“Let’s Fucken Do This”: Samuel Johnson Quits Acting To Go To War Over Cancer Funding

Less than a month after starring as Molly Meldrum in the hit miniseries Molly actor Samuel Johnson has announced his retirement from acting. The Australian performer known best for his work in The Secret Life Of Us, Rush, Crackerjack, and pretty much any other iconic local production you can name announced overnight he can no longer “play pretend on telly while our families are falling”. He’s now going to be devoting himself to charity and activist work.

This isn’t something new for Johnson. He runs a cancer research charity, Love Your Sister, together with his sister Connie who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer at age 33. Famously, in 2013-14, he travelled 15,955km around Australia on a unicycle to raise almost $1.5 million for the organisation. The year-long trip broke the word record for longest unicycle journey and earned him the Medal of the Order of Australia.

He announced this latest news overnight in a long, strongly worded message on the charity’s Facebook page:

“I can’t act anymore. Not if I’m to serve you properly. This village means everything to me and I’m tired of other things dragging me away from you. It all started with a promise to my crook sister. I unicycled for her. But not for long. As I squiggled my way slowly through this brilliant fucking country of ours, I met many of you in person, in the same boat as me, and soon enough I was riding for all of us, for every family in this country being terrorised by cancer.”

Describing cancer as “the last true riddle of our time”, Johnson launched into a passionate declaration of why he feels he has to make this step; and what larger problems the sector is facing on a federal level.

“I won’t play pretend on television while science is being murdered. Not while federal funding for research remains static for ten years. Not while the CSIRO is being bulldozed. Not while climate science is still being denied. Not until I fulfill my promise to you. After I finished that unicycling absurdity I made you a promise. I promised that I would help raise $10M for those brilliant bloody scientists and researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.

“We’re not going to get there if I’m off gallivanting. So I won’t. Not until we get to that $10M and show those faceless fuckers at the top end of town just how serious we are about research here at ground level.

“Call me Molly if you like. Call me Research Australia’s Advocate of the Year. Call me that annoying voice over guy. Call me a fundraiser, an advocate, an activist. Call me a brother who tries hard. Just don’t call me an actor. Not until we as a nation are as threatened by cancer as we are by terrorism.”

Explaining his next steps, Johnson stated he’s starting a “war”. Together with fellow supporters like Tim Minchin, Shaun Tan, Tom Gleeson, Shaun Micallef, Deb Mailman, and Michael Leunig (who maybe isn’t the greatest advocate for Australian science at the moment), he explained that the push for support in the sector is growing and encouraged people to sign up to his mailing list.

“Let’s fucken do this. I love you. Here’s to our Village! Here’s to the good fight. Here’s to every single scientist in the country. Here’s to a world that wages war to save lives, not ruin them. And here’s to kicking cancer in the face-hole once and for all.”

Read the full statement here:

Or, if you’d like to have some more feelings, you can read the Facebook comments in response here. People are sharing their own stories of loved ones who’ve suffered cancer and Samuel’s replying to them all.

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