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In Conversation: Bojana Novakovic
With Australian actors enjoying unprecedented success in Hollywood, the next name on the list could very well be Bojana Novakovic…
Over the next couple of months, we'll be posting a series of interviews we've done with Australian actors looking back on their career, discussing their approach to acting and musing over myriad other fascinating facts and topics. First up, we have Australian actress Bojana Novakovic who hits screens in director Jonathan Teplitzky's edgy new drama Burning Man. We've spoken to Novakovic a number of times over the past couple of years, but this interview was conducted last year just prior to the theatrical release of Edge of Darkness, the taut thriller in which the actress played opposite Mel Gibson.
Congratulations on everything that's been happening with your career, but the first time that we saw you was on Marking Time, a sensational TV drama in which you played a Muslim refugee who forms a relationship with a country boy played by Abe Forsythe.
"Oh, I loved that show!"
Was that your first job out of NIDA?
"It was. I'd been offered something else as well, but that was happening after Marking Time. It was such a good experience, and it was a different one too - it was rare to come out of drama school and work in a way that you actually wanted to work. We were all very conspiratorial in telling the same story. Everyone worked just as hard as each other, and if they worked harder than you, you worked harder than them! That job allowed a lot of people to be very creative, and not to do just one thing. Everybody did a lot of research, and we were given a chance to talk about the issues that we were exploring, which made it a great place to work. The other thing was just being trusted as an actor to bring in what I wanted to bring in. I only got three or four directions during that whole time from [director] Cherie [Nowlan], and that was very strange. It gave us a chance to play."
I have to admit that upon seeing you for the first time in Marking Time, I actually thought that you were someone plucked from the streets. Now having seen you in everything from Solo, Drag Me To Hell, Edge Of Darkness and the TV series Satisfaction, I wonder what sort of research you do in order to so realistically portray your divergent characters?
"I do whatever has to be done - but it's not necessarily stuff that you see in the final film. With Marking Time, I spent a few weeks with girls in this community in Auburn [a Western suburb of Sydney] who I'd met through friends. I'd been working at Detention Centres for about a year-and-a-half before Marking Time came along - it was through those people that I met these young women. I spoke with them about their faith, and I listened to them speak. I made accent tapes. [Laughs]"
Did you get much direction on Edge Of Darkness from Martin Campbell?
"He's really into everything...every single detail of a film. Martin has a very clear idea of what he wants; he's very specific and he works in intricate detail. He gets there earlier than the crew, and he rehearses and talks to the actors in a lot of detail. He works so hard. But because he's done his work so meticulously, if you have something to suggest or bring, he's very open to it. Even though he has a clear idea of what he wants, if you bring in some of your own ideas, he absolutely listens to you and sometimes goes with it."
Was the Edge Of Darkness role something that you really wanted to get and fought for? It wasn't a huge role, but it's an integral one nonetheless...
"I wasn't conscious of how much I fought for it, but apparently I did. I've since found out that a whole lot of very famous and talented actresses wanted the role. The role was originally a lot bigger, but as films get made, things get taken out..."
Was it intimidating working with Mel Gibson?
"No, he's not an intimidating person. He was more scared than me!"
But you, on a personal level, weren't worried?
"It was fine. He hadn't acted in seven or eight years, and I hadn't acted for a week when I saw him. I was just really, really excited about the whole thing."
How are your overseas ventures? You've worked in a few Serbian films? Do you have agents everywhere?
"I have an agent in the US, in England and here. In Serbian films, you get in because your cousin is connected, or you know an actress - that's how they work. The priest who christened me knew a banker who knew a director, and that's how I met the director. But I have agents who read things and think of me or call me."
Do you enjoying working across all the mediums?
"Yeah, but it depends on the work. I mainly do theatre and film now. I haven't done TV in a while. I run an independent theatre company with my friend [Tanya Goldberg], and we have funding for work we're developing - we're constantly writing and directing. In 2003, we developed the company to showcase work that we wanted to see in the theatre."
Bojana Novakovic can be seen in Burning Man, in cinemas now.
This article has been proudly brought to you by the Howard Fine Acting Studio.
Photo credit: Getty Images/Frazer Harrison.
