After two years of recovering from rugby injuries which required eight surgeries, Samoan actor Ioane Sa'ula found a new interest in acting and performing and managed to snare a role in the new Australian television show, Bump. 

Bump centres around a young girl on track until she suddenly falls pregnant and the complications that arise for both families. 

Mr Sa'ula grew up playing rugby something he has described as his "everything" before he was badly injured and an opportunity to spark his interest in performance was sparked. 

Leaving rugby to pursue performing was no easy undertaking after two years spent off the field. At his lowest point, he thought his life's dreams were over. 

"I grew up playing sports and rugby was my everything and I think it was one of my dad’s dream was to have one of his kids get into a profession of rugby league or rugby union so that dream came in mind growing up but was cut short because of injuries and eight surgeries later," he said. 

"I was off for two years and in those two years I found the love for performing and so that became my new hobby."

He saw an ad on Facebook for a film audition in Hawai'i; he didn't get the role. But the casting director kept his name before going on to make him an offer out of the blue for a different role entirely. 

"I get a random email asking me if I could audition for [Bump] and so I did," Mr. Sa'ula said.

"I [submitted] a tape and it was an ugly-looking tape; it was a portrait and I was on my couch, just me and my cousin and so I did that with my cousin and we had a good laugh and I don’t think I was thinking much about it."

Soon after he was leaving for rugby training before he got the call - and the role. 

"I was really excited because I didn’t really know how big this production was going to be. I called everyone who helped me, my mum and my sisters," he added. 

Mr Sa'ula had no experience whatsoever in performing and acting, he said that he took up music and drama in Year Nine at school in the Australian state of New South Wales as a "bludge" or means of slacking off. 

"I was one of those kids who just wanted to have fun every day and my drama teacher was new to the school and I guess she saw more in me than I saw more in myself," he says. 

"I had like no experience at all like before "Bump". The only research I did for [my character] was just on the words he said because his vocabulary is a lot different to mine."

Shooting on the series, which runs on the Australian subscription web streaming service with more than two million subscribers, Stan, started in August last year.

It has kept Mr Sa'ula busy to the point where he has even been advised to drop some classes at school so that he won't be overloaded with work. 

"We [might shoot on a] Monday, all the Monday and then I’ll have a half-day on Tuesday and I’ll drive up on the day, go to my hotel room, sleep [and then] wake up Tuesday, go do half the day and then drive back on a Tuesday," he says of his gruelling schedule. 

"If I could make a class I’d go straight to school."

The young actor felt iffy when he first started acting because of what other boys his age might think of him. But as time has progressed he says he has encouraged more Polynesian young people to pursue acting.