Shorty's naughty boy

He grew up treading the boards in Rotorua theatres - now Phil Brown has hit the screens on Shortland Street. REBECCA DEVINE meets the hospital's resident bad boy.

Phil Brown sometimes wonders why he's always picked to play the baddie.

But as we sit him down and ask him to give an evil grin for the camera, the reason becomes clear. He just does it so well.

The 29-year-old has been using his talents to play Shortland Street's man of mystery, Hamish Flinn.

It's a role which has seen the Rotorua lad's character swindle thousands from the hospital's coffers and deceive the staff into believing he is someone he's not.

But becoming the bad guy of the Street and being beamed into thousands of homes each day is a far cry from his early acting days.

His debut performance was admittedly an unusual one - taking to the stage as the witch in BadJelly the Witch.

But it was roles like that in the early days which launched him into his acting career.

After moving to the city as a 9-year-old, he spent much of his time performing in plays through his schools - Lynmore Primary, Mokoia Intermediate and Rotorua Lakes High School - and at the local Shambles Theatre.

Brown reckons acting is in the blood and readily admits to being the class clown at school - the student who always had something to say.

While acting may have seemed like a natural career progression he didn't immediately pursue it, instead deciding he needed some "worldly experience".

Brown packed up and moved to Australia to get that experience - and what an experience it was.

There were times he slept on a beach because there was simply nowhere else to sleep.

In Australia he became a "jack of all trades" and had so many different jobs that he can't really count them all.

The worst - he recounts - was when he got "tricked" into selling encyclopaedias.

"In Sydney I was told we'd be selling these cool computers for kids but when I got down to Melbourne it turned out to be encyclopaedias. It was weird; like this sales cult or something."

He gave it a go until he was chased down the street by a rugby team for wearing a suit and tie. After being whacked by one of them, he decided he'd had enough.

Brown returned to New Zealand and enrolled in the Unitech School of Performing Arts after seeing how much it improved a friend's acting.

"It was a bit of a case of I can't let those guys be better than me."

Now acting is more about having fun than anything else, but Brown admits his ulterior motives were a little different.

"When I got into it, it was all about fame and fortune but that changed."

Brown says it was a somewhat hard road layering the good acting foundation.

While theatre is one of his loves, there wasn't much money in it and at times it was a struggle to get a regular income.

And then there's all the auditions a wannabe actor has to endure.

"You can't really worry whether you get the part or not. You have to think of it as a hobby."

Brown jokes about his debut role in Hollywood blockbuster The Last Samurai.

He had one line in the film, which starred Tom Cruise. That line, however, never made it on to the screen.

While he's played dozens of characters over the years - in film, theatre and on television - he classes his latest role in Shortland Street as a privilege.

It has, he says, made all the crap jobs worthwhile.

"Having one character is a totally different experience. You can concentrate on the character and find the subtleties and nuances."

Brown is relishing the mystery of Hamish.

"At the start I wasn't really sure what this guy was all about. I'm still not 100 per cent. But it is great playing him because as a character he can see the brighter side of things."

While his character is the ultimate bad guy, Brown reckons he has a bit in common with him.

"Whereas I wouldn't defraud a whole lot of people I can see the fun and challenge of it."

Since bursting into people's living rooms earlier this year, Brown has become a bit paranoid about the ongoing attention.

"People stare constantly. You feel as though you are being watched."

Brown says people often find it hard to distinguish between the character and the actor.

He remembers walking into a dairy recently and seeing a young boy who recognised him from the show.

The young boy looked up at him and Brown thought "oh, he's going to say something nice". Instead, the tot turned around and said "Hamish is an arsehole".

Still, despite some of the negative feedback from the public, Brown relishes the "meatier, bad guy roles".

As for the future, Brown isn't too sure what it will hold.

He'd like to be able to do theatre shows without having to worry about the money.

And one day he'd love to do some sort of "horror-action" film - perhaps the Life and Times of Rambo.

But for now he's just happy to be able to go to work each day and watch his Shortland Street character develop.

"I'd love to see Hamish happy and not having a need to rip people off."