Australian comedies seem to be having a moment on the UK’s on-air schedule, and the latest addition to the mix, Stan’s Totally Completely Fine, might be worth a spot on your watchlist. Living somewhere between The Gentlemen and Netflix’s Find Me Falling, the dark comedy follows the journey of rebellious twenty-something Vivian Cunningham, played by Thomasin McKenzie, who, after discovering that the cliffside property she has inherited is, in fact, a suicide site, is tasked with rescuing lost souls on the verge.

But as no hero’s journey is ever complete without a dedicated partner in crime, Vivian can count on her protective, uptight, and seemingly unemotional older brother John, played by Rowan Witt, to navigate such a task—with her eccentric and not exactly P.A.-approved methods. “Initially, I didn’t think John and I were that alike,” Witt tells us during his chat with Wonderland. “But Thomasin [McKenzie], who plays Vivian and is a deeply wise human, noticed early on that John and I share the same love language. I won’t spoil the show by revealing exactly what it is, but it was a great little key for me and really special that she noticed that.”

A heartwarming and witty take on mental health, familial traumas, and the complexities of grief, ITVX’s Totally Completely Fine is a reminder of how shared sadness can unite people. Keep scrolling to read our full interview with the Australian actor as he talks about his creative upbringing, his new chapter in London, and what’s next…

Hi Rowan! Thanks so much for chatting with us. How are you today? How’s summer treating you?
Hi there. Life is swell. London is the last place I thought I’d be sunburnt.

Tell us a bit about your creative upbringing. How did things start for you? Did you always dream of being an actor? Who were some of your biggest influences in your early career?
I started out in film and television when I was young, and it turned out that being on set was my favourite place. Every day you’d get to do something you’d never normally get to do – be in a carriage chase, work with an with an elephant, or play with sci-fi special effects.

I was very taken with British cinema and television too, and I think that really shaped me growing up – things like Sherlock, Little Voice, Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy, People Like Us, Jeeves & Wooster, Smack the Pony. I would go to school quoting them, and everyone would give me these blank stares. So I eventually had to get my friends onto all of them, just so they could understand my references.

Towards the end of school I was bouncing from acting job to acting job, and knew if I wanted longevity and to be able to be picky about my work, I had to take it seriously and study theatre – study classically. That was very influential too, getting to know what I didn’t like, as much as what I did.

How are you finding the UK, and what are you most excited about in London?
I keep saying this, but I love how excited Brits are about the arts. In Australia, the work is at an exceptionally high level, but the barrier to entry is much higher purely because there is less of it. It makes a trip to the theatre a big, expensive outing rather than an every-night thing. In London, it’s everywhere and it’s great, and audiences can’t get enough. You can be chatting to a random person at a pub and it will eventually lead to an in-depth conversation about what’s on at The National. So whenever I have a free night, I go to the theatre. I’ve also been having meetings with some brilliant creative minds, and am excited to work with some of them should the stars align.

Congratulations on the UK release of Totally Completely Fine! Do you remember your initial reactions to reading the script? What drew you to this project?
Thanks heaps. It’s been genuinely so heartwarming. I was first sent the scripts by my agent, and the writing was so original and wild and evocative – I remember looking up after a few hours, blinking at the clock, and thinking ‘oh jesus, I have to get this’. I just have to. If someone else is cast I’ll have to avoid watching television for a year. What’s really beautiful is that a few of us who were eventually cast, also had that exact same feeling of investment and protectiveness over the show.

Who is John? Tell us a bit about your character and where we meet him in Season 1.
John is the eldest of the trio, and we meet him during a particularly patchy time in his relationship with his sister, Vivian – right after they learn of their grandfather’s death. Amongst other rather thoughtless acts, she has gone and burned down his truck, and he’s reached a point where he is finding it difficult to reconcile the increasingly selfish ways she seems to be trying to uproot everything he does. He’s desperately trying to keep his little family on track, be a dutiful brother and family leader, but at the same time is also tackling the fear and shame of his family’s chaos bleeding into other parts of his life.

How did you prepare for this role? What aspects of John challenged you the most?
Well, I remember one tricky day on set when John skulls an enormous amount of chocolate milk out of a large urn. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to drink anything out of what is essentially a vase, but the wide spout is not conducive to a particularly concentrated stream. We had quite a lot of coverage to shoot, so the props team had made a device inside a fake urn, with a false bottom to restrict the flow and limit the amount of liquid I would have to ingest. But unfortunately it wasn’t quite reading on the day. So I told our director, Lucy, that I wanted to do it for real. She was a bit concerned that I might die. But I promised I wouldn’t. I just thought it could suck if I didn’t commit. The rest of the cast weren’t across exactly how it was going to go, so everyone’s reactions in that wide shot are real. I think the crew calculated that by the end of the day, I had consumed 11 or 12 litres of soy milk. I was a bit shaky for a few hours afterwards.

Is there anything about John that you wish audiences would understand better? How do you connect most with this character?
He was the eldest when his parents died, so he remembers them the most vividly. He had a proper, human-sized lifetime with them, and was forced into an impossible situation at an incredibly young age. He had to grow up very quickly and channelled his grief into caring for his siblings, and it has really taken its toll – he has started to believe he is this irredeemable person. Sometimes it takes other people to see us for who we truly are, and I love that John gets to have that at the end of the show.

Actually, initially I didn’t think John and I were that alike. But Thomasin [McKenzie], who plays Vivian, and is a deeply wise human, noticed early on that John and I share the same love language. I won’t spoil the show with exactly what it is, but it was a great little key for me and really special that she noticed that.

What’s next for you in terms of projects or roles? Are there any specific genres or types of characters you’re particularly interested in exploring?
The last few years have been very theatre-heavy, which I have loved, but film and television work is taking up more of my time at the moment. So it’s great to get my evenings back – mainly, so I can see other people’s theatre.

In terms of types of projects, that’s a tough one. Not sure what it says about me, but I seem to gravitate towards projects that are perhaps a bit of a risk. So, as a result, I’ve been fortunate to be able to genre hop. But ultimately, it’s all about examining human beings, isn’t it? Getting to crawl into someone else’s skin, investing completely and just trusting it. I think that’s the only way you can truly get to the good stuff.

That said, one of the great parts of the job is getting taught random skills you would never have learned in real life. I always love working with stunt teams and learning choreography, so would be open to doing some more physical action-y stuff. And I know the phrase, “never work with animals” is oft said, but every animal I’ve ever worked with has been a true professional, so would absolutely be stoked to work opposite a turtle.

All episodes of Totally Completely Fine are now available at ITVX.