Proud dad! Home and Away star James Stewart reveals his daughter Scout’s new role: ‘I’ll always be here’

When James Stewart arrived in Sydney to film Home and Away, his daughter Scout was only four years old. He was about to begin filming in the role of Justin Morgan. It was a big career step, but also a form of stability for his small family.

A decade on, James is relishing the rewards of his hard work; a successful career on Home and Away, an engagement to co-star Ada Nicodemou and a now 14-year-old who is “brimming with possibility”, says the proud dad.

“Scout is incredibly bright and there’s so much she wants to do. I was probably in the same head space at her age,” James says. “She wants to see the world, learn five languages and I’m like, ‘Okay, hold on. Let’s just get through high school!’ [laughs]

He does, however, reveal that Scout, whom he co-parents with ex Jessica Marias, has booked her first commercial – a big milestone in following in his footsteps.

“She has her first agent and filming [for the commercial] will begin in a few weeks,” he says.

“But I want her to try everything,” he insists. “I said to her, ‘You might be an artist, but you might be a mathematician or a scientist; just try it all.”

While James is nothing but supportive, he admits he was “spooked out” when Scout was, well, scouted, in Soho, London during their family holiday with Ada and her son, Johnas.

“All of a sudden, we’re in this big modelling agency in Soho having a great interview.”

The Packed To the Rafters alum believes there’s a high possibility that Scout will go into acting but worries about the downsides of the industry.

“I don’t think any parent would want their kid to take up this kind of thing because of the attention. There’s a real craft to acting and a lot of that is reading. Sometimes, we can be at the supermarket, and people will point and say, ‘That’s Justin and Leah!’. And when it first begins, it feels like a pat on the back. But that is not why we do this. So, if she chooses it, let’s do it. But we’ll see.”

And if she does, James won’t be far away.

“She’s learnt to be independent from a young age and you have to let them go at some point. There may be some broken eggs along the way, but I’ll always be here.”