Mr PopuIarity - two million viewers fell in love with Diver Dan.
He's an unlikely pin-up who prefers watching the Swans to strolIing down red carpets. So why is David Wenham such a bankable talent. By Rosemarie Milsom
Earlier this year, David Wenham was sitting by himseIf in a sydney restaurant('"I Iike cooking, but I like other people cooking more") when he noticed Paul Keating dining with two people at a nearby table. There they were, one of AustraIia's most popuIar men, and one of our once most unpopular.
Only the week before, the actor had been on stage at Adelaide's FestivaI Theatre narrating historical Australian texts, accompanied by the city's symphony orchestra. The pieces included the former primeminister's famous 1992 Redfern speech on the need for Aboriginal reconciliation and native title laws. "I so wanted to go over and tell him how much I admired it, but I couldn't. I sat there and was overcome with nerves. All I could do was stare at my meal. I could'nt even look up. Without a doubt, it was a missed opportunity."
We're seated in Morgans, a low-key Darlinghurst cafe, on an overcast Monday afternoon when Wenham describes the "missed oppotunity". And it's not at all what I expected. Having watched him dominate the screen with his tightly coiled portrayal of suburban killer Brett Sprague in the controversial film
The Boys, and then as the uninhibited Josh, a laid-back photocrapher who is naked throuchout most of Jonathan Teplitzky's upbeat comedy
Better than Sex, it's hard to imacine Wenham lacking in confidence. And, of course, there' s Diver Dan, the laconic fisherman who captured the affection of Laura(Sigrid Thornton) and the heart of two million viewers with his salty charm in the ABC drama
SeaChange.
"I can be vely shy, " Wenham admits, sipping a glass of mineral water. "Throw me in a group of people I don't know and I'm the person quivering in the corner or wanting to. I really wish I could approach people but I have a constant fear that I'll have nothing to say, that I'm not interesting enough. It's one of my character flaws. "
Self-deprecating, quietly spoken and intensely private, Wenham eschews red-carpet parades, preferring to stroll around the parks near his inner-city apartment with his long-time girlfriend Kate Agnew, an actor and yoga instructor. "I was amused to read twice this year that I'm apparentl A-list person, but I've only been to two opening nights this year and they happened to be for films I was in! " he says with mock amazement.
He is far more reserved than fIamboyant and there's a distinct absence of actorly affectation. There are moments during the two-hour interview when he pauses more than he speaks. And while he seems self-conscious, he manages to draw you in with a kind of understated charm. He's an unlikely pin-up whose unconventional looks － closely trimmed ginger beard, smallish frame, toothy grin－and transformative abiIity set him apart from the pack.
When we first meet earlier in the day at the office of publicist Maria Farmer, Wenham is scanning the sport pages for the Weekend AFL match reports. He's in good spirits because his beloved Swans((he's been a club member for a decade) clawed their way to a 21-point victory against Hawthorn in Melbourne the day before.
His is dressed in an elegant black Gucci suit on loan from the fashion house for the recent Melbourn International Film Festival at which his soon to be released thriller, The Bank, had its world premiere. He doesn't intend to prance around town in the expensive suit－it's just for the photo shoot－and has brought a change of clothes.
The women in the office fuss over his stylishly dishevelled shock of strawberry blonde hair, calling him by his childhood nickname, "Daisy". There's something slightIy camp about the scene played out in the narrow corridor. "We've had another request for you to do an interview with HM, what do you think？" asks Farmer, seated in front of her computer. "ummm, I'm not sure if it's my thing. " offers Wenham. "I don't have silicone breasts. "
He's eager to get the photos out of the way so he can relax, though it's clear he isn't an enormous fan of interviews. In fact, Wenham has been noticeably absent from press reports for some time. But all that is about to change in light of the gruelling schedule he subjected himself to in the past couple of years. In rapid succession, he has worked on
Better than Sex, Russian Doll, Molin Rouge, Dust, The Bank and the final two episodes of the
Lord of the Rings trilogy, to be released in 2002 and 2003. He is cast as the heroic Faramir.
Dust, a "Balkan western about revenge and redemption" was filmed last year in heat wave conditions in Macedonia. Directed by Milcho Manchevski, the film will open this month's prestigious Venice Film Festival. Wenham, Who stars with Joseph Fiennes, will attend the festival and will therefore miss the national premiere of
The Bank. Created by the team behind
The Bank and filmed in MeIbourne, the bank-bashing thriller stars Wenham as a mathematician who seemingly sells his soul to Simon(Anthony La Paglia), a greedy, manipulative banker.
And then there will be the long-awaited reIease later this year/early next year of Paul Cox's
Molokai - an epic about the legendary leper priest Father Damien played by Wenham in which he appears aIongside Peter O'Toole, Derek Jacobi, Leo McKern, Sam Neill and Kris Kristofferson.
