ScreenWize

There’s something slightly regal about the tall and elegant figure of Bryan Brown as he strides across the hotel lobby, but once we sit and start talking his familiar Aussie accent and highly affable approach to life leaves nothing in the air but charm and ease. It’s this combination of striking physical presence and everyman persona that has kept Brown in work for nearly thirty years, and he’s now one of the most recognisable faces on the big and little screens of Australia. He’s here to talk about a new film Cactus, directed by Jasmine Yuen Carrucan, which Brown helped to produce and in which he stars as Rosco, an enigmatic and unmistakeably Australian country cop.

Brown has made a career playing these kinds of characters. After a false start in the insurance industry, Brown found acting at the age of 25, performing on the stage in Australia and England. After a handful of smaller roles in movies like Newsfront, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and the Odd Angry Shot, he came to the world’s attention when he starred in Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Moran opposite Edward Woodward and Jack Thompson. From that point onwards he alternated between Australian films and larger American productions, appearing with big name stars like Sigourney Weaver and Tom Cruise.

More recently Brown has moved into producing, helping other filmmakers get their stories told. The combination of acting and producing is something he clearly enjoys. “It gives me a good life, and makes things interesting”, he says. He gets reflective. “I can’t honestly say that anything has been planned consciously. It never has. When I stumbled into acting, I thought ‘hey! this looks like a life’, and the same thing happens wherever I stumble. I have no specific plans, goals dreams, or ambitions. Life is far too interesting to me to be like that and I’m more interested in what’s around the corner. I always find that if you plan a goal or have an ambition, you often miss out on something that will enrich your life.” He pauses for a moment, bringing the conversation back to practicalities. “I do like to keep busy, to work and to make money – and working with fresh young people who want to get somewhere, push their talent, and challenge themselves refreshes me. They’re good for me, and also in a funny sort of way you get a respect from them which reminds you that you do know something. You can help them avoid running into a brick wall, or help them when they do because you have hit brick walls before. And that’s satisfying.”

In the case of Cactus, the filmmaker he was helping was Jasmine Yuen Carrucan, a first time feature director. “She sent me the script a year and a half ago, asking me to play the cop in the film,” says Brown. “I had to smirk at the character because he was written as an interesting and funny cop – although he wasn’t in it a lot. And when I’d I read the whole script, I thought the story was pretty fresh.” Brown liked the way that Carrucan wrote and enjoyed the unpredictable way that the story unfolded. “I couldn’t second guess it,” he says, “so I rang her and asked what she was planning to do with it.” It was the beginning of a relationship that would find Brown with an Executive producer credit, and his influence in getting the film made in a relatively short time was critical. “She said that she had $90,000 of her own money, and I’ve done enough movies to know that you can’t make a film on ninety grand. I realised that if she was any good, it could hurt her by making it on a small budget, so I asked her to come and talk with me.” The meeting was a crucial one, with Brown coming away impressed by Carrucan’s drive and ability. “There was an inner steely strength and an intelligence that made me realise she was very capable.” Carrucan then went off with cinematographer Florian Emmerich and shot a couple of scenes. The results confirmed Brown’s initial feelings. “When she came back and showed me, I could see she had a really good eye.” Brown then helped Carrucan get a bigger budget. Typically, Brown makes it all sound very easy. “I sent the script to a mate at Hoyts film distribution and he said it was fresh too, and then I saw that the Australian Film Commission’s IndiVision project was open, so we put in a submission.” IndiVision is a strand of funding that supports highly distinctive, low-budget features up to $1.25 million. Brown felt that, with a good script, a couple of scenes shot as an example of the director’s work, and with Hoyts and also Channel 9 on board they had a very good chance. His instincts proved correct – Cactus was one of only two films funded from 30 submissions. “So all of a sudden we had a million dollars behind us,” he says. “In terms of movies, isn’t a lot of money, but Jasmine was clever: the story is about two men in a car. It lent it self to be made professionally on that budget.”

The two men in the car are John, played by Travis McMahon, and Eli, played by David Lyons. John is a family man turned kidnapper, delivering Eli to an undisclosed destination in the harsh deserted centre of Australia in a battered Ford. When the car speeds into Brown’s territory, he takes more than a passing interest. It’s a typical Brown performance and the kind of Australian character he’s always relished.

“When I decided that I wanted to be an actor at the age of 25, all anyone was doing in this country on the stage was American or English plays. I looked at that and said what’s the point, I may as well go to England and be an Englishman.” And that’s exactly what Brown did, travelling to go England, to “the source” as he calls it, and returning after two and a half years. “When I came back I walked into Nimrod and saw a play called How Does Your Garden Grow, written by Jim McNeill, and I understood every one of those characters on stage. I knew their motivations and what their lives were about. They were Australians, and I realised at that moment that I could actually play who I was and where I come from.” You can feel the passion on Brow’s voice as he remembers the moment. “It’s exciting, far more exciting than having to play a yank or a pom.” Are there still more of these characters left for him to play? “Absolutely,” he says, “younger actors may want to have the challenge of playing people from other places, whereas for me the challenge is to play these kind of characters in case it all gets taken away from us again.”

Filed Under: Interviews by Simon