Rising star Cantona Stewart has gone from being part of the major Hollywood flick Aquaman to shaking things up in Summer Bay on one of Australia’s longest-running drama series.
The 28-year-old will appear on Home and Away next week as troubled teenager Perri, who is a participant in a youth program launched by Tane (Ethan Browne) to help teens who have been in trouble with the law.
Tane takes the “vulnerable but confident street-wise kid” under his wing to help guide him into his future.
Stewart, of Maori descent, hopes he will bring a sense of relatability to Maori people watching the iconic show that has been at the forefront of Aussie TV for more than three decades.
Born in the UK and raised on the Gold Coast, Stewart said he missed out on being embedded in his culture from a young age.
He hopes through his deep connection with Perri that he can represent a voice for the Maori and Pacific Islander community.
“Growing up playing rugby league, and going to school, there are so many people from NZ and Pacific Islands who grew up here,” Stewart said.
“They’re in a sense like myself, they missed out on the day ins and day outs of what our culture provides at school, in a household, in sporting arenas and for me to be able to bring that to the screen and present that week to week in a storyline, I think has so much power.
“People sometimes feel lost without their culture and Tane is able to guide Perri on that journey because Perri is the same as myself, he has this culture from his mother but never got to see it first-hand.”
Before touching down in Sydney for his stint in Summer Bay, Stewart featured in season one of ABC’s Harrow and in was also cast in his first international series as surfer Prawnie in Netflix’s 2021 show Surviving Summer.
He also had a chance to work alongside Hollywood A-listers Jason Momoa and Willem Dafoe in 2018’s Aquaman.
Stewart was lucky enough to snag a role as a stand-in for a young version of Aquaman.
Stewart, who was in the early days of his acting career, recounted the moment he was star-struck from an encounter with Dafoe.
“They mixed up my schedule and sent me to the Warner Bros studios when I was supposed to be on location in Northern NSW 45 min away, so I got in my 2002 Lancer and blitzed it, I was running empty on fuel but I didn’t have time to stop,” he said.
After finally arriving on set, they whipped Stewart into the makeup tent when he had to do a double take after realising it was Dafoe covered in CGI dots sitting near him.
“He was sitting half a metre to my right and he just looked at me, stood up, put his hand on my shoulder and said ‘Go get ‘em tiger’ and walked out the tent,” he said.
He also hung out with Momoa while training in Muay Thai and spotted Amber Heard on the large-scale set that left him “gobsmacked”.
After wrapping with Home and Away, Stewart is hoping to land his next role.
But first on his list is the huge move to the other side of the world to be with his girlfriend Emily in Norway.
The couple have been in a two-year long distance relationship which Stewart admitted had its challenges.
“I’ll head over, we’ll probably look at getting a place together, find our groove, Emily’s in film and TV over there but she’s behind the camera,” he said.
“Hopefully Home and Away has set a bit of a platform and can help me put my foot in the next door and pin another role.”
If that next role means coming back to Australia for a bit, the eager talent won’t say no, especially after loving life in Sydney.
“Sydney is like the Gold Coast but on steroids, it’s crazy, it’s so large,” he said.
“Sydney doesn’t sleep, there’s something going on every single day.”
Stewart knew as a high school graduate he wanted to pursue his passion for drama and TV.
He went on to study under various coaches on the Gold Coast and Brisbane and began writing and creating films with friends.
Between his on-set roles, he works on script writing.
Cantona Stewart will appear on Home and Away from July 10, 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.