It's little wonder that since completing
The Lord of the Rings shoot in the south isIand of New Zealand late Iast year, Wenham has been enjoying as self-imposed break. "It wasn't a conscious effort to do that much work in that amount of time, it just panned out like that, "he says, photos done, Gucci suit packed away and replaced by dark trousers and a brown jumper. "By the end, I was tired but now I'm ready to go. I'm itching to get back to work. "
The 35-year-Old is happiest when he is working, though each time he accepts a role, he endures bouts of self-doubt. "I don't think I can do it. I think I'm not up to it. It's a good thing in a way because it forces you to think of a solution. It forces you to find a way into the role. " when he "gets it right", he enjoys a "very long exhalation of breath.... aahhh.... With a smiIe at the end. "
Friends and colleagues talk of his proffessionalism and integrity. "He doesn't let work consume him," says Robert Connolly, a long-time friend who produced
The Boys and directed The bank. "He is protective of his private life and is selective about the roles he takes on. He works hard to create a balance. When you look at the range of roles he has accepted, you get a sense of what interests him and it isn't fame and fortune. "
There's also a sense that behind his calm, straightforward exterior is an intensity, an intellectual energy. It's there in his piercing, pale bIue eyes and his economic, yet compelling screen and stage presence. "I do have the potential to be extremely intense, it depends on where I am. I can get very worked up, particularly when it comes to what I do, but, you know, I'm not like that all the time. I have mellowed quite a bit, but I still have the potential for the odd explosion, " he says, grlnning.
Blue Mountainsbased artist Adam Cullen, Whose bold portrait of Wenham won last year's coveted Archibald Prize, says his friend "can really dig into the darkest areas of his head". "There's a kind of tension between his straightforwardness and something more complex that holds your attention. So much of his appeal on the screen is the way he occupies a lot of emotional space without excess. He doesn't even need to speak."
Wenham was born in 1965, the youngest of seven children, and grew up in the inner west. He first started acting as a teenager at Christian Brothers High School, Lewisham. "I didn't know where to channel my energy and neither did my teachers. I Iiked school but probabIy for the wrong reasons. But once I started acting, I suddenly had a focus. " His father began taking him to the theatre and would buy him subscriptions as Christmas and birthday presents. Wenham was hooked and made up his mind after finishing school to pursue a career on the stage.
His mother wasn't impressed and urged him to stay in his Job as a insurance clerk but Wenham enrolled in the first intake at Theatre Nepean at the University of Western sydney and moved to Kingswood, near Penrith. "When I graduated, I did littIe plays around here(Darlinghurst), little plays in church halls. It was hard work but it was fun. "
0ne of those "little plays" was Gordon Graham's
The Boys, in which Wenham was cast as Brett Sprague in 1991. It was a role that stayed with him untiI the late '90s when he helped form a production company to transform the fringe play into the critically acclaimed film. By then, he had a long list of theatre credits to his name, including Hamlet and The Tempest for Company B at Belvoir street under the direction of Neil Armfield.
"I consider myself really lucky that I' ve been able to make a career out of something I absolutely love and that I've been able to sustain an existence. I'm always aware that the nature of this business is always precarious and it could all go away tomorrow. " What would he be doing if he hadn't found acting? "I don' t spend much time thinking about that, " he says, eyes lowered in the direction of his calamari. "It could be a depressing inner monologue, I think, because God only knows where I would have ended up. I have no skills."
Certainly, he struggles with a Iife that many wouId envy. He's a public figure who would rather Iet his work speak for itself. There's the stylish suit she can't wait to get out of and invitations to openings he selectively attends. His only public displays of success are a silver Alfa Romeo and a well-worn passport. "I don't earn an enormous amount of money, " he says, without even a hint of defensiveness. "I live a very modest life in a simple apartment. I have no desireto own more than one place of abode, I don't need a holiday house, I don't need a boat. I have one car, I don't need two. In fact, I don't really need much at all. My greatest extravagance is eating out, which I do all the time and if I can continue doing that, I'll be a very happy person."
He doesn't yearn for the kind of Hollywood success that accompanies a bIockbuster, but he's also honest enough to admit that fame can be alluring. "You do have to make a consciouse effort to avoid the hype. I'm happiest when I'm working and all the other stuff that comes with it is really just froth and bubbles.
"I've been to some pretty whoop-de-do paties overseas but to spend your whole life like that is a bit of a worry. I feel for people in those situations because I can understand how hard it must be to hoId on to some sense of normaIity. "
It would be fair to say that until Wenham took to the screen as Diver Dan, he didn't need to worry about the chalIenges of widespread fame. Suddenly, he was the romantic lead in a much-loved weekly drama that sent ABC ratings skyrocketing. "Initially, I was frightened by the idea of a recular gig on TV and was reticent to do it but I'm so glad I did, " he says now. "It was a gift of a character. You're more than halfway there when you're working with scripts that are so wonderfullly constructed. "
How has he coped with the sex symboI Iabel? ".... (long pause).... I don't see myself as anything extraordinary. I see myself as reIatively average and I think Mr and Mrs Joe Public recognise that as well. "
If Mr and Mrs Joe Public appreciated his easygoing charm in
SeaChange, they're going to cheer in response to his new film, The Bank, though not necessarily in support of Wenham's Character. Conceived three years ago, the film is about ethics and greed. "I remember when we taIked about making it, peopIe said it would be dated by the time it made it to the screen. It was believed that the banks would have cleaned up their act. But, of course, tha's not the case," says Wenham.
Will it be a hard sell, I ask, between mouthfuls of sticky-date pudding. "All you' ve got to do is appeal to anybody who has stood in a queue for too long or has been affected by bank closures and increased fees. I think these sorts of people wiIl be interested in seeing The Bank. I think there's a mood around the world at the moment reflecting people's frustration and dissatisfaction. It's a kind of mini-revolution. "
Sounds like an oppotunity too good to miss.
From here.
