I wanted to ask, this is kind of a funny question, but a lot of people have done some really terrible Australian accents before. Yours is really good—and so is Kelly Macdonald’s—and I wanted to know how long did you work on your accent and who did you work with because it’s just a really good transition.
Look, I agree with you on all fronts. It’s kind of, in terms of dialect, and the obstacle of regional accent, all Australians would be the first to say, “Our accent’s really hard to nail.” Especially when you get over there, their first question is, “Are you an Aussie?” and I say no, and they say, “ah, have fun, mate.” We had a really wonderful dialect coach from over there, Jenny Kent. She was really good. Then it became, like I said, sort of a regional accent for where these characters were from. At first, it could’ve been just another Aussie caricature of taking in an absorbing everybody on set. Essentially, that’s probably how I would have gone about it, like any other venture. But because these characters are from Western Australia, they get much more specific. Everyone over there says that’s how American’s go about it, and for me, I would have almost preferred to go straight up very deep-bush Aussie. Just really make that stick. Theirs was more about going there first with a thick, thick Aussie accent and then sort of weaning it back and clearing things out. Gregor is from Australia. All the crew were, a handful of the producers, so it was a lot easier than you think, but I guess my obstacle was to make it a little more Western, to sort of neutralize it out a little more and to not have it as thick, as I was being told by a lot of the creative people involved.
Yeah, you definitely do the whole “THIS IS A KNOIFE” kind of thing.
…yeah I was sort of situated with the “YA KNOIW”
Yeah like… “Oaahhh Naaaiooooooo”
Which I would have had no qualms about, literally. So that’s when it kind of became more Western. I would ask Gregor or Gregor came up with a note on the accent he would say “sunny,” and then I’d say “sunny,” and he’d say, “yeah, that’s how I say that.” But look, there were a lot of wonderful Aussies in the mix and I had no qualms or fears about those adventures. When you’re out there with all the cast and crew, you can live with it as long as you want. I always like to jump to a region earlier. If I’m shooting a specific dialect, I like to absorb it in a natural way, so I don’t get into mimicry. I get to where I can laugh, joke, scream, and play. I tried to be as comfortable and neutral as possible with it.
“…six days a week, every day and going to the studio and really putting a lot of work into it.”
Well, I think you did a really good job with that. You sing in this film, and you’ve sung before in Country Strong. I’m wondering if you ever considered a career in music when you were younger or if you would think of making music as an extracurricular thing now?
It was interesting because—no, not really. Beforehand, for Country Strong, when I’d started that, I learned how to play guitar for Country Strong and didn’t take a job for five or six months before we started filming that. Just to dive into that world and the country genre. Living and breathing country music. So I was working with somebody about five, six days a week, every day and going to the studio and really putting a lot of work into it. To the comfort and eventually just the love of the living and breathing it. It was a wonderful benefit within Dirt Music. It was a wonderful adventure with this because a lot of our pre-production really lent a nice little relationship establishment between Julia Stone (who plays Sal) and me and George (Mason), who was playing my brother in the film. We started with the music first and foremost in Melbourne and prepped 8,9,10 songs and lived in an apartment, the three of us, the first week or so before we went to do pre-production. Julia, from Angus, is just such an amazing talent. She’s an amazing person, and it was wonderful to collaborate on this. We were writing songs, days and nights. I thoroughly enjoy it. A lot of my dearest friends are musicians, and almost all of my closest friends are artists. So writing, creating, the creative wheel continuously churning is something within all our genome and to sit down and write some tunes, I love nothing more than that. In terms of considering it, look, I’ll always get up and play with someone if they’re in town. I love music, and if there’s a world for it in the future for me, I’d love it. It brings me a lot of joy, so I’ll never say no to getting up and playing the axe.
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I think that all the thought processes that go into creativity span across form, so I understand what you’re saying there. I just have one more question. How has COVID-19 affected you? Did you have any jobs that were canceled, and what do you see the industry looking like from here?
Yeah, I did, and it’s funny, looking back to February-March time. There was one film pushed that was slated for March, and then something for June and I couldn’t fathom that something that was to start in June was going to be affected by this chaos, so it’s been rough, but it’s been rough for everyone, and that’s been something I never experienced before. Usually, Something quite disruptive and tragic seems more common to happen to a person or a family or a group–not everybody all at the same time. I’ve never really experienced it except for the wars we’ve been in and how that’s affected our country’s communities, but in terms of the industry, we really don’t know. There’s gonna be a lot of cautious flags put up. There’s a lot of discussions in terms of protocol and prevention and safety first and foremost. I think SAG and everybody have tried to formulate their next steps forward with productions going into play, and it definitely involves waivers for the cast and crew and insurance policies. Because if one person gets sick, specifically an actor, they would have to quarantine for months, and their health is obviously the priority. So it’s a huge change, not even within our industry but there are so many people affected by this, so everybody is just kind of waiting to see what the next step is. Unfortunately, it’s taken this curve-ball of another wave, in turn, on the news this morning and hearing that the U.S. is going back to phase one. It’s really unfortunate, so I think everybody’s just sitting around hoping and praying and trying to be of service where they can and hoping for the best. Because I and those that I’m surrounded by would love nothing more than to get back out there and make some art, so that’s the thing, but creatively this time has been very beneficial, doing some writing doing some creating. Then the next day, something chaotic happens in the world that puts everyone in swamp mind.
Yeah, you’re not kidding.
There’s been a lot of inward searching, patience, and tolerance within the group that I’m immediate with.
Well, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that you can get back to work as soon as possible! Well, I hope that for everybody.
