The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 180

Cooking up a storm Goodbye Constable Max and hello Mark Gottlieb. Actor Bruce Samazan has left one top-rated soapie and moved straight into another. BRETT THOMAS reports IT'S Neighbours episode 1,981, scene I4A and Bruce Samazan besmocked in a very fetching chefs uniform and showing off his quite amazing new haircut is ready to deliver his big line. All is silent as the director calls The actors, Samazan, Dan Falzon and Kimberley Davies, move into the lifelike set depicting the kitchen at Lassiters and a discussion among their characters ensues. Finally, Falzon cues Samazan and, in a French accent reminiscent of many Pink Panther movies, the former constable Max Simmons utters the soon-to-be immortal words: "I am a dopey, cross-eyed bandicoot." Welcome to the world of Neighbours, Australia's premier soap opera.

And welcome to Bruce Samazan, Silver Logie award winner, former Street heart throb and now, the latest addition to the Channel lOsoapie'scast Samazan' character, Mark Gottlieb, has assumed the French persona as a bit of a ruse during his initial episodes (to be screened this week) and, although the accent will stay, all will be revealed as the series progresses. Sitting over lunch at a restaurant near the Ten studios in the far flung Melbourne suburb of Nunawading, the 22-year-old actor seemed both excited and happy with his first few weeks on the nine-year-old series. Energised by a hectic work-load, Samazan was eager to talk. "I've been a little bit rusty," he admitted. "I didn't work for two months so I was getting a little bit out of tune.

This is good because it's getting my nerves going and making me get it right I'm running on raw energy. "That's the best way to get rid of cobwebs. I'm almost nervous and that makes for a better performance because you're really thinking you're thinking all the time. It makes it more of a challenge when said. "After three and a half years of being on prime time TV, people know who I am and I don't want them turning round while watching Neighbours and going, "oh, there's Max'.

"I want them to go 'that's Mark' and that's why we have to give them an image that is totally different to what people are used to seeing." Then there's the French accent. Samazan became a little offended when I asked if he had been getting lessons off Inspector Clouseau and asserted, instead, that it had developed from real life experiences. "The training I have is my own," he said. "I was in France last Christmas and I'm French I was born in a French country, my dad (Claude) is French and I've always grown up with it. "A lot of the accent is from just listening to my father he has such a rich French accent, even after 1 5 years of living here and people still have trouble understanding him.

So I know how a Frenchman is going to say an English word." According to Samazan, he has been welcomed into the Neighbours fold with open arms. The night before this interview, he'd been out with a few of the cast members to see a local band and he said they had all gone out of their way to be friendly. The cast have been so warm to me, it has been fantastic," he enthused. They are making me feel comfortable. They're inviting me the stranger to things which is showing me that they're honestly wanting to get to know me.

"I'm stoked at that. They could be very rude, they could turn around and corner me off, suss me out and treat me like an outcast but it's not like that they're accepting me. "I'm not treading on anybody's toes either. I'm the new boy and I'm acting that way. It's not my show.

I'm quite happy to let things run their course and as it stands you've got to adjust to a new situation." Not to mention adjusting to a new look. Any semblance of the bumbling Constable Max has disappeared with the police uniform and those trade-mark spiky locks. In their place are a trendy and expensive European wardrobe and a stylish new Caesar cut, which has left Samazan or, at least, his hair looking something like Mel Gibson in Hamlet. "It's very old European," he said, giving the do a reassuring rub. "It's short hair and I think it's very appropriate for a chef too.

But it was a bit of a shock for me I keep calling myself melon-head. I didn't realise how small my head was. "When I first saw it, I was a little bit stunned but 1 realised I had to make the best of what I've got." You get the feeling that Samazan was perhaps just a little reluctant to change his look so drastically and may have done it only after much persuading. "It's a necessary evil, unfortunately," he THIS WEEK 13.