‘They believed I needed fixing’: Love on the Spectrum star on what workplaces get wrong

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Michael Theo, the actor, voice-over artist and neurodiversity advocate who rose to global fame in the reality TV series Love on the Spectrum. Theo now stars in the ABC TV comedy-drama Austin.

MONEY

Are you good with money? Yeah, I would say I am because I don’t gamble, I don’t smoke and I don’t take drugs. I’m only a social drinker and there are certain things I would never spend any money on, like sports cars or a mansion. But I do like to collect things.

What do you like to collect? Lego mini figures, Funko Sodas of Hanna Barbera characters, Squishmallows and Yowies.

Growing up, how did you want to make money? My idea of making money was to become an actor. It’s what I always wanted to be.

Which you’ve now achieved, albeit through an unconventional path, right? [Nods] It has been a very interesting journey.

Prior to Love on the Spectrum, what kind of work did you do? Was it easy to get work? Straight after I finished school, I went into a training programme called Transition to Work. I also used to be a client of at Work Australia, an agency that helps people with disabilities look for employment. Working as a kitchen manufacturer was my first full-time job, but 10 years ago, in 2016, I was called a lot of names by one of my colleagues in one of his attempts to toughen me up. The company believed I needed “fixing” because I’m on the spectrum.

Gee, that sounds like a horrible experience. Yeah, it was.

What do you want employers to know about making workplaces more accessible and friendly to autistic people? Be patient with your colleagues who are autistic because they need to be given the space and time to grow as employees. The best thing you can do is not micromanage them. I prefer to be left alone so I can get my work done in peace without fuss. And every company and boss should do seminars on how to interact with employees who are autistic or have other kinds of disabilities. They’re not the same as everybody else: they’re wired differently.

SEX

On Love on the Spectrum, you declared that becoming a husband was your number-one dream. Is that still the case? Yeah, it still is. Being an actor and a husband are both dreams of mine.

Why is being a husband still so important to you? Because I love the idea of sharing my life with a person – with a woman – because I see romantic love as a sacred treasure. And because when you are married to someone, that means you can grow with someone in spirit and as a person. You get to come home to them every night, and you get to kiss them and hug them every day, and always have the opportunity to show them how much they mean to you.

Do you have a sense of what kind of husband you’ll make? Oh, definitely. The kind of husband I see myself being is someone who’d be loving, encouraging and supportive of her choices, whether it be friendships or career. Even if she chose to do something that I may not personally agree with, if it made her happy, then I’d be happy for her. I also want to be the kind of husband that’s different from a lot of men and not say things like “We’ll talk about it later” because that’s a man’s way of saying, “I don’t want to talk about it and expect this never to be brought up again”. I’m willing to spare five or 10 minutes to listen to what she has to say because it could be important.

When you signed up to do Love on the Spectrum, did you have something to prove about autistic people and romance? Maybe a small part of me wanted to show something to the world. But the main reason that I went on the show was because I wanted a girlfriend – and I still do!

What turns you off in a potential partner? Smoking, taking drugs, tongue piercings, belly piercings, face piercings.

What about turn-ons? Certain accents, like British or Colombian or Italian or Spanish. Also, the ability to insult me in forms of banter because that would give me the opportunity to give it back. Because if a woman ever called me a lizard, do you know what I’d say to her?

Tell me. I would say, “Well, joke’s on you. You didn’t specify the subspecies of lizard.”

[Laughs] Wait, what?! I didn’t come up with that myself. I got it from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. They’ve got some of the most original, well-written insults I’ve ever heard.

DEATH

If you were to die today, what would you regret not having done yet? Finding a wife.

What would you be happy that you have done? Accomplishing the dream of being an actor because it’s the one thing I was destined to do since birth.

What’s the last thing you want to eat before you die? Three rounds of assorted meats – ribs, T-bone and steak – then green vegetables.

Love that balance. Then various fruits like green apples, strawberries, blueberries, star fruit, white peaches, watermelon, along with British and European cheeses.

Are you scared of death? Nope.

Lots of people are. Why aren’t you? It’s because my father told me the truth about death a long time ago.

Which is? When a person dies, their spirit leaves their body. Bodies are just the temples of our souls. When the spirit leaves that body, it ascends to the afterlife or spirit realm and stays there for some time until God decides it’s time for it to be put into a different body.

What – or who – would you like come back as? That would be up to God or the universe to decide.

How would you like to die – ideally? Be shot by a woman in my sleep on the 28th of May.

That’s so specific, Michael. Why that date? Why that method? Because it’s the exact same way my hero [Canadian-American comic actor] Phil Hartman went out [in 1998].

Wow, you’ve really thought about this. How would you not like to die? In an explosion.

Austin Season 3 is on ABC and iview from November 11.

diceytopics@goodweekend.com.au

Read more Dicey Topics from Good Weekend magazine: