Line in the sand
Controversial reality series Byron Baes follows a group of artists, influencers and entrepreneurs navigating life and love in the coastal town. Nathan Favro, who stars in the show, breaks down the hype with
You can blame Chris and Liam Hemsworth. Or Matt Damon, perhaps. Even Nicole Kidman has played a part. When Hollywood’s A-list rolled into town – the Hemsworths now calling it home, Damon flying in for regular family holidays and Kidman to film Nine Perfect Strangers – they put Byron Bay on the world map as the place to be seen. Suddenly anyone who’s anyone (and everyone in between) wanted to call Byron home and, as the pandemic tightened its grip, people from all over Australia traded in suburban lockdowns for seaside bliss.
With so many beautiful people now in the one place, it’s little wonder that the good folks at Netflix saw Byron as the perfect place to dip its toe into the reality TV scene with its Aussie answer to The Hills. Byron Baes follows 13 of the young people in the NSW coastal haven’s influencer community. Some of them are long-time residents while two moved to
Byron specifically to film the series.
While Netflix viewers can’t wait to get a better look at the scenic township that Hemsworth now calls home, there was fierce opposition from some locals who feared it would make their township seem tacky. Byron Baes star Nathan Favro – who viewers may remember from The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise – is nonplussed by the controversy.
“No one actually said anything to me but definitely a few of, like, my surfing buddies were at the paddle out [protest],” he shrugs.
“But, like, honestly, I was expecting a paddle out from day dot. The funny part is there’s a paddle out for anything [new in Byron].
“Like, we’ve never had traffic lights in Byron before and people here are really proud of that. So, when we they put traffic lights in, paddle out! Then a roundabout? Paddle out! Chris Hemsworth buys a house in Byron? Paddle out. “Honestly, it’s like: ‘You guys need to go to work or else you’re not going to be able to afford that room with all the rising house prices’.” Favro says while the initial marketing of Byron Baes put a lot of locals offside, it also got people talking, generating huge interest in the show in the process.
“They’ve definitely ruffled some feathers,” he laughs.
“But the best part about that is whether people love it or hate it, or love to hate it, or hate to love it: everyone’s going to watch it now.”
Favro’s relaxed attitude to the hoopla surrounding Baes may have something to do with the fact this isn’t his first reality rodeo. In fact, he has weathered both the good and bad side of the genre.
He’s the first to admit he didn’t come off too well when he was courting Ali Oetjen on the 2018 season of The Bachelorette and copped abuse for his behaviour.
Favro blames a mixture of naivety, immaturity and bad editing for becoming the series villain.
“It was a bit of a nightmare for me because I was younger and I don’t think I was really totally ready for it mentally,” he says of his time in the Bachelorette mansion.
“I was youngest person that ever go on that show in Australia at least.”
It was a different story when he did Bachelor in Paradise, where he suddenly found himself a series favourite.
“What was funny about it was I went from being the full villain, like, the up-myself jerk
[in The Bachelorette] to Bachelor in Paradise where they gave me the hashtag Nice Guy Nathan,” he laughs.
“I mean, how do you flip from being the absolute worst to the absolute best?
“I think I even did an Instagram post about it when Bachelor in Paradise came out where I was like: ‘I was me when you hated me, and I was me when you loved me. I have been there the whole time.”’
Although he has no regrets about doing either show, Favro says the experience put him off ever doing another network television show. A global streaming giant like Netflix, he says is a different prospect altogether and an opportunity too good to refuse.
Favro doesn’t see Byron Baes as his shot at redemption. Nor did he go into it behaving differently for the cameras this time. But he thinks it will give people a more authentic sense of who he is.
“The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise are very different formats [to Baes] in terms of editing,” he says.
“I guess they have a character picked out for you sometimes, and they go ahead and get that from you no matter what you say or do.
“On Byron Baes it’s different. I have just been myself the whole time but, with this format, you know that they’re not necessarily looking for specific characters. You know why? Because they don’t need to do that because they came to Byron because there was already such a diverse, crazy, outrageous bunch of characters that they didn’t need to [edit them for drama]. They ended up with characters that they didn’t even know existed.”
And there are characters aplenty in Byron Baes, including
Kyle Sandliands’ former personal assistant, Alex Reid (who is every bit as acid-tongued as his former boss), Australia’s most followed influencer, Jade Kevin Foster (who moved from the Gold Coast to film the series) and the crystal-obsessed Hannah Brauer.
And with the global reach of Netflix behind this eclectic crew, the Baes cast could soon find themselves joining the ranks of Byron’s many internationally famous residents.
Certainly, the series can only further consolidate Byron’s reputation as a playground for the rich and famous.
Favro sees that as a win for
Byron rather than a drawback.
After all, he says, Byron is a place where hippies, surfers and uberfamous celebrities live side-by-side.
And that makes for some great TV with classic moments.
“I think there are 11 billionaires in Australia and five of them live in Byron,” he says.
“Where else do you find a little surfy town with billionaires walking around? It’s just crazy how much of a diverse crowd it’s attracted, but I love it.”