"It sounds pretty corny, but we laugh a lot! He's got a terrific sense of humour. We've probably got a vaguely similar take-on-the-world approach to life, and that helps! David's an extremely engaging person to be with and I'm never bored in his company. We just can't shut up I suppose, and we've become very good friends. Of course, I'm also consistently awed by the extent of his talent. I think he's a wonderful actor".
***
"David was an absolute joy to work alongside -- everyone on SeaChange would agree he's a delight, always good-natured, good-humoured, a lot of fun. Though there was a lot of expectation in the scene for us, we were relaxed in one another's company, so it was very easy, an extremely pleasant scene to shoot".
♦
Susie Porter ("Better Than Sex"):
"We used to laugh and egg each other on during takes. He's the sweetest man in the world and really funny. It was just hilarious - we both seemed to be naked nearly all of the time. I'd be in the dressing room with my G.String on and boobs hanging out, and heТd walk in wearing his funny little G.String and say, 'Morning Susie,' and I'd say, 'Morning Dave,' and it just seemed the most normal thing for us to be standing there, naked in front of each other, and we'd start laughing and
think, 'God, this is our job!'"
***
(on sex scenes) "No I never found them too risqué or challenging, David is just so easy to work with, and I love him as an actor and as a person. Sometimes I wished that the scenes would never end, cos he was just gorgeous." She speaks with great fondness, "We had a great rapport between us, and that chemistry was really important, because the film was basically us in a room talking".
♦
Toni Collette ("Cosi", "The Boys"):
"Daisy is such a sweet man. (But) there were times when I just couldn't look at him. He was so powerfully transformed. We were standing in the hall for a take and he was doing this thing with his eyes. I had to leave the set. I was crying. I had to go outside and get a grip."
***
"David Wenham is such an amazing actor. I know him, I know Daisy, and we had this scene in the hallway where I confront him and there was something he was doing with his eyes where it was almost like he would just look straight through you. I'd spent the whole day with him and I started to cry, I literally had to run away and leave the set, go back to the dressing room for a minute and get myself together because he was freaking me out as Toni!
When we were in Berlin we would be sitting at a bar waiting for some interview and Daisy would walk up. People who were sitting there freely conversing would sudђdenly freeze, they were really quite scared of him and he is the most adorable sweet beautiful man. I realђly don't know how he contacts that shit inside him. It's pretty amazing, you know. He must have a very, very vivid imagination, I don't want to believe otherwise!"
♦
Frances O'Connor ("A Little Bit of Soul", "Three Dollars"):
"Acting with him is very easy because he is very much in character all the time. He doesn't talk about things much when he's on the set, but just gets in there and does it."
♦
Hugo Weaving ("Russian Doll", "The Lord of the Rings", "After the Deluge"):
"His range is extraordinary; he can play a psychopath or a romantic lead".
♦
Sam Worthington ("Getting Square"):
"He's my Jerry Lewis and I was his Dean Martin. The more he did, he'd whisper to me "Do you reckon it's too much?" and I'd go "Keep going, keep going" because the less I had to do then."
***
'To me, you've got to achieve this balance to allow David to do what he did the less I do, the more he's able to pull off extremely funny stuff. Yet all the while, Dave's massive heart shines through and that part of this character always comes out".
Billy Boyd ("The Lord Of The Rings"):
"David Wenham - the king of actors!"
♦
Hugh Jackman ("Van Helsing", "Australia"):
"David is the funniest guy on the planet."
***
"When I heard David was cast it was bizarre because David I used to kind of compete for roles in a way. I mean, he was ahead of me, so I lost out on a lot of stuff. Stephen said, "Sit down, now, I really want to cast David Wenham." And I said, "Which role?" And I thought all of a sudden that he was going to say Van Helsing. (Laughs) And I was... I was like... And he said, "In the role of Carl." And I said, "David... wow!" And the thing is, David plays a leading man, as you saw in The Lord of the Rings. And David came in with his hair kind of down and did this whole... And then Stephen got his show reel about two days later and was like, "Who is this guy?" As Steve said, [David] was not what Steve had written. David played it very different. And if you can convince a writer/director that what you're doing is ten times better than what he's written, you're doing great job. You can't underestimate how hard [David's] job was. He has eighty percent of the exposition in the movie and it never feels like exposition. I think because he plays everything so earnestly, and yet he has that kind of little cheekiness to him; he's funny. And he works with every character, [to Kate] with your character, with my character, with Frankenstein... he's just such a brilliant actor, and it's such a departure for him".
♦
Pierce Brosnan ("Marriage Life"):
"He is a good lad, we had a nice time together.
(on shooting the film) He has a good sense of humour".
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