Townsville actor Rick Donald has a cult following as ‘pad boy’, writes

Ping ping ping ping ping ping! It’s the feminine hygiene ad that’s captured the imagniation of a nation — and the daggy bloke behind the ninja moves is Townsville product Rick Donald.

Rick couldn’t be happier, or more surprised, with the success of the 30-second commercial.

‘‘It’s crazy, surreal. I’m this guy from Townsville who’s been studying for six years and it’s been a long journey so far. It’s such a small thing being in an ad but it’s also a reward for the training I’ve done,’’ he said.

Rick spent three years at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and this is his first big break since graduating.

Since the commercial aired in late February, fans of Rick’s character have started a host of facebook pages in his honour — pages which have amassed tens of thousands of followers.

‘‘I laugh at the fan page. It’s so flattering and I didn’t imagine the support,’’ he said.

‘‘I think they’re pretty funny ads. I read quite a few scripts and said no but this one came up, I read it and laughed out loud.’’

Rick said what he did in the pad ad wasn’t far from the shenanigans he used to get up to, just minus the pads.

‘‘I used to muck around at home all the time . . . I get bored easily,’’ he said.

He had a script to work from but he and the director took liberty of how the ad panned out.

‘‘The things I do in the ad are quite extreme and the team was great,’’ the 24-year-old said.

They spent a few days filming in Melbourne in a St Kilda apartment.

‘‘There was a moment where I was sitting on set looking in the mirror decked out in pads. I thought how are people going to perceive this,’’ Rick said.

‘‘(But) I was having too much fun at the time to care.’’

Rick said Libra was known for its good scripts for pad ads and Aussies before him including Alex O’Laughlin who appeared in the ads have gone on to bigger and better roles.

‘‘Hopefully the myth of the Libra pad guy goes on,’’ he joked. Rick said he training at NIDA helped. ‘‘I think what NIDA gave me was the discipline of how to act in front of a camera and being able to fail at NIDA meant not taking things too seriously. You go with the flow and not worry about it,’’ he said.

He was just playing a big kid in the ad, he said.

Rick was born in Townsville and lived in Cranbrook and his first acting role was in series one of Sea Patrol where he played Hawkey. Then he moved to Sydney. Rick said he had watched people on YouTube making parodies of the pad ad and found it hilarious.

‘‘I went to the gym the other day and was in the steam room and some guy was staring at me. I was wondering if I was staring at him or did he want to fight me? He got a big grin on his face and pointed to me and said ‘I know you’. After that I realised he saw the ad,’’ he said.

‘‘I was crossing the street and a guy yelled out the window ‘pad boy’. I realised after it was actually delivered to me.

Rick said he was handling his new found fame well.

‘‘It’s really flattering and unknown to me. I don’t think it’s something that’s changing my life. I’m not being noticed as Robert Pattinson or anything,’’ he said.

‘‘I cop it from my friends. I’ll get a message from one of them every day. The boys are always giving it to me.’’

Rick is auditioning for a big US film which he can’t name and is also auditioning for a television series in Australia.