Dustin Clare quotes:

New Zealand is a pretty no-nonsense place to work, like Australia. I mean it doesn't falter to anyone.

New Zealand is a pretty no-nonsense place to work like Australia. I mean it doesn't falter to anyone. There's a nice sense of reality on the set and it's really enjoyable. There's a good camaraderie and a good banter between the obviously New Zealand and Australian rivalry.

I think I was about 18 before I decided I wanted to pursue acting. I went to drama school in Western Australia when I was 19.

I hadn't been there [Comic-Con] before. It's pretty eye-opening, when you haven't been there, just with the sheer amount of fans that are there for different shows and films. It's like a big fan symposium, in a way, as well a way for film studios and television studios to really promote their product to their loyal audience base. It was an experience.

You always draw inspiration from your family or your parents if they've proven to be inspirational. My mother is someone who's always been inspirational to me.

McLeod's Daughters' was my first regular job out of drama school, and my first full-time role. That was great because I learned a lot, in terms of working in front of the camera.

I think the most challenging aspect was keeping up the degree of physical fitness you need while filming a major leading role in a primetime U.S. series. You have very little time to sleep and eat, let alone train.

We have researchers involved with the show [Spartacus] and they pointed me in a pretty great direction, in terms of what to read, and what to look at or look for, and they also provided me with some material.

The White Ribbon Foundation is organization I support. They're bringing awareness of violence against women and I think it's important in our society.

Graphic novel genre become really quite popular. It's really a big screen film genre that they have successfully moved into the small screen.

Being the new guy's always great because you get to go in fresh with your own choices and you get to bring new life and breath and a new energy into something that's already established.

I'm such a fan of Deadwood. I love the characters in that. They're such wonderful characters. I'm a fan of The Wire. Those are all heavily character-based shows.

I'm singing and dancing and playing guitar. I really enjoy pushing myself into different aspects. I'm not going to do this for the rest of my life, but I want to keep challenging myself. And if I'm fearful of something I definitely want to step into it and see how good or bad I am at it.

I think there's always pieces of yourself that bleed into your character. That's inevitable.

The rig work can be rewarding to pull off, a really good rig in a set of wires where you're throwing yourself up walls and doing moves mid-air. That's just fun.

Doing all the rig work and the stunt work has actually been wonderful. It's a whole new skill set that I've learned that I'll get to take onto my next jobs. We get to do that all the time, the fighting and the learning new moves. It's quite exciting.

Often too many expectations are put on by society as to what we're supposed to look like and it's fed to people at an age that's too young.

I lead a very physical life. I played a lot of sports and I spent a lot of time in the water surfing, swimming. I was a big swimmer.

McLeod's Daughters was my first regular job out of drama school, and my first full-time role. That was great because I learned a lot, in terms of working in front of the camera. I learned a lot of technical aspects that you take for granted once you know them, but you have to learn them somewhere, along the way. It was a bit of a training ground for me, working in front of the camera and also dealing with media.

There's always a project around, but you have to pick and choose.

I think I made some mistakes, in different areas, but it's great to be working in a show again now, many years down the track. I have worked in many other different shows in Australia and I've been able to learn from my mistakes. I'm lucky that I made those mistakes early on in Australia, and I definitely won't make them again in the States, but you've got to learn that stuff.

I think there's always pieces of yourself that bleed into your character. That's inevitable. In some ways, we have similarities, but in other ways, we're completely different. It's hard to say because I'm an actor living in a world where we're all pretty privileged, and this guy is fighting for his life. They're very different circumstances. Within those circumstances, there are probably ways that we react to certain situations that are similar.

There are parliamentarians in Australia I really support. People through history, you know? Men like Ned Kelly in Australia who challenged ideals. Governor William McKell in Australia really set the tone of building a nation. The fundamentals of the country are built on what the governor McKell created. I think Sea Shepherd (Conservation Society) is a wonderful organization and I support what they do.

I had wanted to be a fish farmer, to be honest with you. I wanted to be an agriculturist. I wanted to have my own fish farm. I was also contemplating surfboard building.

I'm passionate about being an actor, but I'm definitely not passionate about being a sex symbol.

When I'm not working, I weight train three times a week and swim and surf as much as I can - in the summer, you usually find me in the water.