WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1227 - Eric Bana

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

American audiences know Eric Bana from his complex performances in movies like Munich, Black Hawk Down and Ang Lee's Hulk. But in his native Australia, Eric got his start doing standup and sketch comedy. Eric and Marc share their respective experiences of the Australian comedy scene and Eric explains how his gift for mimicry and impressions helped him transition from sketch to dramatic acting. They also talk about Eric's new movie The Dry, why the demise of movie theaters is greatly exaggerated, and why Australian actors are rarely allowed to play Australians. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global bestselling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life when i die here you'll never leave japan alive fx's shogun a new original series streaming february 27th exclusively on disney plus 18 plus subscription required t's and c's apply all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening i'm mark maron this is my podcast wtf still going strong what is it 12 years in a long time i just know that i'm doing comedy at the comedy store and you have to have a proof of vax to get in they're going to open up full tilt

and i think that makes it a little better. I'm sure some people are lying or showing bootleg counterfeit credentials, counterfeit vax credentials. And I know that there are some people out there that want to take this as an affront, as a vaccination passport or as some sort of initiative to get people who don't want to be vaxed, vaxed. It is not. to get people who don't want to be vaxxed, vaxxed. It is not. All it means is that if you're not vaxxed, you can't get in.

There's no judgment. Do what you want. But you can't go to this particular comedy show. The world is your oyster, unvaxxers, unvaxxed. But you can't go to a few things for now. And you're going to whine about it? Is there any end to the whining is there any end to the grievance but uh so yeah it's kind of an interesting new world but as i said to you before i don't it it feels fine to me it does not feel strange i I'm excited. I'm excited to be going out into the world. The only thing

I'm sad about is that Lynn's not here to go out in the world, that she didn't make it through this. And yesterday was the anniversary of her passing and it was difficult. I chose to go through stuff, look at stuff, organize stuff. There's still a lot of her things here that are out. Some things I will leave out. Some things I will enshrine them somewhere personal, someplace private, someplace I know of, someplace in my house. Doesn't all have to be out. I think that room where she was sick in does not have to remain a shrine to her passing necessarily. But again, it was a day of reflection and a day I am trying to take that saying. I think it's a Jewish saying.

May her memory be a blessing. I think that has been most helpful to me. That and there's nothing unusual about tragedy or people dying in this life. Nothing unusual about it. That and I am not the victim of this. She was. Those three things over the last year in the support of people, friends, and people I don't know. Those three things. May her memory be a blessing. Tragedy is not unusual. And I am not the victim. And then ultimately meditation, the crying, the feeling your way through it, and also the realization that there are so many people

that knew her so much better, so much longer, had deeper sort of relationships and reliances and experiences with her, family, friends. I think the hardest thing about the situation that we were in was that we were really just starting out. So it's about grieving possibilities, grieving a life that didn't happen. That sort of amplifies the tragedy element. But again, tragedy happens all the time, every day. It's human.

It's heartbreaking. But her memory is a blessing. And I look at her shirts. And I touch her jacket. And I miss her. And I'm trying to stay open and do the work. I didn't mention, but today Eric Bana is on the show. Eric Bana, the actor.

You know him from Munich, Blackhawk Down, Funny People, Ang Lee's Hulk. But a lot of you might not know that he started out in stand-up and sketch comedy. And we talk about all that and about his new movie, dry which is already a big hit in australia and it comes out here in the u.s this week it's a it's a good movie also yesterday marked the day that brendan and myself brendan mcdonald and me mark maron received the governor award at the first annual, the first installment, the first actual Ambie Awards for podcasting. This is a real award with a real governing body. It's not just some sort of radio consultant's idea of how to grift people into buying podcast things and thinking it's some sort of entrepreneurial adventure. This is a legitimate industry-driven award, the first, and we were given the big one.

We were given the one that means that we had an impact. We were there at the inception of modern podcasting. I will not say we were the original podcasters. I always am told that there were many before that some broadcasted just to the next room. But nonetheless, in this sort of new wave and the creation of the industry around us, we were there. creation of the industry around us, we were there and we were an impactful and influential force. And I'll take it. And the award has a little weight to it, man. It's kind of a beautiful thing. It took this for me to get a prize. It took an award, had to be created in the medium that I excelled in over the last decade and change for me to get an award. Again, I'll take it. We'll take it. It's a weighty thing. It's a, it's looks like a, it's like a high-end trophy with a gold statuette and the, uh, its arms, their arms are raised up and they're holding up a microphone, almost like a torch. And, uh muted. It's soft. It's not defined. It's almost

like an Oscar. And there's some headphones. It's wearing some cans. But it's exciting. And we received that yesterday. Yesterday was a big day. A lot of sadness and a lot of sadness and a lot of uh joy and a lot of gratitude but underneath all that the um empty propulsion of fucking existence there you go so look let's just get in this there's no reason to go on and on eric bannon was a pleasure to talk to the guy. The new mystery film is called The Dry. It opens in the US theaters and on video on demand this Friday, May 21st. I spoke to him from Australia and he's got that accent, that lovely Australian accent. This is me talking to Eric Bannon. Are you self-employed? Don't think you need business insurance?

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Zensurance. Mind your business. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart

is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required.

T's and C's apply. Is that your house? Are you in your house? I'm at home. I'm at home this morning. Yeah, yeah. It's morning there? What time is it?

It's 9 o'clock Friday morning, and I'm in Melbourne. So you've been up and at it. You're coffeed. You're ready to go. Coffeed. Coffeed. Very nice breakfast. Very nice home-cooked breakfast. Excellent home-brewed coffee, ready to go.

Wow. So a lot of energy in the description of that breakfast. I'm going to have to need to know, I kind of need to know what that means now. What is the breakfast? Really excellent quality sourdough, which you'll be pleased to know I didn't bake myself. Oh, so you weren't one of those people during lockdown? You didn't master the yeast breads? I feel like for every yeast bread man out there posting,

there had to be an Eric Banner doing absolutely sweet F-all in regards to bacon bread. I got to be honest with you. Towards the end here, I did bake a couple of quick breads. No yeast involved, just a couple of Irish quick breads no yeast involved just a couple of irish soda breads but i did it i couldn't get out of lockdown without baking a fucking bread and i'm not ashamed of it my the only reason i wouldn't do more of it is because i'll eat them and then it doesn't stop then it's like nine breads and i say i'm just perfecting it i've got double chins it's not i can't. No, I'm more than happy to hand it over to the baker. So it was, it was nice bit of sourdough toast. It's going to sound like a,

like a real tosser here, but, uh, avocado, some, some eggs and a, and a really sensational strong latte that I, uh, knocked up. So, um, yeah, that's, that's the start of my day here. Good work. Good work. I need to know more about the word tosser. What does it mean? Tosser, you know, tosser, wanker. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. It's just the minute you throw avocado into a sentence in 2020, 2021, it puts you into a category. And, you know, maybe I'm in that category. You got a lot of dudes that are going to be like, oh, look at the fucking toaster avocado.

