HE may spend much of his time on screen in his latest epic, 300, clad only in what he describes as a pair of leather underpants, body buffed to perfection after a gruelling three-month training regimen, but don¿t call David Wenham a sex symbol.
“It’s laughable,” he cringes, a visible blush creeping across his cheeks.
“Anyone who knows me would say the same. I’m not that sex-symbol guy.”
Many would disagree. If the vision of a semi-naked, spear-wielding Wenham doesn’t do it for you, many of Wenham’s other onscreen appearances have ensured he’s a regular fixture on many of those ‘Sexiest Men Alive’ lists.
“It’s a giggle, nothing more,” he concedes, once the blushes have abated. “If you take any of that stuff too seriously, you’re in grave danger of losing the plot big time.”
Despite his genuine embarrassment and modesty regarding the heartthrob label, there’s no denying that, in the flesh, the 41-year-old doesn’t disappoint.
The guy is gorgeous and exudes star quality. Clad in a pair of loose, distressed jeans and a fitted black shirt, his appearance is casual but one that would almost certainly elicit a second appreciative glance on the street.
The blue eyes are piercing and the strawberry blond hair messed just so leaves you with little doubt that you’re hanging out with a real-life moviestar.
Thankfully, despite the charisma overload, Wenham is approachable and unassuming.
Arriving at Sunday Magazine’s shoot on foot from his nearby home in Sydney’s inner west, devoid of an entourage, he’s happy to sip a latte from a polystyrene cup, put up his feet and talk freely.
His attention is undivided and his answers considered and thoughtful. Good looking and good company.
Could David Wenham be too good to be true?
“I’m pretty easygoing,” he says. “There’s a lot of craziness that comes attached to a job that involves you being in the public eye, but I’m lucky that the level of recognition I have in Australia is rarely intrusive.
"I lead a pretty simple life and I love it like that.”
Working almost continuously since he left the University of Western Sydney’s Nepean theatre school (NIDA knocked him back), Wenham has paid his dues in almost every Australian television series of note.
From his role as a debt collector in a 1987 episode of
Sons and Daughters to stints in everything from
A Country Practice to
Police Rescue and
Blue Heelers, Wenham has kept himself busy, rarely enduring the enforced ‘rests’ that dog many actors’ careers.
However, it was his role as the dishy Diver Dan in ABC’s
SeaChange that really brought Wenham to the attention of an appreciative audience who couldn’t get enough of the ‘will they, won’t they’ romance between Dan and Laura (played by Sigrid Thornton).
What does he recall about that time? “I kind of missed the whole Diver Dan phenomenon, if that’s what you could call it,” he says.
“I was working overseas when my episodes of
SeaChange screened, so I wasn’t really aware of how it was being perceived by the public. It was really weird to come back home and have people yell out ‘G’day Dan!’ in the street.”
Does he still get called that now?
“Yes, sometimes. That’s strange, too, because those episodes aired nearly 10 years ago now. It’s amazing what sticks in people’s minds.”
Working on television and increasingly on film, Wenham gained more international recognition with his role as Faramir in a couple of small films you may have heard of:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and the third film of that trilogy,
The Return of the King.
“It was pretty unbelievable to be a part of that whole thing,” he says. In fact, the more obsessive element of the Ring fanbase is very keen on Wenham.
A trawl around the web will uncover numerous fan sites devoted to him and his turn as Faramir, including the popular www.wenham-wonderland.net.
Does he check himself out online? “No!” he laughs. “That would be too weird. I think it’s probably best not to go there unless you seriously want to mess with your head.”
But Diver Dan and Faramir may soon be consigned to the past, for some fans at least, thanks to Wenham’s role in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming epic,
Australia.
Set in the 1930s and ’40s, the film will tell the story of an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a huge Northern Territory cattle station, her journey across the country with an enigmatic drover (played by Hugh Jackman) and their subsequent experience of the bombing of Darwin in 1942.
Wenham will play the film’s antagonist, station hand Neil Fletcher, who plots to relieve the aristocrat of her inheritance.
With filming commencing in locations around the country only this month and the release date not expected until at least the latter half of next year, the buzz surrounding the film is akin to that of the Second Coming.
“Well, it’s going to be the biggest Australian film ever made,” says Wenham, who first worked with Luhrmann on
Moulin Rouge!
“He asked me if I’d like to be involved and, after considering his offer for all of about two seconds, I said I was in.”
Working with the cream of Australia’s acting talent also has its appeal.
“Nicole and Hugh may be megastars, but they’re also terrific people, so it will be great to do this project with them,” says Wenham, who starred alongside his friend Jackman in Van Helsing and worked with Kidman on
Moulin Rouge!
“Actors in the States have openly said they’d give their left arm to be involved in this project, but Baz was adamant that he wanted to make a big Australian film with an Aussie cast and crew.”
Hooking up with Jackman and Kidman in Sydney just before Christmas to read through the script, David recalls that excitement levels among the starry cast were high.
