EXCLUSIVE: Martin Henderson talks Home And Away, rough times in the States, and why he felt restless on Grey’s Anatomy

Martin Henderson has spent six seasons as the romantic lead in Netflix drama Virgin River. But it didn’t take long to convince him to play a failed writer with a sex worker habit in Madam, back in his home country of New Zealand.
It was his producer friend, Tom Hern, who asked him if he wanted to appear in the dramedy opposite Rachel Griffiths.

“We were having breakfast and he said, ‘Hey, how about playing Rachel’s useless a***hole husband?’” Martin tells TV WEEK. “And I was like, ‘Yes, great!’”

Martin says he “laughed out loud” when he read the script, where Rachel’s character Mack decides to start up an ethical brothel after her marriage falls apart. But despite having decades of acting experience, he found it “actually quite nerve-wracking” going into the show.

“I lost quite a bit of sleep leading up to the start of the shoot because it was a tone I’m not hugely versed in,” he explains. “I’ve done comedy before, but it was dark and funny and heartfelt and very grounded in parts too.”

Martin felt his character Rob needed to be more than just a “useless husband”, otherwise he and Mack wouldn’t have stayed together for as long as they had.

“I just thought it was important that we find moments where we really see what these people meant to each other 20 years ago,” he says. “The writers were just so open to all those ideas and they tweaked many scenes accordingly.”

The actor, who turned 50 last year, says he’s always looking for opportunities to work “back home”.

“My family’s here – my mum, my sister, my nephews – and I’ve actually been living in New Zealand for the most part for the last three or four years when I’m not working in the States,” he explains. “I think New Zealand’s always going to be my spiritual home.

“There is so much about the Kiwi way of life and the psyche that is a part of me and I really feel that sometimes in America. My approach to things is just so different, very Kiwi. And I love that.”

Martin began acting as a teenager in New Zealand, starring in Shortland Street before moving to Australia. He appeared in Big Sky, Sweat and Home And Away, where he briefly played Geoff Thomas, a love interest for Isla Fisher’s character Shannon.

“Did we get married or am I just imagining that?” he asks. “I can’t remember. I think I was only on it for a couple of weeks. But yes, I definitely cut my teeth on Aussie drama and soap and had a ball.”

In the late 1990s, Martin moved to the US, but it took him a while to break through.

“I knew that given an opportunity I could do well – I just knew I had to stick around for those opportunities, and that invariably means you have to stick around for a lot of rejection, which is the nature of the business,” he says. “That is definitely hard. There were certainly times where I was going, ‘Oh, what am I doing? This is rough.’ But it just forces you to dig a little deeper and keep focus on the next opportunity.”

Eventually the roles came: in the movies Windtalkers and The Ring, in the video for the Britney Spears’ song “Toxic”, and in Grey’s Anatomy, where he played Dr Nathan Riggs, a love interest for Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) after the death of Derek (Patrick Dempsey).

“I don’t think they really had a very clear idea of what they wanted to do with my character on Grey’s and that was sort of evident,” Martin admits. “And so I felt a bit restless and I felt like I was always in first or second gear and I wanted it to go through the gears a bit more.”

But he doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of returning to Grey’s one day.

“If there was a really enticing idea for the character then I’d never say no,” he says.

“I have quite a long history with [series creator] Shonda Rhimes. I’ve done a couple of things with her and a couple of pilots that actually never saw the light of day. We go way back. She’s obviously a juggernaut and a bit of a genius in what she does, so I would always be open to the opportunity to work with her again.”

Martin’s biggest success has come with Virgin River, where he plays Jack Sheridan, a former Marine running a bar in a small town, who falls for newcomer Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge). A seventh season has been confirmed.

“It’s so exceeded what our expectations were for it,” he says. “It just feels nice to be putting something out there that makes people feel good.”

Martin is “very grateful” that he gets to make shows in both the US and New Zealand.

“That was always my dream as a kid,” he says. “I wanted to work in the States but always felt like I would stay connected here. And Madam’s a wonderful opportunity to do that – to come home and make something very Kiwi, but as luck would have it, it’s doing so well internationally. So that was just a lovely surprise and icing on the cake.”

Martin Henderson has spent six seasons as the romantic lead in Netflix drama Virgin River. But it didn’t take long to convince him to play a failed writer with a sex worker habit in Madam, back in his home country of New Zealand. It was his producer friend, Tom Hern, who asked him if he wanted to…