What is that guy? But no, that's not true. Most of these guys, most of these sort of enlightened meatheads, these bros and jocks are now completely keto diet. They're like anorexic women, most of them. Yeah, I eat everything. I eat everything. I'm not that person at all. I just like the the ritual of breakfast it's my favorite meal of the day

yeah and it's what makes me really shitty when i'm working on a film that i usually don't have time to do my breakfast ritual and i have to face humans first thing in the morning yeah it's my biggest struggle on a on a shoot um so when i'm at home that's that's my indulgence i like the slow start to the day with a really nice breakfast and coffee. During lockdown, man, I watched, for some reason, I watched Munich for the third time. And Jesus, man, you were fucking great in that movie. Oh, thanks, man. It was quite the experience to make.

You're not Jewish, right? I'm not. No, I'm not no i'm um half german half croatian born here in australia so you're really not jewish no i'm really i'm really not but you know the funny thing is that when you're when you're a kid and you don't really know a lot yeah you know, the sound of German relatives and friends, you know, doesn't sound very different to me to Jewish people. So it took me a while to work out there was actually a difference between the two when I was growing up and that it wasn't all just one and the same.

Right. A lot of German Jews, you know, a lot of German Jews, all German, Polish, Russian. That's where all the Ashkenazis come from. But when you did that movie, I mean, to be involved, like it's such a heavy, I just like ticked every box of what I love in the film. It was seventies. It was a thriller. It was an incredible subject matter. It was a true story. It was, you know, Spielberg at the top of his game in terms of visual styling and editing and score and everything.

And then suddenly you get asked to be a part of it. I just like every single day I would just pinch myself. I would just turn up to work and look around and see all the extras you know dressed in their 70s gear with sideburns and nice little cars and it looks good i mean i'm in heaven yeah sometimes there's a you know the 70s you know you are look good the 60s look terrible i mean like no actor can transcend those pants it's just once you got the hair in the 60s, it gets hard. But the 70s, they were good. Well, you know, there's another thing that kind of works against you these days, which we didn't have.

I mean, on Munich, we were still shooting 35-millimeter film. So there's another thing that works against you now is that, you know, the digital camera is so crisp. Yeah. It is so crisp. It is so crisp. And so it's kind of like our memory says that that image should be slightly crumpled and faded. We're not used to seeing images from the 60s that are pristine. So there's always this kind of juxtaposition that's going on in our mind. Our visual reference is a bit confused. It's just too crisp crisp all images of the 60s

are done relative to the technology and film that they had even still photographs all of it was uh of it that color was a little jacked up there was a yeah it was a little hazy everybody was high so you kind of felt high looking at it yeah that's, so then when someone does a film about the 60s in 2020 and it's shot, you know, with an almost IMAX sensor kind of camera. Sure, sure. And you don't try and degrade that image. Right. But no, but in Munich, but what did you do? How did you get Jewish to do that?

Was that guy a real guy? Yeah, he was based on a real person who I may or may not have had a chance to meet with. I had a really long time to prepare, Mark. So even in the first instance, I had a really good amount of prep time. But the film went into turnaround because Stephen was working on the script and our initial shooting window pushed to the following year. Oh, wow. So I went off and did another movie. And I had Avner in the back of my head for like two years before we were able to film.

And I love that. I think the longer you have for a character to just kind of live and gestate in the back of your mind is really worthwhile. It helps with accent preparation. It helps with research. And it was just a lot of time. Well, what do you do with the guy when you got him in the back of your head like that as an actor? You're like, all right, now, okay. I was just given another year to work on this. So you're already going at it. So do you take like an hour a day, a couple hours

a week to kind of program yourself to be that guy or feel how that guy feels or look at things the way that guy looks at things no i feel like it's automatic the minute i i decide to take on a film or a character it's like a percentage of my brain is immediately taken over by that person 24 7 there's no switching on or off there's no like today i will devote an hour to Avner. I mean, you might do that in terms of accent preparation and reading materials and stuff, but the rest of the world from that point forward

until you finish the film is slightly skewered through the lens of that person for the whole time. What movie did you go shoot, Troy? So when that went into turn, no, I went and filmed a movie called Lucky You with Curtis Hanson and Drew Barrymore and Robert Duvall, which was a poker movie, which three people saw, including my mum and dad. Yeah. But, you know, so in that case, I guess you've got two people and yourself in your brain. But that's the thing I love about acting, though. I mean, it's, you know, and sometimes it takes a long time

to shake afterwards as well, and that's okay. You're still kind of looking at the world through their lens. But I enjoy siphoning off, you know, part of my brain to that. There's not a lot of room up there, so I need to give as much as I can to the character. That's interesting that it takes a while to shake it. Because I saw Al Pacino do American Buffalo in Boston in sort of like probably the mid-80s. And I'm pretty sure he was playing Tony Montana when I saw him do American Buffalo.

I'm pretty sure that he was Scarface. But I felt there were hints of cuban like it was still in it you know did you find yourself it's probably true no no for sure i get it you know like especially a guy like that when you're operating at a certain decibel level uh you know it was like that scent of a woman thing like hoo-ha you know i i think it took him years to you know but he can still do it i mean you you're very capable of it too, but I could see how once you get into the groove of somebody, especially a powerful character,

how do you not get stuck with it for a while? Yeah, and I think also with your reference with Pacino, maybe what happens is the character ends up being a little bit closer to you than you realize. And so therein lies the similarity that's hard to shake. Right. You know? Right.

So whether it's with Avner, whether it's the kind of European-ness that I feel as a person that makes it easier for me to kind of like sink into his skin, I don't know. Maybe that's something that's going on without me realizing, but I do think sometimes, you know, maybe our characters are a bit similar to us in ways that we're not, not really aware of. And, and, um, you know, that that's, that's probably what you're noticing. Right. But, you know, I could see that in, in your later work, but I mean, where did that, when did you start noticing that you could, if you're gonna if you think about these characters and they become part of you so quickly i mean that must have been something you did at a very young age where you were able to just sort of lose yourself in in becoming something else

it must be some strange kind of a habit you had early on yeah one of my favorite things to do as a kid was impersonate other family members and to me the most thrilling part of an impersonation isn't the impersonation it's trying to work out the dialogue for the impersonation right right and so i i just always have had this thrilling sensation when i can come up with sentences on behalf of other people. And I do it to my wife every single day, every single day. I still do it. I'll be watching the news and someone will go to talk and I will say what that prick's about to say. Sure enough. And it's this thing of like trying to put yourself in their shoes. And if you know someone well enough it's like anyone that can that impersonates their

father or their mother it's like you know exactly what they're going to say i can write the script for my parents before they walk in the door for a sunday lunch it's going to be discussed and what's going to be said i really i really love i love that i love that puzzle and that was something that was there as a kid it wasn't something that I had to work on, something I really enjoyed. I enjoyed making people laugh. It's interesting though with parents, because I just noticed that with my parents. It's like, you're right. You do know exactly what they're going to say. And I don't know if that means that they're shallow or predictable, or we just know them so well, but there is something, I guess when you look at it that way, there is something actually empathetic in the act of doing an impression that you're sort of generating the dialogue for.

