Fans of Heartbreak High faced a lot of shocks at the end of season two, one of them being the departure of popular character Malakai. Thomas Weatherall, who plays Malakai, was shocked too.
“I remember reading the script and going, ‘Sorry, we’re actually doing this thing?’” Thomas tells TV WEEK. “I was a bit taken aback.”
The actor, who won a TV WEEK Logie Award in 2023 for his Heartbreak High role, admits it would be “tough” if a third season went ahead without him in it.
“A big part of me would be very upset and it would feel very odd not being able to return to hang out with these guys again,” he says. “But at the same time… I’m really proud of what I got to do with Malakai and the stories I was able to tell.”
Thomas says he feels “very fortunate” to have scored a role in this high school drama, where the ensemble cast includes Ayesha Madon, Chloé Hayden, Asher Yasbincek and James Majoos.
“When I first met them all, I was kind of terrified,” he reveals. “I’m a bit of an introvert and I went, ‘These guys are crazy! What am I doing signing onto this?’ But I absolutely adore all those guys.”
There are scenes in season two of Heartbreak High that are likely to be remembered for a long time, such as the one involving Malakai and his new love interest Rowan (Sam Rechner), both shirtless, sharing a bottle of sunscreen.
“That was a dreaded day for both Sam and I,” the 23-year-old says with a laugh. “You’re like, ‘Can we shoot it first thing in the morning and I can fast and have my black coffee?’
“When it [the scene] popped up in the trailer, I had to turn it off quickly. I think that image of me winking, half-covered in sunscreen, is going to haunt me for the rest of my life!”
Thomas says when that he was 16, he wasn’t “partaking in a lot of the wild things” the Hartley High students are.
“I was a dancer, I was just starting to get into acting, I was a good student,” he explains. “My mum worked at my school, so I wasn’t mucking around too hard.”
But he has no doubt the show is “pretty bang-on”, having had a lot of conversations with young people since the first season aired in 2022.
“I feel like a bit of an old man when I’m talking to them,” he says, “because I’m a bit horrified at some of the stories they feel they should share when they run into me in a shopping centre. I go, ‘Please – keep that to yourselves!’”
Before Heartbreak High came along, Thomas was cast as Darren Yates in RFDS, where he formed lasting bonds with his castmates. He says he owes “everything” to the outback medical drama.
“I just left coffee with the cast,” he adds. “I hang out with that crew all the time. They’re really dear friends.”
Later this year, viewers can expect to see Thomas starring alongside Jacob Elordi in The Narrow Road To The Deep North, the series based on the award-winning 2013 novel by Richard Flanagan.
“I was a huge fan of the book,” he says. “I called my agent, going, ‘There’s a character in this. If I don’t get seen for it, I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.’ I was prepping for the role while we shot the season two of Heartbreak.”
Having been filming back-to-back roles for months, Thomas is only now getting a chance to sit back and take it all in.
“Who knows what’s next or where it all goes from here?” he says. “But I feel very lucky to be a part of it.”
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