AN award-winning Hollywood actor has made a shock confession about wanting to punch a female co-star earlier in his career.
It came after he left his role in Australian soap Neighbours in 1989 and decided to tread the boards before making the leap into film.
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Guy Pearce, who is nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in The Brutalist, told The Times: “I did a play a year after I left and this snobby actress said, ‘How could you even do that?’ I wanted to punch her’.
“Now, obviously, I didn’t punch her. But it was such a horrible attitude.”
He did not mention the actress by name but admitted he felt a twinge of karma years later when he spotted her in an advert.
“Five years later I saw her on some s**t ad on TV,” Pearce said. “I so wanted to go and find her and say, ‘Okay…'”
Pearce, 57, is one of the most successful and critically-acclaimed actors to emerge from the world of soap television.
He famously starred in memory loss mystery Memento, war epic The Hurt Locker and now alongside Adrien Brody in architecture drama The Brutalist.
Despite his accolades, Pearce has never forgotten his roots and returned to Ramsay Street to reprise his role of Mike Young for Neighbours’ 40th anniversary celebrations in 2023.
Annie Jones, who played his on-screen lover Jane Harris, said: “Guy wants to do right by Mike and by all the fans that seemed to have loved the Mike and Jane story in the last episode so much, and I’m very happy how it’s playing out.
“Mike’s fitted into the neighbourhood, he’s great friends with Karl [Alan Fletcher], he and Karl jam together a lot. They’ve got a bit of a Ramsay Street Band kind of thing going on.
“He really loves living here.”
There’s been some personal heartache for Guy in recent years.
His mum Anne died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s in 2023 – the same year he returned to Neighbours.
And just days ago, Game Of Thrones actress Carice van Houten revealed she and Guy broke up.
The Dutch actress, 48, confirmed the news on Instagram, confessing the pair haven’t been a couple for “years.”
Taking to Instagram with a photo with her former partner, she wrote: “I don’t usually engage in discussions about my personal life, but because of a number of conclusions in the media last week regarding my relationship with Guy, I wanted to make something clear.
“He and I are great friends and love each other very much, but we haven’t been a couple for years.”
Carice, who shares a nine-year-old son, Monte, with Guy, concluded: “I am, however, very proud to say we are in a wonderful partnership raising the true love of our lives – our beautiful son and his hamster. The end.”
Guy and Carice began dating in 2015, shortly after he ended his 18-year marriage to Kate Mestitz.
The couple welcomed Monte in 2016.
Speculation about their split surfaced earlier this month when Guy referred to Kate as the “greatest love of my life”.
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He told The Guardian: “My ex-wife, Kate, was the greatest love of my life, but I’ve moved on from her now, and the greatest love of my life is my child, Monte.”
In 2018, Guy opened up about the emotional toll of his divorce from Kate, revealing it had led to suicidal thoughts.
He credited Carice and their son for helping him through a “very challenging period” in his life.
The L.A. Confidential actor paid tribute to his family in the liner notes of his album The Nomad, which he described as a “personal and raw” project inspired by the end of his marriage in 2015.
“Especially a big loving thank you to Carice van Houten and our darling boy Monte, whose arrival in our world came right in the middle of this record. You’ve both changed my life forever and for the better,” he wrote.
He wrote: “Especially a big loving thank you to Carice van Houten and our darling boy Monte, whose arrival in our world came right in the middle of this record. You’ve both changed my life forever and for the better.”
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