Yeah, I guess it must be complimentary because it means you've paid attention to that person. And it was tricky for me back when I was doing sketch comedy because people would be like, oh know are you gonna do you feel really mean when you're taking down a a figure from television i'm like well no because it's like i'm not trying to ridicule them i'm just trying to be them in a funny way you know so um that is i think that is complimentary you know i, I mean, I guess it depends on how you use, how you use the way. Isn't that an old saying, you know, uh, imitation is the highest form of flattery or something like that.

But did you, are you, how many brothers and sisters do you have? I have one older brother who's three years older. Does he do anything in show business? He's an accountant. Wow. Uh, he does, he deals in finance. So nothing at all to do do to do with the business the opposite he's a numbers man he's a he's a six foot seven numbers man you guys are huge

how tall are you oh i'm six two but i grew up thinking i was short because of him because of him but actually six two that's sort of uh that's tall for a movie star. Usually they're about 5'4". I think most of them are about 5'4", 5'3". Big heads. Good for you. Yeah, the female co-stars love it when you're 6'2". They do or they don't? They love it.

They do? They do. They do. I think they do. Because they all want to look teeny-tiny. Oh, that's right. And they don't have to look at Tom Cruise in platform shoes. So when did you start doing real entertainment?

You didn't study it. No. So I started in stand-up when I was 22. Really? So you were an actual stand-up? Yeah. I did stand-up for over 10 years. Oh, my God.

I don't know if I've ever seen any of the stand-up. Is there a lot of it available? It's pre-digital and pre-film. Is that true? Oh, no. There's very little. I mean, there's stuff from my sketch comedy show, but not much. There's not much that exists out there.

And you did stand-up for 10 years? Yeah. Even after Chopper, I was still touring as a stand-up. Because I heard you were a stand-up. You know, I got sent home from Australia. Why? What'd you do? I just tanked.

I bombed so bad, they sent me home. I just had a bad time. It was like 19, maybe 91 or 92. I think the club was called The Last Laugh. That's one of the places where I started. Yeah. In Carlton. Yeah.

What was the name of that brother and sister that ran the place? McKenna? Dave McKenna. Yes. Oh, gosh, you've got a good memory. Yeah, so that was one of the venues that I started out in. So I started around that time. I started around, well, I'll tell you when I started because I remember the Gulf War breaking out when I was in America.

And then I came back from America and I started doing stand-up. So I think I started in 91. Yeah, right. 91, 92. Yeah, I just took the gig. I had just moved to San Francisco and I was maybe a strong middle act, strong feature. But this guy saw me in New York. He's like, why don't you come headline?

And I knew when I said yes, it was a mistake. Because it was like, there'll be a week of previews and three weeks then we'll extend to fifth week and I'd never traveled internationally for that long and it just fucked my head up and I just got there and like after the first week it was such a struggle and I went into that main room the big room and you know who was big room it was uh it was Greg Fleet was hosting yeah yeah and then there was like uh this this this these two women who did like a musical thing a burlesque thing with an accordion one of them had an accordion and and then then there was a uh an intermission or no then a guy came out and escaped from a straight jacket on a unicycle and then an intermission and then me and

i was like by the time i watched all that shit i'm like i'm fucked there's no fucking way and man i tanked so hard the guy came up to me and the next day he's like maybe you ought to go home that was a hard room because it was a big room and it had a really high ceiling yeah it was like a circus in there yeah yeah yeah and if it makes you feel any better i supported the amazing jonathan there oh yeah and and that and that room really suited the amazing jonathan sure his energy and his his act um but yeah i i i know what you mean i know that room very well and it was really broad and it had a super high ceiling which we don't want as a stand-up and isn't there a little room upstairs that you could play to there was yeah that was a place called the joke that was good the joke upstairs that was better because it was a lot more intimate tiny downstairs felt like a cabaret room

yeah it was the fucking worst dude that was a long flight home man oh yeah because i've done that i know that room i did the steve visard show the night before but he was out of town and russell crowe was uh was on the show when he had he had just done like romper stomper he was he was promoting romper stomper right so wow no one knew who that guy was i didn't and i'm freaking out because it looks like the letterman show only the desk is on the wrong side of the studio it looked a lot like the letterman show and it sounded like the letterman show right yeah and i and i get out there which we didn't realize because we weren't getting the letterman show it took us a while to put two and two together

but that didn't go well and they took me there right after i landed it was it was just the whole thing is like hey man not your fault but i'm'm glad we can connect on the fact that that room was not easy. It was not easy for a regular kind of act. Well, who were you guys in terms of what drove you to stand up? Who were your friends over there? Did you know Fleet? I didn't know Fleet well. I mean, I got to know Fleet, and then we did a little bit of TV stuff together.

Fleet was already well established when i started so uh he was part of the old guard he was part of the established old guard when i when i got started i was i was more inspired by americans um because i wasn't you know we weren't being presented with australian comedians in australia stand-up wasn't something that was overly respected. Right. So Richard Pryor was my hero. Richard Pryor was my absolute hero because I loved his acting. I loved his storytelling. I loved his incorporating characters into his stand-up.

Yes. That, to me, was like the ultimate, you know. He didn't tell jokes. A lot of heart. A lot of heart. So he was my hero um so were you doing impressions yeah i was doing impressions i similar i was i was i was using impressions in storytelling yeah so i i was not a joke teller i didn't encourage hecklers

i didn't try and get into banter it was like five or ten minute stories five minute story five or ten minute story structure um that's harder because if that's if if you're not doing well with the five minutes and you're two and a half in that's a long two and a half minutes coming yeah well that's where the impressions are handy because anytime you you you you break into a voice that sounds different to to your own people are kind of paying attention. Yeah, yeah. Even if they're not laughing, they're paying attention. They're excited, yeah.

Right? Were they celebrity impressions within these stories or just people you made up? Yeah, sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes, or they'd be just a random idiot and everyone recognizes an idiot, right? Everyone recognizes that character, even if they don't actually know who it is. Everybody loves an idiot character. You're not going to lose with the dum-dum.

But you never took any acting or clowning lessons or anything? No. So I started out in stand-up, and then I auditioned for a sketch comedy program, which was very similar to Saturday Night Live called Full Frontal. Right. And that was my big break. And then so it was through sketch comedy, many years of sketch comedy that I kind of like during that process figured, well, what's the difference between this and straight acting? I didn't see like there was like a four-year

university course to decode it i was like there's not a lot of difference yeah yeah it's gonna have a go at this no i think i i think that's true i think that like uh yeah the hands-on you know why fuck your head up with people who think they know things that are probably bitter anyways when you're actually doing the hands-on experience work. So were you doing a lot of improv or was all written sketch? A lot of it was written. I mean, we'd improv when we were working in the writer's room and I had a couple of guys that I loved working with

and I loved writing myself for my own characters. But I just loved it. And it was just, it was a time of my life. It was the most fun. It was the most exhilarating. We'd work Monday to Friday. We'd record live in front of an audience on a Friday night. And that would go to air the following Thursday.

So the turnaround was pretty quick. You know, you were able to do stuff that was really current. It was thrilling. It was absolutely thrilling. And I was done, man. I was like, this is the end of the road. Like, this is as far as I thought, further than I thought I'd ever get. I was happy.

How many seasons did you do? I did four seasons of Full Frontal, and then I did another year of my own sketch comedy show. So I did five years of sketch. So you actually had your own sketch comedy show on Australian television for a year? Yeah. So you were sort of like a national star. television for a year yeah so you're sort of like a a national star by the time i i by the time i left uh the show yeah i was i was pretty well known in australia the show was a really high rating sketch comedy was was what we did really well we did sketch comedy very well and we did

not do sitcoms well so sketch comedy was kind of like a very comfortable place for Australian audience and for Australian production. And it was at a really high level for a lot of years. And in fact, the end of our show was like the beginning of the end of TV sketch comedy here. Reality TV started and a lot of those production dollars stopped being funneled into sketch comedy programs and guys like myself no longer got a break in that in that space oh my god pushed out by the horrible reality shows no intentional funny just tragic people being funny not on purpose yeah and i think they figured that live tv was just cheaper so you had you know live sporting programs more live variety and it was just it was just way cheaper than this sketch comedy stuff was expensive for them. You know, we had a great art department. We went to a lot of trouble. Our sets were fantastic.

If we were ripping off a movie, the set on a Tuesday would be fantastic. It would be to a really high standard. So the show had really great production standards. And is that like the – is it the same structure as like the BBC that the state pays for some of it? Is it like that or is it independent? No, so the network that I was working for at the time was a fully commercial network. Oh, okay. Yeah, so it wasn't state funded at that stage, yeah. And were a lot, the people that you were working with, did a lot of them, any of them make the break the movies or not many a lot of them were straight actors a

lot of them had come from the theater so there weren't there weren't many of us that were stand ups in that in that space there were a few of us but it was i think when i started i was one of only two or three on the show that came from a stand-up background um and so a lot of them were serious actors who who who did a lot of live theater and stayed in television comedy but not many sort of made the jump over to to to films and but do you like being funny i mean when was the last time you were funny on purpose uh so funny people a little bit special correspondence i was more kind of foil for ricky um i really enjoy it i just don't get a lot of opportunity that's interesting huh and it huh? And it doesn't really

bother me for some reason. I've always had a lot of people say, how is it you've never done Saturday Night Live? And why don't you do stand-up? And why don't you do more comedies in America? And I think because I did so much of it back in the day, it's kind of like, I'm okay with it. I don't feel like i have to prove it to anybody well i think those first two movies i mean the the castle is sort of a mythic you know great movie which that i unfortunately haven't seen but i've heard people talk about it and i didn't really realize it until this morning that that that you were in

it and i would have watched it because i know it's on my list to watch but i hear so many people talk about that thing that's a comedy right yeah yeah it's it's a it's a really beautiful gentle comedy it's it's a really great script very original um yeah i highly recommend that was your first film that was my first film yeah yeah tiny role but yeah but like like chopper i mean that guy as menacing and as bizarre as he was, he's sort of a funny character. I mean, that like that character is broad and weird and hilarious and scary and almost like a clown. Sometimes it's a very unique combination of stuff. That guy is absolutely. He was hilarious he had you know he he had the ability to to to understand

a person quicker than anyone i've i've met to this day what was the name of that guy most mark brandon reed and he was he's alive still or no no he passed away a few years ago um but no he was hilarious was he a a criminal that later became just sort of this you know uh infamous you know person about town what was his whole story the arc of that whole thing yeah so he was quite quite a violent criminal who then who then wrote a series of of letters from jail to to to a journalist which then formed a book And he just had a natural turn of phrase. He had a very funny way of expressing himself. And it was just enigmatic, whether you liked him or not,

whether you loved him or hate him. You couldn't stop listening to the guy. Yeah, he just had the ability that if he was in a room, that's where the attention was going. It was going to him. He was sucking all the energy. There was no one else in a room, that's where the attention was going. It was going to him. He was sucking all the energy. There was no one else in that room but him. That was the power that he had.

Yeah, a charming sociopath. Absolutely, yeah. But when he got out of jail, he was sort of this strange man about town, right? Or what? Well, what was interesting was that after the film came out, obviously I don't want to speak for him, it seemed to kind of legitimise him to a degree. He remained straight.

He remained on the straight and narrow all the way through his last sort of 10 or 15 or 20 years. So he had rehabilitated to a large extent. Did you remain friends? No, I'm not one of these actors that feels like it's kind of my duty or kind of the thing to do to, I don't know, I almost feel like it's more respectful to not pretend that we're of the same world.

I think Mark and I had this understanding. It's better off. I mean, you know, there's a, you know, I mean, because how is that not going to be the most codependent relationship? You don't want to be, you know, you might not want those guys calling you every week. Hey, what's up? Do me.

Where are you filming next? Yeah, yeah. I'm coming down. Can I get a job? Exactly. No, I got to know him a bit before we started filming and then it just felt better to have some distance. So what's the difference in your mind between doing an impression and portraying somebody? Is there a different drive for you, or is it kind of the same thing?

I mean, you spent time with him in order to understand him, and then you sort of take ownership and interface your emotions with you know your sense of that guy is there a difference between acting and doing an impression i think i think there is i mean obviously it's it's it's kind of like a difference between a pencil sketch and a painting right really like i could do a quick sketch and a pencil and go who's that and you'd know who it was and then i could go into a big painting and that would be a different thing so um i think the time that you're afforded in long form storytelling obviously means that you're you're going to a different level at the very core though yeah there's not a there's not a there's not a ton of difference it's just what are you what are you eliciting from that?

