The Mercury
WED 27 APR 2005
Wenham pins his star to Aussie films
By KANE YOUNG

IT seems a strange progression from calling bingo numbers at Marrickville
Town Hall to starring in the biggest movie blockbuster of all time, but
that's the path actor David Wenham has followed to stardom.

``Yeah, that's true,'' Wenham said yesterday.

``I did that for a number of years, four years I think.

``The participants were certainly from the older generation, but the
callers were a range of ages.

``The jobs you do, eh? That and working in a sports store on Saturday
mornings helped me financially through acting school.

``Then when I graduated from drama school I filmed the trots at Harold
Park.''

Wenham is now more comfortable on the other side of the lens and in recent
years has become one of the country's biggest and most bankable movie
stars.

Best known for his roles as Diver Dan in ABC-TV's SeaChange and Faramir in
the last two instalments of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Wenham has also
starred in some of Australia's best-loved films including Moulin Rouge!,
Better Than Sex, Idiot Box and Gettin' Square, for which he received the
2003 AFI Award for Best Actor.

But Wenham has no desire to be the latest Aussie to conquer Hollywood.

``I'd love to continue to work in Australia, and I always will,'' he said.

``This is my home, I love telling Australian stories and I love playing
Australian characters.

``If the opportunity arises for me to work in other countries, I'll
definitely consider it because it certainly enriches me as an actor to
work with people who are extremely talented, and they are everywhere.''
Wenham and director Robert Connolly were in Hobart yesterday for last
night's premiere of their film Three Dollars, the story of Eddie (Wenham)
an honest, compassionate man who finds himself with a wife, a child and $3
to his name.

Eddie's world revolves around his wife Tanya (Frances O'Connor), their
six-year-old daughter Abby (Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik) and his childhood
sweetheart Amanda (Sarah Wynter), who mysteriously re-appears in his life
every 9 1/2 years.

Three Dollars opens at Village Cinema Hobart tomorrow.