The
Daily Telegraph
In the line of fire - a reluctant David Wenham puts
himself in the hot
seat - Fire in his belly
By SARRAH LE MARQUAND
David Wenham's concern for the East Timorese people made a decision to
portray their plight on screen easy. Just don't ask him to boast about it
In an industry known to thrive on self-promotion and
narcissism, David
Wenham is a welcome exception. Although he's quite happy to discuss his
role in Answered By Fire, the two-part miniseries
beginning on the ABC
this Sunday, he seems genuinely embarrassed over his leading man status.
Wenham enjoys top billing in the series - which revisits
bloody quest for independence in 1999 - but he insists it's his lesser
known East Timorese castmates who are the real stars.
"I never wanted to be the 'lead' - it's their story and they should tell
it," he says. "The reality is that I'm here talking about it because
a
couple of people in
understand the reality of that. But their stories are far more fascinating
than my life and my experiences could ever be."
Rather than rely upon professional actors, Answered By
Fire director
Jessica Hobbs met with more than 400 East Timorese as she held acting
workshops across the country in an ambitious casting call.
"They essentially brought their lives to the story - without them I don't
think it would have been possible," Wenham says. "It's extraordinary
in
that all the cast have in some way been affected by what happened in
Timor
somebody who has.
We're dealing with people who have very raw emotions.
"I can't begin to imagine what it was like for them. Having said that, all
of them were determined the story should be told and put to air so as many
people as possible could experience what is was like."
Not that Wenham was excluded from emotionally taxing scenes himself in his
portrayal of Mark Waldman, an Australian federal police officer who
volunteers for the United Nations Mission in
the referendum.
"I was portraying a fictitious character, but one obviously based upon the
experiences of lots of different federal police officers so I was
constantly aware of bringing a reality to that role," he says.
As a long-time member of the Australia-East Timor Association, Wenham was
no stranger to the struggles of our northern neighbours,
yet was still
taken aback when exploring this chapter of modern history.
"Having been involved in the project I now realise
it's a far more complex
situation than I'd ever realised. Australia has been
intrinsically
involved in the history of that country for quite some time, and did come
to the rescue in 1999, but prior to that unfortunately we had a very sorry
history with East Timor.
We were silent during 25 years of occupation when nearly a quarter of a
million people lost their lives."
The timing of Answered By Fire - filmed on location in
the Gold Coast
Hinterlands last year - has become even more relevant in the light of the
Federal Government's decision last week to deploy a peacekeeping task
force to
deployment there since 1999, Navy warships, armoured
vehicles, helicopters
and 450 troops will be sent to the region to help restore law and order in
the wake of growing civil unrest.
For his part, Wenham is not aware of any resistance on the part of the
Indonesian government to Answered By Fire, even as it
recreates the
campaign of terror waged by pro-Indonesian militia after the East Timorese
voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence in
August 1999.
"The fact that the series has been made and is going to air suggests the
Indonesians haven't interfered," Wenham says. "There's nothing within
the
series that's any great secret, everything is on the public record. The
series doesn't offer any solutions there, and neither should it, but it
does explore it."
With the UN unable to control the escalating violence, Mark and his
colleagues are forced to evacuate the region and return home, riddled with
guilt.
"That affects people at a personal level because they feel for the people
they're leaving behind," Wenham says, citing the case of a federal police
officer who acted as an adviser on set and saw the series for the first
time last week.
"He watched it with his wife and they were riveted but both of them
actually had to look away from the screen during the domestic scenes
because they found it too close to the bone," Wenham says.
Answered By Fire marks the former SeaChange star's
return to the ABC after
almost a decade working on films such as Lord Of The Rings, Van Helsing,
Three Dollars and the upcoming 300.
"In all honesty, it's essentially exactly the same," he says of the
differences between international blockbusters and local productions.
"Both ends of the spectrum deal with the same thing: telling the story.
The only great difference is one end of the spectrum has a ridiculous
amount of money. I love working here and I think it's very important that
we tell Australian stories so we can keep our identity."
• Answered By Fire, Sunday, ABC,