So are you inhabiting that person to get a laugh or are you inhabiting that person to try and tell a story and make you feel something? So it's like you play it straight either way, but you know the context when you're doing comedy. And when you're doing it for real, you know, I can see how it feels very different when you interact with other actors or performers in those two different scenarios. Most definitely. Yeah. And I enjoy the storytelling side of it because I really respect it coming from standup. It's like, well, you write your material and you've got a beginning and an end and you're trying to move from here to there. And it takes discipline. And if it's not working, you've got to be honest with yourself about it and try and pick it apart and make it better or dump it.

And it feels that way when you're doing film as well. You don't have as much control over the material, but you're still relying on your instinct to either make something better or express if it's not, if it's not working. And you have directors for that. Yeah. And you, and you,

and you hope that the relationship is such that you can have a good dialogue about it. Did you have that with like Ridley Scott on Black Hawk Down? Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, you're one of sort of 32 actors,

but I had a really, really good relationship with Ridley. Yeah. i really loved him as a director it was so much fun and it was hectic and insane and like nothing i've ever been a part of again but it was the whole thing was immense i thought that that that redefined and contemporary uh you know modernized uh the depiction of war in movies i think that was the first you know truly modern war movie yeah it was visually it was it was a bit of an assault i guess saving private ryan and black hawk down is similar in the way that they really just try to make you

feel like you were in right but just the nature of warfare was so much different in those two movies like saving private ryan is you know that's's a World War Two movie. Like the way that warfare works now and that the idea that you guys were there on a mission that couldn't even be publicized or acknowledged. You know, that's insane. The operation itself was something, you know, that you just never saw before on screen. Yeah. Yeah. And as a result, I think it's what made it both unsettling and really thrilling at the same time. You know, it was kind of beautiful as well. It was an incredible movie visually. Now, when you work, because I talk to people that do, you know, you learned on your feet and you got cast in these first few movies.

I mean, were you sort of like wide open in terms of influence and what you were learning on set in terms of kind of expanding your own tools to do the thing? Like when you're on Black Hawk Down, are you picking up a lot of stuff from other actors or are you self-contained? A little bit self-contained, but I guess, you know, you're really, really open. I mean, I'm really paying attention to the director and I love the camera. So I'm paying a lot of attention to what they're doing

and how I can help them and where do I sit within the frame and that sort of thing. And I love, I love the play of, of working with other, with other actors. I,

I try not to, I try not to pay too much attention to their, to their process because I'm sort of worrying about my own thing. But when I, when I, when I'm acting with someone from the generation that I love, I pay, I, I probably pay more attention. So if I'm working with a Robert Duvall or a Peter O'Toole or a Nick Nolte

or a Sam Elliott or, you know, some of these legendary people. Have you worked with all of them? Yeah, I have. Where'd you work with Nick? Nick Nolte was in the original Hulk. He played my father in the original hulk he played he played uh my father in in the hulk and and and it was it was just insane and he had the oxygen tank and you know take a hit of oxygen okay i'm ready to go you know he said to me one day he took a hit of the

oxygen and he and he said to me i don't really need this it just makes them think you're fucking crazy and they pay attention i'm like is this all an act is this something else man right oh let's go come on he's something else man and duval that must have been crazy because you can't that guy so like he's so subtle man he's my favorite so he's he growing up he was my favorite actor and so to get a chance he played my father in in lucky you which is the movie that you know hardly anyone saw um and he was just beautiful his work was incredible and i just loved loved watching him work um and and and just picking his brain i just love the man he was just so so interesting and um yeah so so when i'm working with with that generation of of actor it's like it does feel

different it definitely does i i mean i i have a lot of respect for people in my generation, but I'm not in awe of anyone my age. You know what I mean? It's a different thing when I'm working with actors from that generation. And you got the opportunity to do that. What do you think? Because those are three very different actors, right? Nolte, Duvall, and O'Toole.

What did you work with Peter O'Toole in? So Peter O'Toole was in Troy. Oh, he was. Played my father in Troy. Actually, they all played my dad. I just realized that now. Duvall played my dad, Nolte played my dad, and O'Toole played my dad, which is pretty cool.

Because they're so different. Like you just did that impression of Nolte, but it would be hard to do an impression of Duvall. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's definitely doable. You know who does one uh James Caan I talked to James Caan James Caan can do Duvall oh really yeah because they still talk to each other all the time I I loved how just in the moment he was and there were just a couple things that he that he that he did on set which made me go okay it's okay it's a little thing like we were doing a scene one day and there were just a couple of things that he did on set, which made me go, okay, it's okay. It's a little thing.

Like we were doing a scene one day and there was someone standing behind in his eyeline, you know? Yeah. And the way that he just immediately dealt with that person and had the move. And it's easy to just keep acting in that situation. Sure. Like the set is not always a perfect thing. Yeah. acting in that situation sure like the set is is not always a perfect thing yeah but it was just a reminder that it's just like hey if you need something to make your performance better

it's okay to tell someone to fucking move you know what i mean yeah yeah it's it's okay it's not the end of the world yeah you know you don't have to yell you don't have to yeah it was it was done you go go yeah it was just it was done, you, hey, goal, goal. It was just, it was almost like just still in the middle of the scene. I was like, yeah, yeah, that's okay. It's okay to do that, you know. It just, Peter O'Toole was amazing. He was so invested. He just had so much energy poured into his performance at that age.

And he was quite old at that stage. And it was difficult, man. It was like 100 degrees every day. And he's in the robe and the jewels and the, you know. I mean, I just, I was just in awe. Absolutely. And he's a veteran of the epic film. Absolutely.

I mean, you know, it's Peter O'Toole. Lawrence of Arabia, for God's sake. It's Lawrence of Arabia, you know it's peter o'toole lawrence of arabia for god's sake it's lawrence of arabia you know absolutely i mean you do that yeah there's really special days they really are and on hulk you know i i mean i've talked to like i'm not a big um you know cartoon guy and i you know but i've been in i was uh i did a small part in the last Joker movie, which ruined my credibility as a guy who judges cartoon movies harshly. But that Hulk, the original Hulk, it's weird. It's a divisive movie among the Hulk fans. And it was pre-Marvel Universe. So it sort of stands alone as this, you know,

this art film that was approached in a different way. And I imagine that must have been one of the reasons you were like, yeah, I'm going to do this one. Yeah, it wasn't a quick yes, that's for sure. It took me a while to get my head around it. And you're right. In the end, it was like, it was Ang Lee. It was going to be completely

different i wasn't privy to the to the script prior to signing on the films one of the only films i've done where where that was the case why did it take you a long time to decide i mean what was the what was the negotiation within you it just it just wasn't the type of film that I saw myself doing. Why? Because essentially I just always felt like I was a character actor and that's what I was looking for. Right. Not a big green guy? Yeah. It wasn't an immediate yes.

