Star of Neighbours Takaya Jonda talked candidly about coming back to play David Tanka in the Australian soap opera.
The highly anticipated return of the beloved character with Matt Wilson’s portrayal of his husband Aaron Brennan was revealed earlier this month. The two are the newest celebrities to return to Erinsbrough, but their decision was not easy to make—the entire cast broke down in tears when they learned that the soap opera had been cancelled the previous year.
“It was psychologically intense because we had to grieve the show and grieve our characters and the fact we wouldn’t have the opportunity to play them again so it is a big deal for us to be given the opportunity to do that again and then have the possibility of that being taken away and having to go through that whole process again, it affects you more than what we thought,” Takaya said in an interview with Daily Star and other press about the impact the ending of Neighbours had on him.
“There’s more to it than just answering the question, ‘Do you want to be on TV again?’ Before the show ended last year, the aftermath was much more impactful than we realised. While it may seem obvious to say ‘yes’ when someone asks you back, there is a reluctance in your body because you just went through something that was extremely exhausting and impactful.
“Everyone in the building started crying, so we had no idea the show would return—especially not so soon. We didn’t believe it to be true. We weren’t prepared for it, which makes sense from a production standpoint, but it was still a huge shock to us, and the conversation felt a bit like a PTSD reaction because we had just been through a really big thing, even after Covid, so I don’t think anyone saw it coming back so quickly.”Although it’s amazing, the industry would have suffered without Neighbours before. The industry values all the starts that people receive on this programme greatly.”
Speaking with Daily Star and other media, Takaya explained why he and Matt chose to rejoin the soap opera together. “We were pitched the storylines beyond the flashback week and it gave us a really fun thing to come back and play with,” he said. This plot truly gets off to a great start, and we needed a compelling reason to return rather than just characters in the background.”
