I’m one of those actors who can slide under the radar
David Wenham has come a long way since getting his start in A Country Practice back in the early ‘80s. Since, he’s Diver Dan a national treasure, menaced it up in The Boys and inhabited Middle Earth un The Lord Of The Rings trilogy tells Tony Magnusson, with Hollywood knocking – loudly – he’s still an ordinary bloke at heart.
David Wenham is exhausted, but thankfully he doesn’t look it. “I’m in need of a very long sleep,” he says over a leisurely glass of wine at a Sydney hotel.
No kidding. The man named Beat Actor at last year’s AFI Award has just shot three features back to back, appearing in every scene of each of them. He’s also become a father recently – eight month ago, in fact – so uninterrupted slumbering is probably not something he’s doing much of.
Still, it’s hardly showing. His gentle yet deliberate voice sounds a tad weary, but it’s that kind of voice – resonant, meandering. Appearance wise, he is showing little evidence of fatigue; his shirt is pressed, hair fashionably askew, pale blue eyes clear. OK, so his roughened skin is slightly rusty – a redhead’s two-day growth – but really, he could step in front of camera with impunity.
Which is want he’s just done. Earlier, the star of
The Boys, SeaChange and
Gettin’ Square braved the cold, cavernous interior of a nearby disused power station for a photo shoot, complete with make-up and fashion styling (We’d been warned he didn’t like too much fuss, but Wenham was amicable and obliging; has is an easy charm.)
The reason? Two new telemovies to promote for the Seven Network –
Stiff and
The Bush-Off – in which he plays Murray Whelan, an astute but shambolic adviser to a Victorian government minister who’s always getting himself in a spot of bother. Based on the novels of Melbourne writer Shane Maloney (“bloody funny”, according to Wenham), the movies are directed by John Clarke (of ABC’s brilliant satire of the organisation of the Sydney Olympics,
The Games) and actor Sam Nell respectively.
Wenham, 38, has said he knows a great part when he sees ones and, in Whelan, recognised someone rather like himself. “I share an affinity with Murray,” he tells me. “I certainly have a similar outlook on the world. I probably have a similar sense of humour and, maybe, irony that Murray has.
“I think he’s a fabulously rich character because he’s an unlikely protagonist. In each of the movies, Murray happens to be put in a situation where he is genuinely a fish out of water, but that doesn’t affect him in a way, because he’s like – well, we’ll power on nevertheless.”
Right now, Wenham is enjoying plenty of star power. High-profile roles in
The Lord Od The Rings: The Two Towers and
The Return of the King respectively and
Van Helsing (alongside Hugh Jackman) have some predicting he’ll be the next Aussie actor to carry a Hollywood flick. But having been in “the biz” since performing bit parts
A Country Practice circa 1981, he remains philosophical.
“At the moment, we are the actors
du jour,” he agrees, placing a slight emphasis on the expression as though to distance himself from it. “Certainly; Australians are very welcomed in other territories, specifically, Los Angeles. That could change tomorrow and suddenly Swedish actors could be the tiling.”
In an ideal world, he’d do one movie overseas and one in Australia every year. “But it’s very hard to pain a career because you really are at the whim and mercy of other people. I’ve probably averaged two months in my home each of the last, three years. If you’re lucky enough to work on projects you have a passion for, sometimes you have to sacrifice time at home a little bit.”
Undoubtedly so
Stiff, The Bush-Off und upcoming Australian comedy
Three Dollars were all shot in Melbourne between November 2003 and May 2004. Baby Eliza Jane arrived on the scene last October. Melbourne may have been only at hour by air from his Sydney home, but such working arrangements must have been difficult for all concerned (Wenham maintains that the family – his partner is actress and yoga instructor Kate Agnew – try and stay together “wherever possible”.)
It’s not the only thong that’s difficult for Wenham. Somewhat paradoxically for an actor, he says he doesn’t enjoy being photographed. “I never mind being in front of a camera with a moving piece of film behind it, because I’m in control and I know what I’m doing. But with a photograph, no, I can something feel rather awkward.”
