Hollywood star Joel Edgerton wasn't 'pretty' enough to star on Aussie soaps

The Great Gatsby actor Joel Edgerton wasn't attractive enough to feature on Australian shows like Neighbours or Home & Away.

There's a reason Aussie actor Joel Edgerton didn't cut his teeth on homegrown TV shows Neighbours or Home and Away.

The Great Gatsby actor apparently wasn't good looking enough.

"I just wasn't that pretty, to be honest!" Edgerton told The Telegraph UK.

"They didn't want me on a surfboard. And back then I was a little bit judgmental about the soapy stuff.

"I was working happily in the theatre, but I was losing the occasional really cool job to actors who'd been in those shows, because they sold tickets and I didn't."

The 41-year-old Sydneysider rose to fame in Australia playing Will McGill on The Secret Life of Us.

He then landed a role in Ned Kelly alongside Heath Ledger, Geoffrey Rush and Naomi Watts.

Edgerton said his big break came when he played Owen Lars, Luke Skywalker's future uncle, in Star Wars episodes II and III.

"Star Wars was the canoe that took me across the river, really," he said.

"There was this 18-month period after I shot it, when no one knew that I was only in the movie for five minutes.

"I wasn't being deceptive, but it meant that people were interested enough to go, 'Oh, you're in Star Wars, show us your wares'."

-AAP