And then I just kind of like, I guess maybe the ang factor and the fact that I knew it was going to be different, I decided to have a go. But it's, you know, it's why I haven't redabbled in that area. As you probably have, we probably have similar feelings towards the genre and the kind of picture I'm imagining. They're not the kind of movie that I race out and see myself. So that conversation is something I'm having with myself if I want to be a

part of it, because it's, yeah, it's not, it's not, it's, it's not something I'm queuing up for. You and Ed Norton. Right. Hulk has been a troubling character for people, but, but I mean, I imagine working with Ang Lee, how was he approaching it? I mean, like if you're going in knowing like, you're like,

this is a superhero movie, but it wasn't though. Given the timing of it, it wasn't as much of a spectacle as it is now. You did not, you weren't up against this entire sort of, it's not even a subculture. It's most of the culture. Yeah,

no, it did. You're right. The, the, the, the universe as we know it now didn't exist back then. And there,

and you certainly didn't go to into a film like that thinking you were going to do more than one. No. Like this notion that actors, you know, were going to go on a run and do two or three moves. That wasn't in play. I mean, I think the first Spider-Man had only just come out. I think we were the next one after the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man.

So the expectations were not the way they are now. So I guess I just approached it as a kind of one-off and just kind of... Were you approached to do another Hulk? No, I wasn't. Do you feel attached to your Hulk as opposed to maybe Mark Ruffalo's Hulk or Ed Norton's? Did you go judge other people's Hulks? I haven't seen them all, so I can't say. You haven't seen them do one Hulk?

Have you seen one other Hulk? I saw Ed's. I haven't seen Mark's. Have you talked to Ed about your Hulks? I've never met Ed. have you have you talked to ed about your hulks i've never met ed with yeah there's not a lot of hulk intertwining yeah oh you would think that maybe when you guys are old you can sort of you'll do a panel show together the three hulks and mark will you'll both you'll be in your 70s and Mark will still be doing the Hulk.

Yeah, he's the one that worked it out. He found his stride. He's in for life. So how many movies, like, because some of these movies, like, to be honest with you, it seems like they're Australian movies. You don't, you stay there. You're there most of the time, right? I live here. Yeah. Yeah, I never moved. So I haven't done a most of the time right i live here yeah yeah i never moved so um i haven't done a ton of this i mean i've done quite a few but i haven't done a

ton i don't sort of feel this kind of major urge that it's like something i have to do every two or three years it's just like you know what the pile is the pile and i just choose the best thing on the pile and sometimes it's australian it's not. So, you know, recently with a movie like The Dry, which was, you know, some sort of film that I'd been looking for for many, many years, came along and I was thrilled to be able to do that. But I don't have a hugely strong sense of Australian-ness within my body of work.'m happy to happy to be very very open i love working here when i when i can do it but um it it has to fight it out with everything else well i mean you you're born and raised there right yeah and your folks are they're not they were immigrants they were

immigrants yeah but did your dad have a croatian accent Here's a funny thing. I didn't realize my dad had an accent until I moved out of home. Oh, really? My girlfriend at the time said, no, your dad has an accent. I said, my dad doesn't have an accent at all. And then I moved out of home and suddenly I was able to do an impression of him that I couldn't do when I was living at home. I didn't hear it until I moved out. So he has a slight accent. Mom, not much.

Just very, very slight. But they're very Australian. Yeah. They're very Australian. And like, do you have Croatian relatives, German relatives? Back in those countries? Yeah. Yeah.

But not, yeah, we do. I've actually got a lot of the German side is actually in America. So my grandmother's sister migrated to New York, and my grandmother came to Australia. So I do have second cousins and extended family in the States. Wild, man. Yeah. Which is cool.

It's interesting to actually have a sort of global internet. I mean, everyone has that, but not one generation away. Yeah, no, it does feel cool. The Croatian side is much smaller because dad was an only child and so forth. What did your folks do when you were growing up? Were they happy about the acting? They were. My mom was a hairdresser, so I grew up in a hairdressing salon.

And my dad was a logistics manager for Caterpillar. He worked for Caterpillar for 47 years. Tractors? He was one of the longest serving, yeah, Australian employees ever. Wow. I think to this day, when he retired, he worked for Caterpillar longer than anyone. So, yeah, I grew up with dad working for the tractor company and mum was the hairdresser. Did he get a prize?

I think he got a model D10. I think I've got it in the garage. Like a die-cast D10. They were pretty sexy when they came out, the D10. I remember that as a kid. That was pretty exciting stuff, seeing that triangular shape. Did you get to go ride on the new tractors when you were a kid? No, he was an office guy.

So the factory was down the end of the street where I grew up, and it was a warehouse. You didn't see much actual tractor action. They were just being shipped off to the mines around Australia and so forth. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I just had this kind of affinity with America when I was a kid as a result of you know dad working for an american company yeah well i mean you do you're definitely your

your filmography is is uh varied and i like that the new movie the dry i i found it very powerful i mean i i like i've seen quite a few australian movies lately i saw that new sam neill movie with the sheep um oh yeah yeah that thing was kind of moving too i like these small kind of because there's something about the landscape of australia in certain areas where it's just like this sparse you know in these and the and all the people that live in these towns are almost like you know strange barnacles of some kind that you you know, you're like, how do they even exist there? And I think the dry really captures that really well. There's a certain quiet menace to the whole thing, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

Well, Jane Harper, who wrote the book, she captured that really well. The landscape is a major character in the film and that little country town. It's what excited me so much about the film was that a lot of Australian films depict the outback, but they don't depict the real country towns that we from the city identify with. Okay. In the same way that I guess as an American, like, do you identify with America as the desert or do you identify with America as a series of a thousand towns you've been through through the course of your life? It's the thousand little towns that you've been to. Right.

That's your middle America. That's the country, I'm assuming. That's the country. Yeah. And it's the same for us. So the drive depicts that really, really accurately. But where is that town? Is that an outback town?

