SOMETIMES life gives you a good swift kick up the bum. Just ask Lincoln Lewis who, in 2009, was at the centre of a sex tape scandal at the height of his fame on Home and Away.
Lewis, 24, who played Geoff Campbell on the Seven soapie, filmed an intimate act with a teenage TV starlet and showed it on his phone.
Seven counselled Lewis, son of rugby league legend Wally Lewis, over the indiscretion.
There are two ways to react to that sort of wake-up call. One is to ignore it and keep repeating the bad behaviour. Think Charlie Sheen.
The other is to take a hard look at yourself, confront your demons, and change ways.
Lewis took the second path.
He quit Home and Away in September 2009 and has put together an incredibly diverse body of acting work.
He starred alongside Caitlin Stasey and Rachel Hurd-Wood in hit Aussie movie Tomorrow When the War Began. After that, he played station co-ordinator Vince Marcello's (Peter Phelps) son, Sam, in Rescue Special Ops.
Lewis last year featured in acclaimed teen drama SLiDE as fireman Dylan Gallagher and Underbelly: Razor as sly grog queen Kate Leigh's young associate, Bruce Higgs.
Lewis is also set to begin a month-long guest stint on Neighbours as charmer Dominic Emmerson and will star in Nine's new family drama Tricky Business.
"A few years ago, I thought I'd never work again," Lewis says. "I wanted to have my name out there (in the media) for acting (but) stupid events put me there for the wrong reasons.
"I've always been raised that if you make a mistake then you admit to it.
"All I wanted to do after that (sex tape scandal) was put my head down and work.
"I've never been more motivated to work hard - to keep showing that the reason I was there (on TV) in the first place was the acting."
All of that hard work is paying off. Lewis brings a wonderful lightness of touch to his Neighbours role.
Dominic comes into Kate Ramsay's (Ashleigh Brewer) life when she escapes from Melbourne to Port Douglas.
Kate loses her mobile phone on the beach, Dominic finds it and a relationship sparks.
At first Kate is suspicious of smooth-talking Dominic but slowly she melts.
It was a reunion-of-sorts for Lewis and Brewer, who briefly had acted together on children's series The Sleepover Club in 2003. The Port Douglas sojourn also is a fillip after an emotionally-torturous year.
Kate had a whirlwind romance with Detective Mark Brennan (Scott McGregor) but it came to a premature end when he was forced to flee Erinsborough for witness protection.
Kate was devastated and had begun to move on with her life when she learned Brennan was dead.
Things got worse when Kate kissed Year 12 student Noah Parking (Orpheus Pledger) and her teaching career hung in the balance.
Brewer, who was nominated for Best New Talent at the 2010 Logie Awards, clearly is a star-on-the-rise, and she has relished the chance to tackle so many meaty scenes.
"Kate has been through a lot of heartache," Brewer says. "Everything gets too much so she needs to have a break, get away, and find herself again."
Some pundits were surprised Lewis would decide to go back to a soapie after leaving Home and Away but he says it was a no-brainer.
"The producers said it (Dominic) was going to be a fun role to play, that it would take a week to shoot, and that it would be in Port Douglas," Lewis, who was born and raised in Brisbane, says.
"I had just finished Underbelly. I got to return to Queensland. That's all (the encouragement) I needed.
"At the start, Dominic comes across as annoying but as time goes by you see it is just a cheeky persistence.
"He has a live-for-the-moment attitude. Nothing is too much drama for him."
