{"id":240152,"date":"2026-01-11T22:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T22:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240152\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T22:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T22:39:08","slug":"neighbours-legend-ryan-moloney-calls-out-controversial-casting-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240152\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighbours legend Ryan Moloney calls out controversial casting choices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neighbours<\/a> legend Ryan Moloney has shared his disapproval of casting choices that prioritise popularity over skill. The actor, who played Toadie Rebecchi<\/a> for 30 years on the soap, called out the industry for hiring stars simply because of their “social media status”.<\/p>\n

While appearing on the Neighbours podcast Bin Night with Tak and Matty<\/a>, Moloney took part in a special segment where he was asked to rate his storylines by putting them in the “general rubbish” or “recycling”<\/p>\n

“We want you to choose which [storyline] goes in the general rubbish, never to return again, and which one goes in the recycling, that you’d like to either relive or go back to,” explained co-host and Neighbours star Matt Wilson (who played Aaron Brennan).<\/p>\n

Going slightly off-piste, Moloney replied: “Something that I would throw away would be employing people purely on their social media status and ignoring their lack of skill. That aspect of the industry, I would certainly throw that in the bin.”<\/p>\n

Co-host Takaya Honda (who played David Tanaka) then asked which storyline Moloney would recycle, with the latter choosing to relive Toadie and Sonya Rebecchi’s relationship prior to her death in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"toadie<\/p>\n

Amazon Freevee \/ FremantleMedia Australia<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a><\/p>\n

“The week that we went away, certainly,” he added, referring to the Rebecchis’ final holiday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The heartbreaking episodes saw the family taking a trip to the beach, before Sonya shared that her chemotherapy wasn’t working and she didn’t have long left to live. Toadie was devastated as his beloved wife passed away in his arms<\/a>, following her difficult battle with ovarian cancer.<\/p>\n

“That’s still voted one of Neighbours best episodes of all time<\/a>, I believe. If not the best,” said Wilson. <\/p>\n

\"Sonya<\/p>\n

Channel 5<\/p>\n

Related: Neighbours star Ashleigh Brewer shares major relationship update<\/a><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the episode, Moloney addressed what’s next for him following Neighbours’ recent finale<\/a>, which aired on 11 December 2025.<\/p>\n

“In all honesty, I don’t really care what comes after this. It’s one of those things of knowing that whatever I do that I put my brain towards, it just goes manic and crazy and it’s normally pretty good,” he said. <\/p>\n

“So I’m not concerned about what comes after this. If I don’t ever act again or if I end up just mowing lawns for people, I’d be pretty happy doing that, to be honest. Wherever my passion will take me, it’ll be a good, happy place, I think.” <\/p>\n

Neighbours concluded in December 2025, but classic episodes are available to watch via Prime Video<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more Neighbours coverage on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast<\/a> from Inside Soap magazine. This week’s episode<\/a> reacts to the biggest twists from the Corriedale crossover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neighbours legend Ryan Moloney has shared his disapproval of casting choices that prioritise popularity over skill. The actor,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1105,121653,1107,93,1110,61,60,1135,121652,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-240152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-35078293-5e4b-4945-ac4b-8cecc925779b","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hasproduct-true","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-locale-gb","16":"tag-shorttitle-neighbours-legend-calls-out-controversial-casting","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}