Zitate

As a kid I didn't think of becoming an actor, there were much more important things to consider: a life as a missionary for instance; an explorer, a doctor, an Egyptologist, a diplomat, an army officer, a magician. Some years later, half way through an Arts/Law course at Monash University, I realized I could fulfill all these ambitions and not waste years in tiresome solitude studying in darkened libraries or being shackled to some thankless apprenticeship... I could become an actor. The irony that I would spend the next three years of my life living/ eating/ sleeping basically nothing but the rudiments of my chosen career was entirely lost on me.

Since completing the 3 yr. course at NIDA I've lived through the First & Second World Wars, commanded an Australian Navy Patrol Boat, been a doctor in the Outback, a policeman, a lawyer, a hypnotherapist, an explorer, an American, a Frenchman, an Englishman, an Elizabethan, a scientist, a poet, a pirate and plenty of others as well.

They say actors never grow up; that we're just adolescents always pretending. I don't think so. I think it's just that we try not to forget what every part of our lives was like; each experience, all the feelings; the happy, the sad, the carefree, the tragic. It's sort of a reference library of emotions to be borrowed from for every new role.

I do like fully understanding a role, then playing it from deep within. Maybe sometimes I get it so understated it becomes a blur. You can't hide mistakes. Something happens when you are doing film. The camera is rolling and pointing at you, and it draws something from within. It's like some kind of electrical charge going through you and you really feel yourself being sucked into the lens. There is a saying "That the camera steals your soul". I try to get to the soul of the character I'm playing.

He's a well-rounded character. He makes mistakes. He's impatient and he gets frustrated and he hates being in the outback. He's not that sympathetic to begin with, although I think I could have played him more anti-sympathetic. I probably should have. On Tom Callaghan, his character on "The Flying Doctors".

On being a gay actor in the theatre world: There's no issues about that whatsoever. Film and TV can be different because I think they are much more conscious about image, about selling something. That's where conflict might come in. They can also think 'Wow what about that straight actor playing a gay character - what an incredible piece of acting work', but there must be innumerable gay and lesbian actors playing straight their whole career and they are not getting awards.

The thing that stays with me about The Flying Doctors and it always has, is that it was the friendliest best group of people I've worked with ever, we had the best fun.