Samuel Johnson: ‘My biggest fashion crime? I had to wear pink lycra for a year’

What made you want to take part in The Hospital: In The Deep End?

Most shows you do for the money, not because you want to do them. But I wanted to do this because I’ve been in and out of the public health system my whole life – all my family have – and I wanted to look behind the curtain and get over a lifelong phobia.

Were you out of your comfort zone?

When I rode around the country on a unicycle I learned about leaning towards the discomfort. It was 364 days of pure pain. And this was comparable if not worse. I was well out of my depth, but that was the point. That was the idea. It was good to swim around in the uncomfortable – I’m well trained at doing it because I believe that’s where I learn the most things.

What book or film or piece of music do you always return to and why?

There are two films that I keep coming back to: Training Day and Apocalypto. I can’t get enough of them. They’re sick and dark and twisted and colourful and delightful. I’m a repeat offender.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing” – Oscar Wilde.

What’s your oldest possession and why do you still have it?

It’s a poem that my mum handwrote in 1978 to me. I found it when I was about 21. She died when I was about three. So you know, I found it 20 years later. It’s my most precious possession, kept in fire-retardant glass on the study wall, and it’s also the oldest thing I own.

She finishes that poem with “all the seas of joy rise to sing for you boy … all the seas of joy sound wonderfully near since you’ve been here”. So it’s a wonderful love letter from mum, who we ended up losing to mental health.

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What’s been your biggest fashion crime to date?

Well, when I did that unicycle ride I had to wear pink lycra for a year. I don’t know whether that was criminal but it certainly sticks with me. I’ve done plenty of face plants, but none for longer than that one.

Did Gardening Australia’s Costa, who appears alongside you in The Hospital, share any gardening wisdom with you?

There’s plenty that Costa has told me but I don’t feel qualified to talk on it like permaculture and stuff.

But if I was to think of one thing it would be: look it up before you put it down. I’ve planted plenty of seeds in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t so much these days because I tend to look it up before I put it down.

When my sister died I planted a tree for her and it’s growing nice and tall and fit and strong – I’m now putting seeds in the right place. That might sound a bit basic, but I’m a basic gardener. It’s an olive tree – about nine feet tall now – and has olives and everything. I planted it in the right place according to light and water. It’s been an absolute pleasure to watch grow.

When was the last time you lied, and what can you tell us about it?

Like, [a] proper lie or white lie? I can’t remember any blatant lie in recent memory unless it was so effective that I even convinced myself it was the truth.

But the last one I can think of was lying by omission. I did what we all do, I pretended to be okay when I wasn’t. So yeah, I omitted the truth that day.

What do you do when you can’t get to sleep?

I’m a good sleeper. But when I can’t, that’s when I get rid of the pillow, lie directly on my back and do my circular breathing.

Are there any moments from filming that have stayed with you?

I can’t share her name, but I had a long talk with a girl who was in the mental health ward. We’ve since become pen pals. She’s interested in all things Japanese as me – I’m currently reading The Boy and the Dog by Seishu Hase, recommended by her. It’s a relationship that has endured beyond the show. And one that I hope endures for much longer.

• The Hospital: In The Deep End is on SBS and SBS On Demand. Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity

• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org