How did you get the job of Uncle Owen [in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones]? Was it solely based on your similar looks to original actor Phil Brown? Also, you must have known you were going to get killed off! TopTramp
George Lucas was shooting in Australia. I have the Australian Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance to thank for saying: “You need to hire some local actors.” I was the right age and had the physical similarity. My brother [Nash Edgerton] left university to become a stunt man – much to my parents’ upset – and started working on the big Hollywood productions that came through Sydney, like The Matrix and Mission: Impossible 2. He got the job as Ewan McGregor’s stunt double. Any of the big, serious, dangerous stuff Ewan does in Episodes II and III, like fighting Jango Fett in the rain, my brother is likely getting a knock on the chin.
Have you kept up with any of the MMA training that you did for Warrior? KamesJ
I’d be terrified to fight Tom now because he’s really kept up with the jiu-jitsu. I got quite messed up from the wrestling aspects of Warrior and still have some old neck injuries, so I do more training than fighting – a bit of boxing and kickboxing. Tom is an amazing dude. I think he’s turned up three times now to enter random jiu-jitsu competitions. Mark Zuckerberg has done it too. Tom should tangle Zuckerberg.
What was it like to work with Paul Schrader in new film Master Gardener? mesm
What a pleasure to work with Paul. It was a real special honour to be called up to be one of his leading men. He’s an incredible guy. His brain is super sharp. He’s still pushing boundaries. I don’t think Paul’s ever going to do anything safe. He wants to rattle people’s cages, shake the tree and create conversations, debate and arguments. I remember he said: “This is probably going to be my last film.” By the time we’d reached the edit, he’d already written another one. I’m sure he’ll tell the cast of that film that it’s going to be his last and it still won’t be.
Many Australian soap actors go on to Hollywood, eg you, Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce, Liam Hemsworth. Others go into music, eg Kylie, Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Valance and, erm, Stefan Dennis. Could you have made it as a crooner? MrSOBaldrick
Absolutely not. I nearly got booted out of drama school because I couldn’t sing. I had to say: “I don’t think the world is waiting to buy tickets to any of my concerts. Please let me act and just give me a hall pass.” I’ve got a lot of personal anxieties. It’s surprising I’m a performer of any nature. Acting is an OK place to be vulnerable because you’re hiding behind characters. For all my mediocre singing in the shower and with a guitar, as soon as anybody’s watching everything falls apart.
In Kinky Boots, you manage a better stab at a Northampton accent than the British actors. To nail a British accent is one thing, but a grizzly northern one, like you do in The King, is something else. Do you have a dialect coach? aliasboy and Florpsen
I did, for both. I rely on the comfort of a dialect coach for any accent work. Somewhere in England there is an actor’s trailer with the claw marks from my fingernails from the day I had to go out and shoot my first day on Kinky Boots and deliver a big speech in the Northampton accent to a bunch of locals. I was terrified.
What are your memories of working with Bob Dylan on the video for his 2012 single, Duquesne Whistle, where you excelled in a violent cameo role? VerulamiumParkRanger
My brother directed Bob … My brother is far more interesting than I am! He has directed four of Bob Dylan’s music videos. I appeared in one, so got to spend a bit of time with him. The first time was when we flew my father out as a surprise Father’s Day present. We told him to come from Sydney to LA. The next thing he knew, my brother was taking him to the set to be in the video for Must Be Santa from Bob’s Christmas album. Bob paid me a compliment about my performance in The Great Gatsby. That was pretty cool.
Thought The Gift was one hell of a dark movie. It was drip, drip, drip until its astonishing climax. Did you enjoy playing the antihero, and did you write the role specifically for yourself? Sagarmatha1953 and 25aubrey
I wrote The Gift five years prior to making it. I was terrified about directing and acting at the same time because I’d never directed a feature-length movie. I contemplated recasting myself, but I realised I was going to be fine as I had that preparation squared away in the back of my head that I could direct a movie and be in it. I had this fascination with trying to play a weird, awkward, intrusive human being, and at the same time allow the audience space to feel empathy for him. The Gift allows us to really question the roles of heroes and villains.
Who’s best at swearing? The Brits, Aussies or others? WinstonWolf72
If it’s Brits and Americans, then Brits hands down. Between Brits and Australians, it’s neck and neck. The broader the Australian accent, the more hilarious the swearing is. It’s the way we say things like: “Get fucked.” The one I have trouble explaining – partly an Australian colloquialism – is when people say, “fair dinkum”, and the reply is, “fuckin’ oath”. If you were American, you’d be saying, “for real?” and the reply would be, “swear to God”.
The Stranger must have been tough to work on. Can you drop the character when you wrap, or does he stick with you? dracoscave
Some linger long after; others drop off you the moment you leave set. The Stranger had a really dark, immersive quality. Part of that was the reverence we had for the subject matter. I was about to become a dad, and The Stranger deals with the operation that led to the capture of a man who had abducted a child. The other thing that created an atmosphere of real immersion was Sean Harris, the wonderful, incredible British actor who I’ve worked with on The King, then on Green Knight. He was playing a very sinister character, who put a dark cloud or a bubble around the set that was absolutely necessary to create what that film resulted in.
What’s the Australian obsession with putting beetroot on everything, eg the McOz? TurangaLeela2
Putting it on a burger – I don’t know, man. I think maybe it’s like Australians’ obsession with having blood on their hands because when you finish eating a burger, it’s all over the place. I love it, personally. It was weird when I went out into the world, saw other countries and thought: “Why has no one else got beetroot on their burgers?” Any American would say: “Why would you want to do that?”
Master Gardener will be released on 26 May in UK cinemas
