James Mitchell doesn't own any pets and having just done a scene with a dog that refused to jump onto a table, he thinks he's made the right decision.

'He was having trouble locking the scene,' laughs James, 'because he doesn't understand English, he finds it hard. He just had to jump up on the table and he wouldn't do it!'

Since his character Jonah went to prison for 18 months after allegedly raping Tasha Andrews when she was held captive by The Believers, the cult founded by his mother Mumma Rose , James has been keeping himself busy with other projects. As well as teaching at NIDA (his alma mater), this year he acted in a telemovie of the classic film 'Mutiny On The Bounty' in Tahiti.

'We got to work with native Tahitian people and use real animals,' he says, 'and we got to go out on the actual bounty boat, shoot at Broken Bay, go in the longboats, sleep in huts, that kind of stuff. It was a really incredible experience.'

James is relishing the opportunity to explore Michael, the good alter-ego of Jonah the baddie.

'The journey for [Michael] is how prison has changed him, and how the rehabilitation experience has moved him forward. He's coming to terms with his wrongdoings and the fact that he can't take back the past. He will have to really work very hard to show he is a really good person, show that he has strong morals, ethics and values which are the resonance of Summer Bay.'

Not to say he didn't enjoy playing his character's evil-side Jonah. 'What was really good fun with Jonah last time was playing elements of the baddie,' says James, 'it gives you an opportunity to think about parts of yourself which may not be there, and how you would get to be at that point in time.'

To prepare for the character of Michael, James spent some time in the now-closed Maitland prison, which he says, 'gave me a real insight into what it's like to be incarcerated, to be locked in a cell with not even any air. The air is stale in the cells… you can breathe in people's lives… in a yard where you just know that there was fights and there were problems and a whole society operating amongst themselves.'

James' classical theatre training and the roles he's played in many independent theatre productions in Sydney, including Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night, is experience he calls upon when preparing to play a character and understanding the process of creating drama.

'[NIDA] gives you a foundation for how the whole thing works, so when you approach text and scripts you have a whole palette of tools to analyse and work out what's happening in a scene and get the best out of it you possibly can.'

His training and experience have also taught him to understand the importance of not taking the character home with you.

'I think it's important in all forms of acting, once you leave the set or the stage or leave the rehearsal room you leave all that stuff behind. You go home and do your homework, and when you re-enter then you can try and get back into the space, it's important to keep your own individuality and headspace as well.'

Being near the beach helps James keep this headspace. 'I live in Bronte, a beach suburb of Sydney. I don't surf but I love the beach, I love going swimming, I wouldn't live anywhere else, I need to be by the beach.'

Although movies are on his to-do-list, James is happy to be working consistently and waking up to do something he really loves. 'It's a great fight for a lot of young Australian actors to find work consistently,' he says, 'and to be able to sustain a living and do what they love, it's a very difficult industry to be a part of. H&A is a great job to have.'