Everyone was on a high following Cash (Nicolas Cartwright) and Eden’s (Stephanie Panozzo) gorgeous wedding. But things took a devastating turn when Theo (Matt Evans) left the wedding reception early to help his girlfriend, Lacey (Sophea Pennington), on a risky mission to make Councillor Craig Wendell (Justin Smith) admit that he was behind her mother’s death.
After a tense meeting on the side of a deserted road, Lacey manages to get Craig to agree to go to the police, but as she turns her back to walk away, Craig gets behind the wheel, puts his foot on the gas, and attempts to run her down.
Somehow, Theo manages to push her out of the way just in time, absorbing the brunt of the impact and tragically passing away in Lacey’s arms.
“It was really sad because when I finished my scene, I then had to sit there and watch the following scene, which was all the other characters reacting to Theo’s death and crying. Just watching all of these beautiful performances really affected me in that way.
“It was quite sad, but it was nice to really feel that sadness of parting ways.”
“Work ethic is a really big thing. We work really hard here and I have so much respect for everyone who works here because you really do go, go go,” he explains.
“My time on the show has also really helped to develop my emotional intelligence. Just being on set around actors and having a character go down all these different avenues of life really helped me on my own personal growth journey and create a deeper level of humility and understanding of other people as well.”
While Matt jokes that the hardest thing about walking in Theo’s shoes were the skater boy-esque Vans he wore every scene (“They gave me blisters!”), he admits that his character was a bit of a struggle to embody at the beginning.
“When I first joined the show, Theo was quite young and facing all of these challenges and it can be difficult to play someone younger than you,” Matt shares.
“We were eventually able to grow him up as the show went along and he became easier for me to play”.
