Home and Away star Kyle Shilling shares a close bond with Shane Withington who helped him when he first joined the soap.
The actor joined the cast as Mali Hudson back in January, while 64-year-old Shane has portrayed John Palmer since 2009.
Following Dean Thompson’s (Paddy O’Connor) exit earlier this year, John found a new friend in Mali, with Kyle admitting their friendship on-screen is the same in real life.
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When asked who his closet pal was on set, Kyle only had on answer as he responded: “Shane Withington – John Palmer.
“The friendship you see on screen is not much different to what it is in real life. He’s such a great bloke. He’s just so genuine”.
Kyle explained Shane was an important figure when he first started on the Aussie soap, at a time he felt “overwhelmed” with his workload.
The star continued: “He’s taught me a lot, especially on my hard days when I’d only just started and there were a lot of days where I was really overwhelmed with the amount of work that I had.
(Image: Channel 5)
“I’d never worked on screen before and now I’m working on the fastest moving TV show in Australia.
And he was just so reassuring all the time that we’re all here because we’re capable. He’s such a genuine bloke”.
The actor confessed they have also managed to sneak parts of their real-life friendship into their soap scenes.
“Him and I actually have a handshake that we do together,” Kyle said. “In the near future, we thought one day, ‘Let’s put this handshake on here and see what happens’.
“So we’ve done this quick little handshake not thinking anything of it and I actually saw the scene and they zoomed up on the handshake”.
The TV star went on to say: “So I was like, ‘Okay, this is staying’. So we’re going to keep doing it from now on. But yeah, he’s just awesome”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
