Daily
Telegraph
Better
yet for shifting star
Byline:
VICKY ROACH
It's
all change for David Wenham. TV's Diver Dan has bared all to become a sex
symbol
David
Wenham, the pale, ginger-haired and, well, slightly scrawny star of
SeaChange and The Boys, is
as surprised as anyone to find himself cast in the
role of a sex symbol.
"I
find my career path has taken me down a road I never would have
envisaged,'' he says on the eve of the release of his
latest film, Better Than
Sex, a cheeky love story that puts the one-night stand
back into romance.
"I
always saw myself as a character actor. Now, I find myself in this area.
It's
extremely amusing.''
The
35-year-old actor seems genuinely nonplussed by the strange turn of
events, but then Wenham's star has been rising
"at an exponential rate''
since 1998 -- the year in which he simultaneously
seduced audiences as
fisherman [Diver] Dan della
Bosca in the hugely successful ABC-TV series
SeaChange and sent shivers down their collective
spine as a psychopathic
killer in Rowan Woods' film, The Boys.
The
role of Brett Sprague confirmed Wenham's reputation as an actor capable of
terrifying intensity.
SeaChange, on the other hand, showed his ability to
play a light-hearted
romantic lead.
"It
was quite fortuitous both of them came out at the same time,'' Wenham
admits, "because it sort of confused people
as well as to where they'd like
to slot me as an actor.''
Diverse
roles followed -- from a very gay Cleante in Barrie Kosky's notorious
Opera
House production of Tartuffe, to a 19th century Belgian priest in Paul
Cox's film
In
the past 12 months, Wenham has shot five films back-to-back -- Better Than
Sex,
Moulin Rouge, a low-budget Australian romantic comedy, The Russian Doll,
a film shot in
turn-of-the-century cowboy on a journey to redemption,
and The Bank, a
thriller set in the world of high finance, from the
team who made The Boys.
After
he finishes shooting The Hobbit in
intends to take a self-enforced break.
"[Working
at such a pace] is not something I set out to do. It just so
happened they were all projects I was very
interested in doing. They're all so
different and yet so enticing.''
Better
Than Sex, first-time director Jonathan Teplitzky's warm, frank and very
funny look at contemporary relationships through
the eyes of two thirtyish
inner-city dwellers, appealed because it was
"surprising''.
"The
perfect image has got a little bit out of hand,'' Wenham says.
"I think
that's what's so fantastic about this particular
film. [Co-star] Susie
[Porter]
and I ... well ... it's not Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts up there;
it's two people everyone can relate to,
hopefully. I think that's
attractive.''
Wenham
says he didn't give much thought to the fact his role in Better Than
Sex
is likely to reveal more about him than polite society might consider
decent.
"That
was raised in a forum after the film screened at the Melbourne Film
Festival. Until that moment, I hadn't really been
conscious of sitting in a
cinema with 2000 people actually watching myself
pretty much in the nude with
Susie ...
"That's
something you wouldn't really want to think about when you are
actually shooting the film. If you did, you'd never
do it.
"You
arrive at work, take off your clothes, say good morning to Susie, who
has also taken off her clothes, get into bed
and film some stuff ...
"Susie
was a great person to do that with. We had so much fun on that film
and I think it's translated on to the screen.''