I don't know what would be called the outback. Well, no, it's not the outback. So it's in the Wheatbelt. It's about four and a half hours away from where I am now. So it's about four hours in towards the middle of nowhere. And it's a Wheatbelt and it's very flat and it's quite harsh and very, very dry. And we filmed the film beginning of 2019 at the peak of the drought to help depict the way it was in the book but but i guess the characters in the town are very they feel very real you know we went went to a lot of trouble with with the casting of the film to make sure that everyone was really believable because we

didn't want it to be full of caricature oh did you have a part in that were you a producer i was a producer as well yeah okay my director rob connelly his wife is our casting agent jane norris and cast all his films so he calls it the competitive advantage and she did an amazing job yeah because i thought the casting was amazing i mean it was there were it's one of those kind of movies where i i don't see them often it is sort of a it's it's obviously a whodunit kind of movie yeah but you know it's one of those movies like when those are done well you're like oh could have been that oh no i think it's that wait but what about this you know which is good but it was so uh yeah you know menacing

and it keeps getting darker and darker yeah and that was that was our challenge we wanted to make the most emotional version possible of of that kind of story and that's where we felt there was some room between the book and the adaptation to just kind of make it as emotional as it as it could be which which was what what we tried to try to achieve and yeah and as you say every single person is a suspect in a small town single person in a small town um and i i just have to make mention here of genevieve o'reilly who plays gretchen opposite me who's just phenomenal i mean just yeah she was just incredible to to work with yeah it looked great same with that old horrible man is that guy guy even an actor? They're all actors. We did have some locals play extras and so forth,

like in some of the pub scenes. But, no, it was a beautiful cast. Now, are people going to the movies in Australia? Is that happening? They are, yeah. So we luckily opened on the 1st of January, right when cinemas were starting to get back into swing, which is why the film,

one of the reasons why we were able to be such a huge hit, but yeah, we're, we're, we're back at the cinemas as of about the 1st of January, people started to go back in limited numbers, but we ended up at about 75% and yeah, some big, some big crowds. Are you guys, Are we anticipating? What do you think? You think the rest of the world is going to follow?

You think movies are going to bounce back? What's your gut on this? I think they're going to bounce back huge. Yeah? Huge. Yeah. Because people are just going to be so fucking excited? Yeah.

It feels amazing to be back in the cinema, you know, and it's a different thing. And I do think there's a different quality to movies that have been made to be seen on the big screen. Oh, yeah. Versus movies that have been made to go on a streaming service. I don't care what anyone says. I'll have that fight. There's a difference. No, absolutely.

I'd like to go back to the movies. I'm going to do my first stand-up set in over a year tomorrow and i'm freaking out wow first stand-up in a year can i ask you so so when you're doing something like that do you you i'm assuming you just write all new material for that well i got nothing i've got i've i've got nothing you know there's no way you know we've all had the same experience roughly for the last year. You know, it's like, you know, just taking a year off to be terrified. So I don't like, I'm not sure where it's going to go, but that's usually how I start. I'll improvise through some ideas. I've got a little outline.

I'm only going to do a 15 minute set. So we'll, we'll see how it feels. You know, I mean, sadly, the one thing I realized over the last year is like, you know, I don't miss it that much. I don't miss anything. I might be ready to stop everything. So but I did a couple movies during or at least one movie during lockdown with the protocols. And I'd like to do more of that. But I'm curious to see because my last special, I really think I did everything I set out to do stand-up wise and I don't feel compelled to entertain people that way but I do feel like I have something to say so we'll see if that reveals itself you know.

So how do you balance the expectation of what you're supposed to be doing versus what you want to do? doing versus what you what you want to do well i mean so much of i don't know what drives you but the one thing i noticed about not doing anything in lockdown was it was there was something okay about it because no one else was so in terms of expectations as soon as the world starts coming back and you start seeing other people working you're like oh what were they doing like i knew i didn't want to do outdoor shows but now like people are starting to tour i'm like fuck i gotta get out there like i don't even so the fimo is kicking in again right it's but it's like a weird competitive thing but like what i really want to do on stage i have to see what that feels like you know because a lot of things have gone down over the last year.

And again, I felt pretty satisfied with the work I did in my last hour special, and I'd like to take it someplace new. So I got to see if I have it in me or I have the courage to explore things in a different way. I certainly don't give as much of a fuck as I used to. So we'll see whether I have the courage to do that stuff, you know. Does that make sense? I know that. So, so we'll see where, you know, whether I have the courage to do that stuff, you know, that makes sense. I know, I know that. Yeah, it does. I know what you're saying about the, like during the lockdown, one of the things that I loved was, was not having to answer a question about,

you know, where are you going to next or what, what got any movies, got any movies? Yeah, no, no one's got any movies. Exactly. No one. I don't. No one does. And then you hear. So I don't feel guilty. Right. And then you hear the one set that's working.

There's one movie in production. You're like, what the fuck is happening? Are we doing it again? Yeah. I mean, I did one. I wasn't going to do any. And this guy just kept wanting me to do it. And it was the middle of peak COVID.

And I was like, what are you fucking nuts? But he was like, you're the guy. And it was a big part. It was the biggest part I could ever do. And I'm like, somehow or another, I was convinced by other people that it would be safer to be on a movie set than it would to go to the grocery store. And I believe that. I'm like, because there's all these protocols in place. Did you get shut down at all,

or did you get through the whole thing? No, we made it through. Dude, this guy shot a feature on film in 19 days. Wow. On film, 19 days. Crazy. You better make those takes count. You don't get.

Yeah. It was crazy, but I was happy I did that. But yeah, I mean, but now i can feel it all coming back and i don't know man i mean i'm old how old are you i'm not old i'm 57 how long are we supposed to work eric i mean i do i'm 52 i'm 52 um i don't know how many more films i got in me i don't know you gotta lie some days yes sometimes i i feel like it's it'll be a real look i always one of the reasons i looked up to deval was his longevity i i love the i love the um trajectory of his career and the fact that it wasn't it's just like boom it's just like this this fighter jet at a high altitude just maintaining.

It's not a rocket ship. It's just like. Also, character actor. I mean, it's an interesting choice for you because you're a good looking guy. You're a big dude. You can carry a movie. But you choose to focus more on being a character actor as opposed to having the the weight I would imagine, or the expectation of, uh,

you know, being a movie star. Yeah. I've never, I've, I've, I've never felt like the movie style thing is, is,

is a thing that I want to dabble with. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it'll find you at time at times. It'll move through you because of the kind of role you're playing or whatever.

But I think it's a really dangerous territory. But I think it's really dangerous territory. And I think it's really boring territory as well. It's really limiting. Why? Because you're expected to stay in your wheelhouse. Yeah. I think those actors end up in a wheelhouse. They can't move around as much.

