The Advertiser
November 9, 2000
Naked ambition
By CLAIRE SUTHERLAND
David Wenham puts it all on the line in his new film, Better Than Sex. The movie has meant plenty of exposure, in more ways than one, reports CLAIRE SUTHERLAND.
TAKE a long, hard look at David Wenham, because he may not be here for much longer. The Australian actor, best known for playing the laconic Diver Dan on the hit ABC TV series SeaChange and for transforming himself into the softly spoken epitome of evil in The Boys, is about to take his talent international.
Wenham, having just wrapped up his Melbourne high-finance thriller The Bank, is in New Zealand with the likes of Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellen, making the feverishly anticipated The Lord of the Rings.
And, if that doesn't thrust him into Russell Crowe-style fame and fortune, it seems only a matter of time before something else does.
Perhaps it will be Baz Luhrmann's much delayed Moulin Rouge.
Wenham, fitting in a day of promotion for his latest film, Better Than Sex (opening across Adelaide today), between shooting the final scenes on The Bank, is flu-ridden and exhausted. He's also gentlemanly in a manner just the right side of effeminate; thoughtful, precise and obliging.
But he's not a completely open book - surprising, considering he spends much of his screen time in Better Than Sex in the buff.
While most film commentators focus on the bravery of the woman involved in a sex scene (in this case, Susie Porter), Wenham reckons it's just as nerve-racking for the man.
One of the first times he saw the film with an audience was at the Melbourne Film Festival.
"I was totally removed from it and nearly forgot it was me up there and just enjoyed the film," he says. "It was only afterwards in the forum when somebody asked `What was it like with all of us here watching you in the nude?' that it really hit home.
"I thought `Gee, you were, too, you dirty dogs'.
"They should have just been concentrating on the film, on the dialogue," he laughs. "If you thought about that, you'd never do it. You'd never do it.
"I'm willing to do that - and actors are - but then you get self-conscious in other areas of your life, going to the beach or something. You never think about it when you're in front of the camera." The film is a surprisingly engaging comedy about a one-night stand. Its accessibility is surprising because the subject matter is one that might offend more conservative audience members, but Wenham and Porter are so endearing and human that all is forgiven.
"It's a fine balance because everyone does have opinions about one-night stands and it's a film that doesn't moralise or judge. It just leaves it up to the audience," Wenham says.
"I think most people can relate to certain situations that occur in that film. My instinct is that it's very accessible."
Wenham has made some careful career choices since graduating from the then little-known Theatre Nepean drama school in Sydney's outer west.
And, although he's assembled an impressively eclectic list of credits (Paul Cox's Father Damien, The Boys, Idiot Box, ABC TV's Simone de Beauvoir's Babies ), he insists that there's no grand plan.
"I think 'Am I going to enjoy doing the film? Is it going to be an enjoyable process for me? Am I going to be fulfilled creatively from it?'," he says.
"Those are sort of the criteria, because I'm happiest when I'm actually working when I'm on a set or in a rehearsal room. It's when I feel most alive in a cliched way."
It's lucky, really - this year, Wenham has spent only January in his Sydney home.
The rest of his time has been on film sets in Australia and overseas. While he's not rushing to base himself offshore, he's happy to go where the work is. He has no objections to the likes of Fox Studios setting up in Australia.
"My stance on the Americans in Australia, and especially Fox Studios, is there is room for Fox here," Wenham says.
"The only danger would be if our local industry became homogenised and suffered because of international movies being made here. At the moment, I don't believe that's the case.
"I don't think you can have it both ways - I've been fortunate in that I've worked in productions overseas and I can't very well come back here and say overseas people can't come and work here. I think that would be ridiculous."
The Bank, made by the same collaborators as The Boys, was meant to have been shot in Sydney, but came to Melbourne when the shooting schedule came perilously close to the Olympics.
Wenham is glad it did.
"It's actually better us having filmed (in Melbourne) because we've had access to locations that we would never have been able to have got," Wenham says.
People in Melbourne in the necessary positions are very, very welcoming to film crews down here. I believe there's going to be a big influx of shooting in this state.
It's much easier to shoot here. Location fees have gone through the roof (in Sydney), so that does impact on smaller-budget Australian films."