Living it up IN LA
The actor opens up about working abroad, his dating life and overcoming insecurities
Los Angeles is a long way from Summer Bay, and despite going down the same path as many Australian actors before him, former Home and Away star Lincoln Younes is finding his feet and doing so in good company as he joins Hollywood actress Eva Longoria on the set of upcoming drama Grand Hotel (Wed., Aug. 28, 8.40pm on Nine Network). “Eva’s everything you would hope she would be and more, truly,” he tells WHO of his co-star. “It’s such a wonderful thing, because there are people you look up to in this industry and sometimes you meet them and they might be very different to what you’ve had in your head. She just exceeded every expectation I could have had of her. She started off as our boss and then she became a mentor and now she’s a close friend, which is such a wonderful present to come out of the show.”
In the show, which he describes as being “between a telenovela and a drama that weaves comedy into each episode”, Younes plays Danny. “A new employee at the hotel. He catches the eye of the hotel owner’s daughter Alicia (Denyse Tontz), much to the disdain of his boss and, for all intents and purposes, he seems just like a nice guy but
you find out at the end of the first episode that there’s a lot more to him than he lets on. I think the interesting thing with Danny, both playing him and I guess from an audience perspective watching him, is you never quite know if he’s being sincere or if he’s manipulating everyone.”
Although the handsome star has been in front of the camera for years, Younes says that – unlike his confident new character – he’s struggled to feel secure in himself. “I was one of the shyest kids you’d ever meet, truly. I still get very shy and I think every actor has slips of confidence every now and then.” Using meditation and fitness as a means to cope with the pressures that come in the City of Angels, Younes reveals the most important part of his journey is to enjoy the projects he is working on. “I really love what I do and that, at the end of the day, no matter how hard the industry can be, that’s what keeps me going. Because I want to do this for the rest of my life, so might as well kind of stick to it.”