Chris Brown: Being a vet isn’t sexy

Yes Dr. Chris Brown is a real vet. Yes he really has a practice in Bondi. All the medical cases that happen on the TEN factual show are genuine.

With his movie star looks, Brown, who is about to appear in his second season of Bondi Vet, seems so perfect in the role that he is regularly stopped by viewers who ask if he is the real deal.

“I still get people walking up to me on the street wanting to know if I’m a real vet,” he told TV Tonight.

“I feel like saying, ‘Well if I’m not a real vet then there’s some pretty gullible people out there that are bringing their animals in to be treated by someone that must surely be one of the worst actors of our time. It always throws me.

“I guess it’s one of those things where TV maybe blurred the lines between factual and drama and people aren’t sometimes picking up on it. I’ve been asked that a lot.”

Brown is clearly dedicated to his profession and to his television series. For the duration of filming he steps up his “on call” services as a way of capturing dramatic stories.

“The only real difference between real life and what we do in the show is the fact that there’s a camera in the room. It’s a very real look at what it’s like to be a vet and be on call every night for six or seven months,” he says.

“But at the same time it gives us the best results in terms of the stories. There’s a lot of stuff that’s done at 3 o’clock in the morning when I get a call and call up the crew and away we go.”

The small crew track Brown for the duration of the series, which forms a level of trust between subject and production team. But with the sometimes confronting medical stories, even the crew can find themselves emotionally attached.

“I think people underestimate the impact on the crew. It is one camera, one sound, one producer and they’re working the hours we’re working and exposed to these situations. In the first episode our producer has to become involved in the resuscitation of a puppy,” says Brown.

“A couple of times when we’re presenting something sad the producer will be in tears or the cameraman will have tears rolling down his face. But at the same time they have a bit of fun with us as well.

“The cameraman is a mad animal lover. He loves it. We gave him the option of swapping with someone else but he just wants to be there the whole time and not miss a story. Credit to him, he obviously loves doing the show.”

But while he is the centre of the series, Brown isn’t entirely comfortable with the demands of promotion. Whenever the marketing focusses on his appearance, or more particularly his body, he admits to feeling ill at ease.

“They focus on things other than probably what I’m comfortable with,” he admits.

“The opening credits for example, had me running on the beach with my shirt off. The morning we were down there shooting sunrise stuff the producer said, ‘Look can you run towards the camera?’ and I said, ‘It’s not really what I really feel is right.’ And they said ‘We’re not gonna use it but just while we’re here we might as well get a shot.’ And they used it!

“I would rather laugh at myself than, god forbid, admire myself or anything like that. I’ve always been very clear with the show that it’s about the animals and it’s about the people and I’d be happy if it was nothing else apart from that.”

Brown’s publicist is very strict about requests from magazines wanting him for shirtless photo shoots. He is keen to maintain his integrity as a veterinarian.

“I don’t really get the fact that it’s sexy or anything like that because ultimately I don’t think it’s a sexy profession,” says Brown.

“The things you have to handle and the situations you’re confronted with are far from sexy, so it doesn’t really fit.”

But being a ‘TV pin-up Vet’ has also seen him come in for some mocking from colleagues in the profession.

“It was a big concern to be honest, when I first started doing it. You’d become the one that they’d laugh at or the one that they’d pick on. Sometimes editing in the show can do bad things to what’s really gone into the truth of your diagnosis and the way you approach the task. But I’ve been surprised in the last year that the feedback’s been pretty positive,” he says.

“The pay off for me is the fact that people tell you a lot more about themselves than they realise when they tell me about the problems with their pet. There’s some funny situations that arise. Someone tells me about their very anxious dog that just can’t relax and that they’re stressed about it. A lot of animals do pick up on their owners’ mannerisms and personality so you do see a lot of parallels there.”

This series has 16 episodes. Joining Brown once more is Dr. Lisa Chimes.

“She works in the big specialist veterinary hospital with MRIs, the CTs the ultrasound and basically all that gear. So it’s nice to contrast the stuff she does up there and basically the stuff we’re doing.”

Brown also appears in tonight’s episode of The 7PM Project after travelling to the Gulf Oil Spill in the US, filing a story on the wildlife that has been affected.

Bondi Vet returns to TEN soon with a “Sneak Peek” episode at 8:30pm Thursday July 15th.