I’ve thought Garrett Hedlund was great ever since I saw him portray Dean Moriarty in Walter Salles’ screen adaptation of On The Road. His career has been very prolific since then, and I do my best to watch as many of his films that I can. His latest is called Dirt Music, in which he co-stars with the magnificent Kelly Macdonald as one of the members of a tragic love triangle in beautiful Western Australia. His performance is wonderful. Understated, sad, lovely, and with a great Australian accent at that. In case you’re wondering, he’s just as charming as you might believe him to be, and you can find out more by reading ahead here.
How did you become involved with Dirt Music, to begin with?
Garrett Hedlund: I met with Gregor Jordan early on, about a year before we started shooting the film. I’d read the script, and I just really loved the story and then really loved Gregor. I was a big fan of his. We had a lot of mutual pals, and I was a fan of everything he’d done prior, Two Hands and Buffalo Soldiers. Both creatively and instinctively, he’s the kind of director I wanted to collaborate with, and this was such a perfect story for it. I couldn’t wait to be able to make the film.
“I’d read the script, and I just really loved the story and then really loved…”
I really loved Buffalo Soldiers, so I was excited to see it, too. I wanted to know if you’ve ever been to Australia before starring in Dirt Music?
I had. We shot Unbroken over there, but we shot on the Gold Coast, Brisbane, and Sydney, so I got to explore the east coast of Australia. With Dirt Music, led me to Melbourne to Broome to The Kimberleys, where we shot the third act. Then down really far to a little fishing town called Esperance. So I feel like I’ve got the full package of exploration now in my Australian journies—such a wonderful treat to get to see all those amazing places.
It looks so beautiful. One of my favorite parts of the film was just seeing all those parts of Australia.
Gregor explained that where we went to shoot up in the Kimberleys, which is essentially a pearl farm plus an Aboriginal village. He explained that 99% of Australians don’t even go there, and initially, I found that very hard to believe. Once we were up there and how remote and isolated it felt, I can definitely believe in regards to the U.S. getting to the Kimberleys is like trekking up to the North Pole in a sense. The percentage of patrons that go there from the U.S. has been quite low.
