David Wenham
By Trent Dalton
He may have wanted to be a footballer, but a knack for
impressions and a gift for storytelling set actor David Wenham on a very
different path, writes Trent Dalton
The foyer of
David's been 38 for 1½ days and he appears officially over
it. "Thank you, thank you," the actor says, deadpan,
before quickly shifting conversation to his beloved Sydney Swans and their
weekend loss to the Brisbane Lions.
In Adam Cullen's 2000 Archibald Prize-winning portrait of
David Wenham, the actor's ears and eyes stood out. But it's his scruffy ginger
hair that stands out most today.
He's shorter and thinner than the silver screen suggests. Not as stout as warrior ranger Faramir, whom he plays in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Definitely not as monstrous as psychopath Brett Sprague in The Boys, the character that took him from the theatre to films, and bagged him an AFI Best Actor award.
"The expectation is often different to the
reality," says David. "I've ended up in movies, but it's not
something I thought would happen. I became an actor to work in theatre. This is
a very bizarre bi-product."
David wanted to be an Australian rules footballer - the
greatest sportsman ever from Marrickville, in
"I was the youngest of seven children. I had very
understanding, supportive parents who allowed me to become a storyteller."
David says his acting ability as a youth had a magic that
adults with emotional baggage can never match.
"I love films with kids as protagonists," he says,
citing E.T., Cinema Paradiso and My Life as a Dog,
which, he says, are up there with his all-time favourite
film, Don't Look Now.
"I think children are the best actors. They have the
ability to believe utterly in what they do. It becomes harder to do that as you
get older because your confidence gets battered around a bit."
Knocked back by NIDA, David studied theatre at the
Playing the lethal Brett Sprague on stage to riveting effect
in The Boys, David was first choice for the filmed version. He considers his
work in that film, six years ago, the best he's done and perhaps the best he
can do. "It's the one film that I look at and I can say I actually can't
improve on that," he says.
It was a testament to his acting skill that a year later he
had transformed himself from the vicious Sprague to the charismatic and popular
Diver Dan on the ABC's SeaChange. At the show's peak,
David was introduced on a
Film roles kept coming -
In 1999, director Paul Cox asked him to move temporarily to
the island leper colony of
A story about real-life Belgian priest Father Damien de Veuster, who cared for 140 banished sufferers of leprosy on
Molokai Island - one of the Hawaiian islands - before catching the disease
himself and dying there in 1889, the film cut straight to David's Catholic
core.
"That was probably the best thing in the world I've
ever done," says David, who lived and worked in the tight leper community
for four months.
"I defy anybody to go to that place and not be affected
or moved or changed. These are people who have suffered through the most
incredibly disturbing lives and yet are so full of joy and full of life. You realise how ridiculous some of the petty things that upset
us in our rather privileged lives are. It was a huge life lesson. Those people
had a profound effect on me."
A former student of Christian Brothers' High School, Lewisham, with parents still involved in the church, David
acknowledges his Catholic faith, but is reticent to discuss it. When asked how
he balances faith and the film industry - known for its sometimes-dubious
morality - David pauses, resting his head on his fist, thinking.
"It's not something that's at the front of my
head," he says. "I try to be a good person. It's as simple as that. A
lot of the time, I don't succeed at all. I'm as messed up as the next person.
"It is a strange business ... It's easy to be consumed
by the madness that is
One could say David leapt head-first into the mouth of
madness when he signed on for director Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings
saga, the trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's
fantasy epic . David's character, Faramir,
has an important role in the saga's upcoming conclusion, The Return of the
King.
"It was a very different experience to anything else. I
hadn't read the book before I was given the baton to come on board," he
says. "Then I had an opportunity to read the book, and that was like
putting many layers of icing on the cake. And it was an enormous cake. I can
say, unreservedly, that Peter Jackson is at the top of the tree. There's Peter
Jackson and then everybody else. Undoubtedly. And
history will show that."
Which brings us to David here today, as he
stirs high-profile Gold Coast lawyer-cum-author-cum-scriptwriter Chris Nyst, who has flown to
"I've just been talking about you," says David, as
Chris shuffles quickly past our table.
"Don't believe a word," the savvy lawyer advises.
David is describing Chris's script - which borrows heavily
from the Gold Coast stories and characters Chris has come across in his day job
- as one of the most original, quick and clever scripts to come out of
The film follows two criminals, Wirth (Dirty Deeds' Sam
Worthington) and Johnny "Spit" Spitieri
(David), who are released from prison and endeavour
to go straight - to get square. It's not long, however, before the friends find
themselves in the grip of the Gold Coast underworld and are forced into a
suicide mission to save their necks.
David's hapless junkie Spit is a fidgety, distrusting,
mullet-haired, thong-wearing marvel. It's hard to recall a character so
repulsive, yet somehow so endearing.
"It's a strange dichotomy because these are people that
society wants to shun, but at the same time you can't help but feel compassion
towards them and a certain amount of empathy and a great deal of
understanding."
David's empathy goes back to his school days when he'd write
letters to prisoners in
His empathy has led him to be a vocal commentator on the
environment, immigration and reconciliation.
"I'm extremely patriotic, but I'm not proud of many
issues in this country," he says. "I travel often and the reaction
from virtually everywhere I go overseas is rather different to what this
current government would have you believe. And I'm telling you, we don't look
too good."
As David talks, those big eyes that Adam Cullen focused on
are becoming more intense.
"I never wanted to become a public figure," he
says. "All I wanted to do was become an actor, work in theatre, come out
and have a beer and be anonymous."
But expectation is, after all, often different from reality.
Gettin' Square opens Thursday (9
October).