The Sunday Times
SUN 05 OCT 2003
Lovable loser
AND the AFI Award goes to David Wenham. Those words, I guarantee, will be heard come November's Australian Film Institute awards.
It will be Wenham's second win from six nominations and something tells me that winning for playing the low-life lovable loser Johnny ``Spits'' Spitieri in the crooks-and-crooked-cops comedy Gettin' Square will be all the sweeter for Wenham, who has been trying to shake his Diver Dan image for ages.
"Yeah, he's pretty special," Wenham said from Sydney's ABC studios in Ultimo.
Spits might not be the central character in this ice-cool comedy set on the Gold Coast but Wenham makes sure he steals the show. Just check out his get up -- ice-wash denim ankle-freezers, worn-out thongs, rat-tailed mullet and, when he's outrunning the copsm, a skimpy pair of leopard-skin jocks.
"Sure, Spits is many sandwiches short of a picnic," Wenham said, "but he has this great rat cunning and street-survival instinct.
"A few of the characters I've played have fallen between smart and dumb but it's people like Johnny I feel a genuine affection for."
And that's saying something because Wenham has played a virtual rogues' gallery of diverse characters, from SeaChange's dashing Diver Dan to leprosy-ridden Father Damien in Molokai.
He was utterly convincing as genius mathematician Jim Doyle in The Bank and amorous as sex-addict John in Better than Sex. His most powerful role is the woman-beater Brett Sprague in The Boys and he's enjoying international fame as Farimar in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King.
Wenham admits that while some of those characters were difficult to create, Spits was dead easy. In fact, he got a clear picture of him the moment he read Chris Nyst's script. Nyst, a Gold Coast lawyer, based Spits on a witness he once saw in court.
"I could see the character, I could hear the character, I knew what he was about," Wenham said.
So I was really excited about it because I had a grasp on this guy. It really did light my fire."
Wenham was so definite about Spits's dirty look that he helped shape the character's uncouth appearance.
"I knew exactly what type of mullet I wanted," Wenham said laughing. "I was quite specific in my needs with the hair, make-up and wardrobe departments.
"The wardrobe itself was a work in progress, going through the many opportunity shops in the suburbs of Brizzie and the Gold Coast. It was part of the charm.
"Clothes are somewhat irrelevant to him.
"But the thongs were vital because it is set on the Gold Coast and thongs are an iconic thing there.
"The way the character moved (a quick hands-in-pockets shuffle) was also important to me. And I could hear him, so it was just a matter of working out exactly what pitch and cadence I was going to use."
The result is quite a piece of work. When Spits isn't in the slammer, he's getting up to no good robbing petrol stations (using a screwdriver and a tea towel, mind you), looking for his next fix or teaming up with Barry (WA-actor-made-good Sam Worthington) for a heist that's way out of his league.
"I have seen Johnny Spitieri so many times in my life in so many different places," said Wenham, who grew up in Sydney's rough suburb of Marrickville.
"I love watching people -- they fascinate me and the more extreme the character is the more they fascinate."
In the comedy's most hilarious scene, Spits gives evidence before a criminal investigation commission but is more concerned about who will pay for his bus ride home.
This, Nyst said, came straight from real life.
To this day Nyst said he couldn't work out if the guy was the dumbest person he'd ever seen or the smartest. "And that's the key to Johnny Spitieri." he said.