Everybody’s new best friend

He’s been a jobbing actor since the early 1980s, appearing in bit parts, character roles, supporting and lead roles.

But it was the part of Robert Trimbole in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities that delivered Roy Billing broad popularity and an AFI Award to boot.

As he explained to TV Tonight, the Nine series changed everything.

“I’d always been working and people would say ‘You were the guy in The Dish or blah blah…’, he said.

“But after Trimbole in Underbelly I wasn’t quite prepared for it. I just can’t go anywhere now without people stopping me calling me ‘Aussie Bob’ or Roy. At that late age of your career to suddenly be getting that recognition is a bit of a shock. But it was such an amazing character to play.

“Underbelly was playing to over 2 million every week, and the first day after the first double episode screened I walked up Coogee Bay Road to go the butcher’s and people were yelling out. I thought ‘God, what’s happened?’ That happens all the time, wherever I go.”

Such was the success of the series that the recognition crossed ages and even borders.

“I shot a commercial in Saigon in August last year and Aussies were yelling out across the street. You can’t get away from it,” says Billing.

“I’ve gotten used to it. I guess I’m a bit older and more mature so it’s easy to handle. You just be friendly to people. The only time it gives me a problem is when there are a lot of drunk people at a football match or race meeting, and everybody wants to be your new best friend. If you turn on them it could get ugly.”

In Nine’s newest drama, COPS L.A.C., Billing plays a somewhat jaded Senior Sergeant, who resents that his contemporary, played by Gary Sweet, is his superior.

As one of the show’s three senior cast members, Billing adds character wrinkles to a largely youthful network cast.

“There are lots of young, glamorous people in our show,” he concedes.

“Gary (Sweet) and I were joking with someone, saying ‘You and I are the leads!’ But we’re not. We have what I hope a lot of of these actors will have. Gary and I have longevity in this profession and that’s really an achievement in itself. I would much rather be a successful character actor working all the time.

“Some of the kids get on the soapies when they are very young, and they get all the attention and they think this is what it’s like. Then suddenly it’s all finished, they don’t get the invites, the work’s not there. We hear so many stories of ‘Whatever Happened to?’

“I’ve been an actor for 32 years –I didn’t start ’til I was older. But I take pride in the fact that I’ve had a long career, played lots of different roles, and made a very good living out of it.

“What more could you want?”

COPS L.A.C. premieres 8:30pm Thursday on Nine.