'Ruthless is one way to put it': Shortland Street star on shock exit
Shortland Street actor Ben Barrington has revealed it “wasn’t his decision” to leave the popular Kiwi soap after nearly 11 years.
Barrington, who played Dr Drew McCaskill from 2015 until April this year, revealed the news on Suzanne Paul and Andrew Papas’ Forks Sake podcast, telling the pair he was “unceremoniously” cut from the show.
“I didn’t know it was my final day. It was like any other,” Barrington said.
“It’s just one of those things. You find out one day that you don’t work there any more.”
Suzanne Paul, Ben Barrington and Andrew Papas on the Fork Sake podcast.
Barrington, who also starred in Celebrity Treasure Island this year, told the hosts that as the Shortland Street production team wrapped up shooting last year’s season, they had made the decision while planning the show for 2026.
His departure from the show was preceded by a dramatic storyline that culminated in a bittersweet exit of his character from Ferndale.
McCaskill struggled to move on from the death of his wife, Harper (played by Ria Vandervis), who was killed in a 2024 storyline.
He then followed friend Dr Boyd Rolleston to Amsterdam to pursue a new business venture.
Barrington described leaving the show as “a bit like a corporate restructure”.
“They just go, ‘how’s our product gonna look like next year’, and ‘we’re not going to have these people involved’ and move things around.”
Podcast host Papas suggested the process was “pretty ruthless”.
“Ruthless is one way to put it,” Barrington replied, revealing that there was a “little bit of back and forth-ing” leading up to his final episode.
“I ended up going back a few months later and doing an exit. They went, ‘we actually can’t have your character just disappear in a puff of smoke’.”
Ben Barrington as Drew McCaskill in Shortland Street, after being shot in a dramatic cliffhanger.
In April, Barrington told Women’s Day that producers told him they felt like he had “done his dash”, to which Barrington replied he was ready for something else and was burnt out from his time on the show.
“I’ve had work every day for 10 years, which is fortunate in our industry, and I’ve got nothing but fond memories, but it was time for me to move on.
“Fortunately, [production company] SPP was really good to me and has put me in their other shows as well,” he said.
Asked by Papas if he had “post-show blues”, Barrington said: “a little bit”.
“It was a disruption in my life because I loved going in there to work and working in a creative environment, and had really good friends there.”
Ben Barrington in Celebrity Treasure Island.
South Pacific Pictures, which produces Shortland Street, did not comment on the statements made by Barrington.
Barrington graduated from Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School in 2001 and has starred in hit Kiwi shows such as The Almighty Johnsons, Outrageous Fortune, and Dancing with the Stars.
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