he was more like his character and why he lied in drama classes at high school.

Rick Donald had never set foot in New Zealand when he landed the role of 800 Words’ Woody. The 31-year-old Australian actor says he had “no idea what to expect” from our country when he signed on for the show.

“I actually thought it was going to be a lot further away,” says Donald. “I thought it was going to be a six-hour flight or something. It takes longer to go from Melbourne to Townsville than it does to fly internationally to Auckland. I couldn’t believe how quick I got over here. I thought, ‘How have I not come over here? It’s beautiful in summer’.”

Woody, Donald’s character, is a builder and surfer who hails from Australia, lives in the fictional town of Weld and is engaged to Tracey (Emma Leonard), the local high school headmistress.

“Woody grew up in inland Australia,” says Donald. “He was going to travel the world but he ran into the water at Weld and took to it like a duck. He just fell in love with it and never left Weld. He likes simple things. Before he met Tracey he slept in a van. He doesn’t wear shoes. I don’t think he showers much, because he swims. He’s happy. He’s the perfect caveman in some ways.” Donald, who has been with

800 Words since it began, was raised in Townsville and is the second youngest of four children.

His father was a newspaper editor and his mother was a former ballroom dancer. “Mum called me Rick because she liked an actor on a show. I think it might have been from Days Of Our Lives or something like that,” he says.

“Because we had a big family, I was just a ratbag and I used to try and make Mum and Dad laugh. When I got to high school Mum was the one to say, ‘You know, you should do drama because you love playing around’. “Because of where I grew up, it was sort of seen as a wussy thing to do. I played footy and didn’t want my mates to know. Every year, at the start of drama class, the teacher used to say, ‘Okay tell us why you’re here’ and I used to lie and say, ‘Mum made me do it’ even though I loved it.” But during his final year of high school, Donald stopped using his mother as an excuse and finally admitted he enjoyed drama. After leaving school, he studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art before landing his first paid gig on Sea Patrol with actress Lisa McCune. “I didn’t sleep a wink the night before,” he says. “It was all my dreams come true. It was a guestie. A 50-worder. I had hardly anything to do but I was going to be working with Lisa. “It was like, ‘I don’t know anything about the camera. How’s it going to work? Is the microphone going to be on me? Am I going to speak too loud?’” But he needn’t have worried. Donald has worked steadily in TV since, appearing in series like The Doctor Blake Mysteries, House Husbands and A Place To Call Home. For two years he lived in Los Angeles where he worked on the comedy Friends With Better Lives. His castmates included James Van Der Beek (CSI: Cyber) and Kevin Connolly (Entourage) but the show was cancelled after one season.

“I liked working there and being busy but as soon as the show was over and I was just waiting to see if it would be picked up for a second season, I really didn’t enjoy it,” he says.

“It’s a sea of people that are quite desperate in situations where they are almost not really being human beings. Whereas, I’m sure if I was living in New York, I would have loved it. Somewhere less cement jungle.

“When I was home I was happy to be with family and back in my natural accent and when 800 Words popped up, I just thought, ‘I could do this, I could dig into this’.”

Woody, who sports a thick Aussie accent, is known for his naivety, positivity and good humour.

“I think everyone knows someone like Woody,” says Donald. “I think they like that he’s a forever optimist and he sees the good in everything. I personally wish I was a little more like that and could just sort of let things, like problems in life, wash over me.”

Arguably Woody spouts some of the best lines in 800 Words.

“He gets some crackers,” says Donald who married ex-Home And

Away actress Catherine Mack last year. “He gets all the wisdom. But it’s either wisdom or it’s c**p. He’s either on the money 100 per cent in the most profound way or he’s an idiot.”

“Because of where I grew up, it (acting) was sort of seen as a wussy thing to do. I played footy and didn’t want my mates to know. – Rick Donald