Cameron Daddo talks Filthy Rich and Homeless

Broadcaster Cameron Daddo remembers coming back to his Sydney home earlier this year after spending 10 days living on the streets, and just standing inside the front door, for what seemed like forever.

Daddo, 53, had just had what he calls the most profound experience of his life, enduring a period of homelessness – alongside other prominent Australians – as part of the upcoming SBS show Filthy Rich and Homeless. He had no money and no smart phone, released from the comfort of his home to fend for himself.

“I know when I walked into my house and closed the front door, I just stood there for quite a long period of time,” he says.

“I was just so grateful that I had a front door to close. I left people out there who do not.”

Daddo, who has a Monday to Friday night radio show on Smooth FM, says he will take the experience to the grave.

“It lit a fire in me, that’s for sure,” he said. “It changed my life.”

Daddo is one of our most recognisable actors, part of the famous show business family that has been part of Australian life for decades.

He spent 25 years in Los Angeles, and worked on a number of big shows, including the lead in the Melrose Place spin-off Models Inc, in the 1990s. When he came back
to Australia over five years ago, one thing shocked him.

“When I returned to Australia I could not believe the proliferation of homelessness,” he says.

“I couldn’t believe it – something was going on here and it wasn’t right.

“It was like Santa Monica in Los Angeles.”

Daddo is correct that Australia’s big cities – Melbourne and Sydney, in particular – have a homelessness problem.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are over 100,000 homeless people across Australia every night – in a wealthy, first world country.

Like many, Daddo confessed that he previously judged the homeless, who are abused and put down, daily and nightly.

“I thought to myself, why don’t these people just go and get a job?” Daddo says.

“But the exhaustion is absolutely overwhelming.

“If you are homeless, you don’t have anything in which to put away your things. You don’t have a front door
to close, so you never relax.

“The longer you are out there, the harder homelessness is to climb out of.”

This second season of Filthy Rich and Homeless, a three-part series, includes Sydney socialite Skye Leckie, author Benjamin Law, politician Alex Greenwich, and singer Ali Simpson. The show aims to shut down stereotypes about what it is like to be homeless, and challenge the audience’s opinions.

Daddo is very keen to point out it is not a reality show, but more a documentary, which he hopes will get people talking.

It is an experience that took him a while to get over, Daddo says.

“It was very emotional. I couldn’t talk about it for a while, because it was such an assault on the senses. I just chose not to speak about it too much, because anything I said felt like I was belittling the experience.

“Words could not cover it.”

• Filthy Rich and Homeless  is on SBS, August 14-16, 8.30pm
• You can hear Cameron Daddo on Smooth FM, weeknights.