Gorgon's Water Rats Page, article, Out of deep water, Diarmid Heidenreich

Diarmid Heidenreich in a scene from Water Rats and (below) as Dougie in his pizza commercial days.
Fame, the disaster..... now Dougie is back, writes Robert Fidgeon The rain has been belitng down on Sydney for a week. Today, however, the sun has broken through. It's hot. An oppressive, steamy heat that plasters your shirt to your back. Unless you're the cool young star in the pale blue, short-sleeved shirt, that is. Despite an hour in the heat as Water Rats' new boy in-blue, jumping from deck to pier for the camera, Diarmid Heidenreich doesn't appear to be about to wilt. Heidenreichis having the time of his life playing Sen. Constable Matthew Quinn. "I was thinking of auditioning for NIDA this year," he says, stretching out in the cabin of the Rats' launch. "But when this came up, I figured I'd get a lot more instruction working on something of this calibre. Rats is just one big massive learning curve for me." Truth is, for the past few years, life has been one big learning curve for the 23-year-old actor. The teenage Heidenreich had come out of nowhere to discover a measure of fame as Dougie the Pizza Boy in TV commercials.	Then, in 1996, his life changed forever. The then 19-year-old, driving without a licence, crashed his girlfriend's car. The girl, Nicole Simmonds, was badly injured. Heidenreich was charged with dangerous driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and causing grievous bodily harm. After a lengthy lega battle, Heidenreich was sentenced to weekend detention in Parramatta jail and ordered to undertake community service. "I was just a kid and I thought I knew it all. I didn't," he says. Being jailed each week for six months, along with a year's community service, saw Heidenreich reassess his life. "I'd always had this carefree attitude. I'd got too much too soon," he confesses. "I wasn't mature enough to carry the responsibilities fame brings. I was a	19-year-old who made a terrible mistake and deserved a kick in the a..." The jail and community service probided the kick. Determined to get his life in order, Heidenreich embarked on the road back. He spent two years working on construction sites around Sydney and became a union delegate. But the acting bug still burned. When the offer of a regular role in Water Rats came along, he jumped at it. "This is my 18th week with the show and they're a great bunch of people," he says. "Everybody's trying to achieve the same goal. Working with people like Steve Bisley, Aaron (Pedersen), Dee (Smart) and Peter (Bensley) - well, they've got so much to offer someone like me. "I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity. NIDA was an option but I just think there's more to be made learning by getting my hands dirty in something like this than sitting in a class."