Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
February 19, 2005 Saturday
David knows best
By: HARBANT GILL
Being a good father is more important to David Wenham than being on
Hollywood's A-list, writes Harbant Gill
THE shock of being ugly, laughs David Wenham, is not something he
needs to get used to.
"Look, I tell you what, when I wake up in the morning all I have to do is
look in the mirror and I'm very accepting of that fact," he says before his
first stupendous-snoz fitting for his role as Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac.
Wenham hasn't spent hours pondering what life would be like for an
ugly man who can't get the chick, but what's interesting to him is how the
physically disadvantaged can have great lives.
He cites Wendy Harmer's "wonderful, real-life" Australian Story of
the young child whose cleft palate was no impediment to success or acceptance.
And he speaks of the Hawaii leper colony he lived in for four months
for Molokai: The Story of Father Damien as the "best experience I've ever
had"professionally.
"Here were people who suffered the most horrendous existence but
were certainly the most accepting people I've ever come across and possibly
the happiest people I have ever encountered in my life," Wenham says.
"They are extremely accepting of their fate. They harbour no
bitterness or resentment whatsoever. There's a huge amount of dignity. They sing all the time. It makes you soar.
"Accept who you are, and then no matter what you are dealt with in
life . . .that just opens you up and you can live your life to the fullest."
Indeed, that appears to be how Wenham himself faces life. He is not
seduced by the Hollywood hype nor dazzled by his international successes such
as The Lord of the Rings, largely because his working-class blueprint defines
his core values.
"The draw of fame and fortune was never a factor. I love acting. I
love being other characters, I love playing with other actors, whether on stage or
on film. It's something that gives me an incredible amount of joy and
fulfilment.
"That's my motivating factor; to create and to entertain people. That gives
me the greatest joy, not how many zeros are in my bank account or how
many magazines I can appear in. That's fluff and bubbles," says the youngest
of seven children.
"We didn't have much money growing up. We lived in an environment
where there was no need for anything other than friendship and support within the
family and the community for happiness. It was as simple as that."
Wenham's father worked in accounts in the same Sydney company for 49
years.
"And my mother, besides being a full-time mother, could still juggle
being a secretary at a school. I can't fathom how she did it," says Wenham, who
has a 16-month-old daughter, Eliza Jane, with actor partner Kate Agnew.
"There were always meals on the table. She made most of our clothes
and she worked. God almighty, how on earth did she do it?"
Wenham's childhood love of putting on puppet and ventriloquist shows
in the dining room, with his sister selling tickets for 2c each, coupled with
a great drama teacher at school led to drama studies at the University of
Western Sydney after a NIDA rejection. Soon the Marrickville boy was on stage and TV, where he won hearts as Diver Dan in SeaChange.
A string of roles followed -- Cosi, The Boys, Better Than Sex,
Moulin Rouge, The Bank and Gettin' Square and on to international fame with the Rings trilogy and Van Helsing.
"I never knew I could ultimately make a career out of it," Wenham
says. "I never thought I'd ever be involved in movies . . . movie stars, it was as though they were born in another place, on another planet."
At times he stills finds it surreal to be on the set of a blockbuster he has been courted for.
"There are moments when I do pinch myself and think I have been
really bloody lucky. Like The Lord of the Rings, there was one particular day when I was on my horse and there were about 100 horsemen around me and a huge camera. In fact, they built a road for this particular camera to go along as a tracking vehicle.
"On that particular day I looked around and thought, 'This is
extraordinary. I would never have even dreamt of being involved in something like
this'."
What keeps Wenham level-headed comes back to what he values most --
acting, his family and his "very small" circle of friends.
WENHAM treasures his private life, which is often invaded by the
paparazzi.
"It's not something I enjoy, no," he says. "It's not fun when not
long after your baby's born and you're out maybe going shopping and somebody
alerts you in a carpark that somebody's hidden behind a car taking photographs. No, it's not fun. But I try to accept that part as best I can and try not to let it affect me.
"I live a very, very normal life and what I do hasn't changed the
way I live my life, and it's something that I'm very proud of and very happy
because of it."
Wenham is glad he has never known the despair of Cyrano, a real
person who yearned for the unattainable all his life and died unfulfilled.
"I've certainly known longing, but not like that, no. Only for people I am already involved with, whether it be my partner or my family, I know that sort of longing.
"That's sometimes unbearable, but it's fabulous, it's a great thing
to love somebody so much," he says of time away from his little girl, whom he
talks to every day on the phone.
"I make sure I'm never away for any great time when I'm interstate,
and if we go overseas I try to make sure they come with me. If I'm interstate I
try to pop home, even if it's just for a night."
Being a father, says Wenham, is "the greatest thing that I've ever
done and ever will do. Definitely".
David Wenham stars as Cyrano in the Melbourne Theatre Company's Cyrano de Bergerac, Feb 19-April 2, Playhouse, Arts Centre.
Tickets: $66.50/$15. Ph: 1300 136 166 or www.mtc.com.au