Not that you’d know it; he’s had enough practice over the year. Although, having become a father recently, he’s now subject to paparazzi shooting him at cafes enjoying breakfast with his family on weekends, in addition to high-gloss magazine shoots. Of the instruction of zoom lenses into his private life, he says “I’m resigned to it – I realise it has happened and will continue to happen. But it’s something I try not to let affect me any more.”
When I ask him if being a “sex symbol” in the eyes of some is an uncomfortable proposition, he doesn’t quite squirm, but gives a little chuckle before assuring me he gives it no thought. “It’s not how I see myself, and I don’t think anybody who gets that label thrown there way, m ail seriousness, could take it...” He pauses, pursing his lips. “Well, maybe some people do.”
But not him. He freely admits that his nearest and dearest rib him about it, “and that’s good. Because I like having my feet firmly entrenched in the real world. I still think I’m one of those actors who can slide under the radar. I live a 100 per cent normal life.” Public recognition has increased since his entree into
The Lord Of The Rings phenomenon but only slightly. “I must say, I’m never really aware of it. Maybe I have blinkers on or something. I’m very good at making myself look small in crowds.”
Could it be that David Wenham is a touch shy? “If I don’t know the people I’m with. I’m an extremely shy person,” he says. “But once I am comfortable with a group, I can turn fire knob up to 11.”
For many, he is not so much shy as simply mysterious. For all those parts in all those films – and seven AFI nominations, two of which he’s won – we know precious little about David Wenham.
It’s an adjective he’s willing to wear. “I’ll, always do what’s necessary promoting the work I’m involved in, because otherwise how would people know that I have films at the theatre or pieces on TV? But others than that, I don’t see the necessity to reveal my day-to-day life, because it’s my day- to-day life. Possibly it’s [because of] that, that I’m ‘mysterious’.”
What we do know is that he was born in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville in 1965. The youngest of seven kids, he attended Christian Brothers’ in Lewisham, where he was steered towards drama. After high school NIDA rejected him but he found a place in the newly minted drama course at the University of Western Sydney at Nepean.
“It was the first degree course in Australia for performing arts and I was in the very first year,” he recalls. “From there, I battered my head against a brick wall and spent a lot of time in very small cooperative theatre in Sydney, and little by little, the doors opened.”
In 1998, they opened wide when his ultra-menacing performance as Brett Sprague in
The Boys hit the screens. Fortunately,
SeaChange’s Diver Dan emerged shortly after to mop up the psychic spillage and assure viewers ha was, in fact, an actor doing a very convincing turn as a psychopath and not the axis of evil himself. (It was a fortuitous transition – Dan was responsible for the advent of Wenham the Sex Symbol.)
But well before Rowan Woods’ film made his name, and arguably gave him better leverage when negotiating roles, Wenham was selective about choosing which parts to play.
“The one thing I suppose I’m pretty good at is saying no. Which is hard for actors. Even in the early days, when nobody really knew me, I was prepared to say no projects I didn’t consider worthwhile.”
Directors have called Wenham strategic, blessed with a long-term view of the industry, and he hopes this to be the case. “I have other interests as well. A long-term ambition of mine is to direct. I’m itching to direct. I’m forever looking for stuff, whether it be a book, an idea, a story somebody’s told or even a script that’s come my way. And I’ll only be involved in something I’m 110 per cent passionate about because it’s a long time to devote to that process.”
In the meantime, Wenham has some free time on his hands. He’s taking a break – to have a long sleep and, no doubt, spend more time with Kate and Eliza Jane. Hopefully the latter won’t preclude the former. “She’s pretty good,” he says of Eliza Jane’s sleeping habits. When I ask him what the biggest surprise of fatherhood has been, he answers, “How fabulous is. It’s the greatest thing in the world.”
He might go out with friends, “have dinner and one of 10 drinks.” He might take in some dance pieces, something he enjoys seeing far more than theatre. “Most of the theatre around the world certainly is mediocre. When it works, it is the most magnificent thing. But it’s so rare. [Dancers] expend an energy and excitement that you very rarely see in the theatre and in film.”
But he won’t be too far from the camera with a moving piece of film behind it - if he can help it. “I do need a little time out to rejuvenate and get those creative juices flowing again, build up those stocks. I do want to stop [but] only for a finite period, because I really am happy when I’m working.”
From here.
