Soap Opera Digest: You’ve done the serial format before in the Australian soap HOME AND AWAY. Was that your first TV gig?
Daniel Goddard: Yeah, I started going to acting school in Sydney and I got a job on a musical for South Pacific in Sydney for a four-month run. Then, I got HOME AND AWAY. Digest: Wasn’t Heath Ledger an alum of that show?
Goddard: Right. There have been other famous actors who’ve done Australian soaps. Russell Crowe and and Guy Pearce have been on NEIGHBOURS.
Digest: What kind of character did you play on HOME AND AWAY?
Goddard: The bad guy. I always got these characters who are either that or the loner. I usually didn’t get the leading man or the love interest or the hero who saves the damsel from distress. Digest: But you were definitely a hero as the lead in the BEASTMASTER series?
Goddard: Yeah, he was all those things in that show. I still say, “Wow. I can’t believe they fell for it [laughs].”Digest: So, now you’re back to soaps. How do you feel about that?
Goddard: I’m the happiest man on the planet. I love the speed, the people, everything about it. I’m getting the hang of it.Digest: Is the pace of an American soap any different from Australia’s way of doing things?
Goddard: It’s pretty much the same speed. You’re shooting an episode a day. HOME AND AWAY is only a half-hour show, therefore it wasn’t as intense. Y&R is so easy because it’s been on for so long; it’s a machine that runs itself. They have great people in every department. The cast and crew are wonderful.Digest: You’re playing a bartender. Do you know how to do that in real life?
Goddard: I have done the bartending thing. I’ve done a lot of jobs. I’ve been a glass cleaner, a cloakroom attendant, I packed the shelves of a supermarket, I’ve done promotions, an assistant in an accounting firm and construction. I can build anything. My brain is wired that way. I can look at something and deconstruct it in my head and reassemble it, which wasn’t good as a kid because I would pull everything apart. I took our television apart when I was 8. My dad was pissed.Digest: Wow. Were you a good bartender?
Goddard: I think I was. It depends where you work. I worked in a cool club in Sydney, but you need to have the charm and the speed. So, it’s either speedy charm or charming speed, but you need those. If you work in a pub, you just need to make sure the beer has a perfect head on top of it…. In Australia, beer is like currency. On BEASTMASTER, we did a lot of location shoots on farms. There would be people nearby mowing their lawns with these big tractors and killing our sound. So, we would buy five cases of beer and give it to them and they’d stop mowing to drink. They wouldn’t stop if you paid them a hundred bucks, but if you gave them beer, they would stop.
Digest: Are Australians crazy about our celebrities?
Goddard: We have a very strong affinity for American celebrities, but I think the world does in general. I find that America has a very successful way of marketing. In Australia back in the ’90s, it was cheaper to buy an American program like SEINFELD because it had a proven track record, than to try to create an original show and wonder, “Will it work?”Digest: Have you appeared on any other American shows?
Goddard: I was on MONK, which was cool. I also did a show called EMILY’S REASONS WHY NOT with Heather Graham. It never aired. I was on the second show, but it was already canceled. I was her boyfriend for the episode. That’s Hollywood. You just never take it personally.Digest: Now, for the personal stuff. Are you married?
Goddard: Yes. My wife’s name is Rachel.Digest: How long have you been married?
Goddard: Four years.Digest: Is she in showbiz, too?
Goddard: She used to do PR for a big publicity firm, but she left to follow her dream, which is interior/exterior design. She’s opened a business here in L.A. and it’s doing very well.Digest: Kids?
Goddard: We have a 9-month-old boy. His name is Ford.Digest: How did you come up with that name?
Goddard: We were thinking of Cooper and Holden, which is funny because Ford and Holden are the two biggest car makers in Australia. My dad used to sell Holdens and there are also Cooper tires. So it’s no affiliation to the Ford car, even though I drive one. We just like the name, although my dad keeps calling him Henry, as in Henry Ford.Digest: How do you like being a dad?
Goddard: Love it. It’s amazing. Every day there’s something different. He’s saying “Daddy” and “Mommy.” Digest: Does your family still live in Australia?
Goddard: Yeah, everybody does. When I get a break, we’re going to take him to Australia. My grandmother is 93 and she really wants to see him.Digest: Your accent comes and goes.
Goddard: It’s funny, when I first got to America, you couldn’t get any jobs with an Australian accent unless you were Nicole Kidman or Russell Crowe. But even then they used American accents. So, I stopped talking and started reconfiguring the way my brain would think. So now it’s gotten to the point where I think American. BEASTMASTER was shot in Australia but I had to use an American accent because it was for the U.S. market. Everybody working around me was Australian, so I had to consciously not fall back and sound Australian.Digest: But your character on Y&R is Australian, so you don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Goddard: Yeah and that’s why I enjoy him so much. I get to deshackle myself!Digest: Do you ever help out with the dialogue by suggesting Australian lingo?
Goddard: Not really, but I have had nice chats with Lynn [Marie Latham, executive producer/head writer].Digest: How would you describe your character?
Goddard: Cane grew up in Australia, of course, and worked on a farm. He’s your typical Australian, working-class kind of guy who mined opals, raised goats, then went off for travel and adventure to sort of find himself. I can’t wait to get to know him more.