They can't do different things. The minute you stop doing different things you stop being offered different things yeah mcconnell he had to quit he literally had to decide not to take the movies that were making him millions of dollars he had to consciously say i'm not doing any more romantic comedies and he didn't work for a while yeah good on him yeah i understand that i do and i think i think it's really smart to be cognizant of that. And I think it's too easy, especially for American actors. I think it's easier to be lured into that, into that, um, pattern because, because you live there and it's just, it's just easy. And also like Billy Crudup. I talked to that guy too. He,

he could have been a movie star, but he was like, I don't, I don't want to do that. The real work is doing these different guys, these different characters. You do that too. Yeah, the biggest danger with the movie star thing is that, does that now mean that you're going to knock back a more interesting role that's not the lead? Because it's not the lead? That seems ridiculous to me. That just seems like crazy talk. Yeah, but like this movie, The Dry, I mean, you're the lead, but that seems ridiculous to me. Right. That just seems like crazy talk. Yeah. But like this movie, The Dry, I mean, you're the lead,

but that guy's a deep character. You don't know what's up, and you've got that interesting, you know, backstory where, you know, he seems initially a compromised guy. Yeah, you're right. So he's a character that finds himself at the head of the story. Yeah. You know, and in that instance, that's something I can always get my head around. But just being a kind of folly, just being a kind of vehicle for a story.

My first thing is when I read a script, if I can picture 30 other actors playing the role, I pass. Right. Now, there's always 30 other people that can do it. I know that. But that's not what's relevant. My ego has to believe that I'm one of the only people that can do it. Right, right. Or that can do it. I know that. But that's not what's relevant. My ego has to believe that I'm one of the only people

that can do it. Or that should do it. Or what's worse is you've got to ask your agent like, who turned this down? Where am I in line on this one? Yeah. Who are they going to if I say no? Yeah. It is always interesting when you say no and you wait for the film to come out to see who ended up playing that part or.

Yeah. And do you ever like a lot of times you're sort of like, well, that makes sense, because when you can see 30 other guys doing it, there's also that party. It's like you don't need me. Like I do a thing, but this doesn't require that. Go give it to one of those guys. But this doesn't require that. Go give it to one of those guys. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I do. And quite often what you're saying no to is something that you know is going to work. It's not like I'm only saying yes to something that I think is going to be amazing and work.

It's like I'll say yes to stuff that I know is going to be a struggle commercially. It doesn't bother me. And I'll say no to stuff that I know is going to be huge. commercially. It doesn't bother me. And I'll say no to stuff that I know is going to be huge. Right. You know, like you have to do that. It doesn't – you're not – I'm not an accountant. Yeah, that's your brother. You know, that's my brother.

He's the numbers guy, you know. It's not my job, you know. So you just have to – you have to feel free. It's easier said than done, but it's really important. Right, but it's also great to be excited about the thing, to rise to the occasion, to take the challenge. You've always seemed to be open to doing accents, to really immersing yourself in characters,

whether they're real people or not. I found that when I did this last movie, I was required to do an accent or the character called for it, but I wasn't sure I could, and the director didn't care. But I actually, given that I'm this last movie, I was required to do an accent or what the character called for, but I wasn't sure I could and the director didn't care. But I actually, given that I'm just starting out as an actor in a lot of ways, I'm like,

well, if I'm not going to challenge myself, what the fuck am I doing? And then I watched some old James Caan movie where he, like a real old one where he had an accent, but he kind of half held it and half didn't.

And then after I talked to him, I realized like, it's not about that. If you pay that close attention to people doing accents, especially movie stars, they're always going to go in and out. It's about, you know, whether you're in it or not. Are you in the character?

Yeah, yeah. So that kind of gave me weird confidence. It gave me confidence. It's like, if I'm doing as good a job as I should, people aren't going to care about the accent. If they're out going like that accent sucked then i fucked up yeah yeah it's a good attitude i think it's a good approach but you but yeah it seems to me that you're gonna get you're gonna nail that accent no matter what well we don't have a choice right name name the last australian character you saw in international cinema It's fucking ridiculous

Right It's like we're everywhere But we just don't appear in cinema Yeah Get the Australian off the set Have them play someone else Yeah But let's not hear that accent anywhere

It's so weird It's so weird The British get away with it British get to with it. British get to play British. Australians never get to play Australian. Well, it sounds like you're upset about it. Maybe you ought to find yourself an Australian.

I'm a bit pissed about it. Make no mistake. I've tried to raise this as much as possible because it's like there has to be Australians in stories. Was the last Australian you played Chopper? No, well, the dry, obviously. But in Funny People, I convinced Judd to allow me to be Australian. It's the only time I got to get away with it. And my argument was he will be funnier for being Australian. I will make him more interesting, I promise you,

if you let me play him as Australian. Yeah, I remember. That was my pitch. And it was. He was definitely better for being Australian. He was more of a maniac because he was Australian. You should have asked if you could do the Hulk as Australian. And it was funny because the last time I did an Australian film

was a film called Romulus, My Father, and I was playing a Hungarian migrant. So I had an accent. It was like, they won't let you do it. Just be Australian. It's a conspiracy. You got to do the Australian stories to do the Australians. And people ask me why I live in Australia.

So I can be Australian. You love it. You love being Australian. I love being Australian. I love it here. I do. I really do. Good. in how old are your kids my kids uh 21 and 19 oh my god they're old kids yeah are they all they're still there yeah they're still still living at home they're both studying so um yeah they're still

here they're they're they're they are both big fans of overseas they've spent a lot of time overseas i hope to god they don't end up moving overseas but i can see that in my future oh that's gonna be rough huh yeah they love it overseas um well you'll work it out you'll see it's great talking to you man uh good work on this uh new film too i hope it does well over here thanks so much mark was uh you know really wonderful to to meet you and um i'm sorry about the last laugh oh yeah and uh please let please let me know if you come down here again please i do i i will make amends oh great yeah i'll definitely tell you when i'm coming out i i have gone there for shows since then i've done sydney and melbourne and brisbane which was not great, but I did it.

Sydney and Melbourne. In Melbourne, I did some weird theater. I think it was by water and it seemed to stand alone and it was very old and damp. Oh, the Palais. Maybe, yeah. Down at St. Kilda next to Luna Park, next to the theme park. I think so, yeah. The Palais. Palais Palais Theatre that sounds right does it feel haunted and damp

I think it's been redone since then oh good yeah but yeah it was quite decrepit for a while but it's had a bit of love recently oh good

but yeah maybe the Palais alright well I'll let you know when I'm down there man please do alright take it easy cheers Mark thanks mate that's it people the Dry opens in US theatres and on video on demand Thanks, Mike.

That's it, people. The Dry opens in U.S. theaters and on video on demand this Friday, May 21st. It's a good film. He's great in it. It's dark. And it's one of those mystery, small-town mystery murders. A little added layer of darkness. Okay. little added layer of darkness. Okay, now I will riff on a little bit of Molina for the memory of Lynn Shelton. © transcript Emily Beynon um Thank you. guitar solo Boomer lives. Monkey La Fonda.

Cat angels everywhere. I miss you, Lynn. © transcript Emily Beynon We'll see you next time. Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com.