Changing the face of model actor

By Wil Marlow And Jane Kirby

He is the handsome ex-husband of pop star Dannii Minogue and his father was Australia's prime minister. But Julian McMahon has also made his name in other ways - as a model and an actor. The star of controversial drama Nip/Tuck is currently enjoying massive success in America. The show - which examines plastic surgery in gruesome detail - has been a smash hit, propelling McMahon into the spotlight.

He says the show is worthy of its status, despite grumblings from some critics that it's unrealistic and too gory.

"I think it's one of those things where it hasn't been done before," McMahon explains.

"It's on a cable network which gives them an ability to go a little further with things like sex, violence, language and explicitness.

"I think it's an extremely well-written show and the premise kinds of covets a kind of shallow attitude, but once you watch the show you realise how far it goes and how deep it goes, and how extraordinary it is."

McMahon, 35, says he has spoken to several plastic surgeons who really enjoy Nip/Tuck.

"We do depict surgery throughout the show and it's a brutal thing to see. I can understand the concern that they don't want to lose their business and they don't want it to be seen in the wrong light either. But we're not trying to show it in the wrong light, we're just trying to show what it is and to make a dramatic series.

"I've been to a few surgeries and they were all bloody as far as I was concerned. I go with the notion that once you are slicing skin open and peeling it back, it's not going to be that pretty."

One plus side of being on the show is the fact his character Christian Troy gets lots of female attention.

"My character sleeps with a lot of women," McMahon laughs, but he says he is against showing sex for the sake of it.

"As far as I'm concerned, you just have to be careful that the depiction of sex is very specific. I like to make sure it's done for a good reason."

McMahon was brought up in Sydney, Australia, the son of former prime minister William McMahon. He studied law at the University of Sydney, but after his first year he became a model. He headed off for assignments in Los Angeles, New York, Milan, Rome and Paris, but soon realised the career wasn't for him.

From 1990, he starred as Ben Lucini in Home And Away, thrusting him into the limelight in the UK. But in 1992 the actor decided to start again in Los Angeles.

"I decided to go to America because I was pretty well known in Australia for different reasons and when you grow up in the public eye it's kind of an imposing existence," he explains.

"I think I just wanted to get away from that and experience life on my own. I wanted to explore myself and the world and be able to develop under my own circumstances. I went to America and they didn't have a clue who I was, so you get to find out if you're a good actor or not.

"Once I made that choice to go to the bottom of the pile again, all that humility and all that crap just

flooded back. All of a sudden you're not the guy who was walking around the streets of London being chased by people - you're the guy who really has to work his ass off to be noticed. "So my whole mentality changed out of necessity. I looked at it as a long term process and I manipulated things that way."

McMahon was first cast in another soap - NBC's daytime drama Another World - but got his break spending three years in hit fantasy drama Charmed before he started on Nip/Tuck. Upon meeting him, you'd expect to hear an Australian accent, but actually it's much more American.

"It's one of those weird things where I've been living in the US and working as an American actor for so long that I've had to adopt the American accent and whatever else," McMahon smiles.

"But then every now and then I feel a bit of posh English coming out and then I'm Australian. I don't even know what my accent is at any point in time."

Despite his obvious acting credentials, McMahon is better known in the UK for his relationship with Dannii Minogue. Earlier this year, Minogue admitted the break up of their two-year marriage left her "absolutely devastated" and the shock meant she had difficulties eating and sleeping.

McMahon says he and Minogue are no longer in touch.

"That was over 10 years ago, it's quite a long time. We've been living 5,000 miles from each other for ten years so I think it's inevitable.

"We did kind of see each other for the first few years because I was coming here a little bit and she was going there a little bit and then that kind of stopped. Like a lot of relationships it kind of just fizzled. I don't mean relationships, I mean friendships."

Minogue has said McMahon "went nuts" when she stripped for Playboy, but he denies it: "I wouldn't be annoyed with anybody who did Playboy. That's somebody else's choice, it has nothing to do with me."

Obviously pleased with the success of Nip/Tuck, McMahon would like to broaden his horizons further.

"I'm contracted to the show for another five years and I'm going to stick with that for as long as they ask me to.

"But we shoot for six months and then we get six months off so we get the availability to do other stuff. I'd love to do other stuff, depending on the material and the people I'd be working with."

He may have grown up as a well known face, but the fame thing has never gone to McMahon's head. He's down to earth and friendly, and it seems one of his only extravagances is having a housekeeper.

"I'm sure it was a privileged childhood but for me it was just normal," he says.

"I grew up in a reasonably wealthy household, I had food on the table every day.

"I wasn't spoilt, though, as my parents were adamant about not spoiling their children. I spoil myself much more than my parents ever did when I was a kid. I used to have clean my bedroom in the house and take out the trash and now I have people doing that for me."

Though his popularity is now growing again, McMahon doesn't crave a return to the attention he got when he was in Home And Away.

He says: "I've never wanted to be a person who relies on that attention to feel good and I still like to be that way."

Nip/Tuck is on Sky One from last Tuesday (Jan 13).