“Nicole was like, ‘I want to do this film now!’” laughs Wenham, who says the vibe on set will be similar to that of a high-school reunion.
“We’re all really looking forward to spending at least the next five months at home in Australia,” he says.
“Nic and Hugh, I know, are especially thrilled about it. We were talking about it at the read-through and neither of them could believe they’d be home for such an extended period. It’s a definite bonus.”
In the meantime, Wenham is currently starring in
300, a visually stunning and graphic retelling of the story of 300 Spartan soldiers’ fight to the death against a vast army of Persian invaders (hence the leather underpants).
As gripping and stylish as the film is, it makes
Gladiator look like
Finding Nemo and is not for those who like their cinema a little less bloody. A chick flick it ain’t.
“I had to develop the body of an ancient Spartan warrior for this role,” recalls Wenham, who says his agent “fell off her chair laughing when I told her my character had to be virtually naked throughout, with the body of a Hercules”.
To achieve the required physique, Wenham trained solidly for three months before filming began.
“I wish I could say I was as fit as I was a year ago but, unless you’re a professional athlete, no one has time to train like that.”
In any case, he says he missed “the odd cold beer or glass of really good red wine” too much to maintain the required discipline permanently.
“That’s David all over,” says his good friend, director Robert Connolly of Arenafilm, whom Wenham worked with on a number of critically acclaimed Aussie films, including
The Bank and
Three Dollars.
“As an actor, he totally immerses himself in whatever role he’s playing, without question or complaint. He’s an actor’s actor, but with a real sensibility of what a director wants from a character. You couldn’t ask to work with a better guy.”
Close friends since 1990, when they worked on the play
The Boys together, which they then made into a film in 1998, Connolly says it’s great to see his friend’s career transcend local boundaries.
“It’s wonderful to see a friend who you know to be incredibly talented doing so well,” he says. “It’s also funny to see your mate on the big screen firing arrows at dragons. But that’s what’s great about David, he embraces whatever you throw at him, whether it’s a subtle ‘everyman’ character like Eddie in
Three Dollars or something fantastical like Faramir.”
Despite being busy, Wenham says he loves nothing more than hanging out with his three-year-old daughter, Eliza, and his partner of 13 years, actor and yoga teacher Kate Agnew.
“I’m a pretty hands-on dad,” he says, adding that he’s just off to collect his little girl from preschool as soon as we’re done.
“It would be weird to be part of that family unit and not want to be fully involved in your child’s life.”
Juggling family life with the itinerant demands of international stardom is manageable for the actor.
“At the moment, I’m in Australia for about three months of the year but Kate, Eliza and I try to travel together as much as possible. It’s fantastic to see the world through the untainted eyes of your child,” he says.
“People juggle work and family all the time and we’re no different.”
Growing up in a brood of seven (Wenham is the youngest, with five older sisters and an older brother), he says he has nothing but admiration for his parents, Bill and Kath.
“Now that I’m a dad myself, I can’t even conceive of being able to raise that many kids and be on top of everything.”
Did his interest in acting stem from a desire to draw attention to himself among such a large crowd?
“Oh, I don’t know,” he says, clearly a bit uncomfortable with the cod-psychology.
“Probably. I was always the kid putting on shows for my long-suffering mum in the loungeroom and who used characters I’d make up to get laughs at school. If you look closely, you’ll find that a lot of actors are the youngest in their families.”
Despite the fact that, back in the early ’80s, not a lot of boys at Lewisham’s Christian Brothers’ High School admitted to theatrical career aspirations, Wenham says his parents were always supportive of his choice.
“They never pressured me to get a real job or anything,” he laughs, recalling the numerous jobs he signed up for to support himself through drama school. His favourite was as the Marrickville Town Hall bingo caller.
“It was a long time ago now, but I can still vividly remember some of the characters you’d meet there. You couldn’t script them.”
Another big personality who impacted on Wenham was Steve Irwin. (Wenham had befriended the Irwins while working on the hugely successful
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course in 2002.)
“What a guy he was,” he recalls quietly, shaking his head. “Just the real deal, you know?”
Terri Irwin asked Wenham to speak at Irwin’s memorial service at Australia Zoo last year.
Reciting Rupert McCall’s tribute poem
The Crocodiles Are Crying, Wenham concurs that speaking at the service “was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Technically, the poem wasn’t easy to deliver and the emotion of the day weighed heavily, too.
"It was tough but a privilege to be asked so, of course, I didn’t hesitate.”
Quiet for a moment, he adds, “I still can’t believe he’s gone. We lost a real one-off there.”
As he checks his watch, I remember the school run Wenham has to attend to, so we wrap it up.
What’s next? I ask, as he prepares to take his leave. “Well, I’ve been saying it for years, but I’m keen to direct,” he says.
“I think I’ve found a project so, time permitting, it will happen this year. Other than that, I just want to keep working on quality projects, overseas and, of course, here in Australia. And if I could just see the Sydney Swans win the Premiership, I’d be one very happy guy.”
300 is in cinemas from April 5.
From here.
