By Erin Free
Sam Neill and Michael Caton have known each other for a long time, and it’s easy to tell. When FilmInk meets with the two men in a rustic, charmingly old school pub in Sydney’s historic Rocks area, they’re obviously relaxed in each other’s company, and look more like mates running up a tab at their local than film industry veterans slogging their way through a day of interviews. The chat happened way before the COVID-19 pandemic put the world in a choke-hold, so there was no social distancing and a reminiscence-worthy lack of protocol. There were platters of finger food for everyone to rip into (those were the days, huh?), with the recalcitrant remnants of a beef slider even finding a home on the front of Sam Neill’s crumpled denim shirt. “Sorry about that,” the actor smiles. “Feel free to have one, but make sure not to spill any on your shirt!”
The film that Neill and Caton are plugging is the charming comedy Rams, which was slated to open months ago, but is finally seeing the light of day on October 29. Directed by actor turned filmmaker, Jeremy Sims (Beneath Hill 60, Last Cab To Darwin), Rams is a remake of the 2015 Icelandic film, Hrutar, and follows sheep farming brothers Colin (Neill) and Les (Caton), who have been engaged in a long-simmering feud that hits boiling point when a dangerous virus afflicts their respective flocks.
Tucked together in a small room, Neill and Caton – who between them have starred in a host of international hits and much cherished local faves – are all lazy, effortless charm, bouncing off each other with ease. A quick scan of their resumes, however, didn’t seem to indicate any shared projects. This assumption proves to be wrong. “Oh, yes, we’ve worked together before,” Sam Neill smiles. “We broke new ground…it was edgy…what else would you say about it? It was profound…it was a study in character the likes of which is seldom seen here.” Caton dryly interjects. “It was The Sullivans,” he says, referring to the iconic long-running 1970s/80s TV drama on which he famously played Uncle Harry. “I played Kitty’s boyfriend, briefly,” Neill explains. “She ran away to Sydney with me, and I think I was already married or something. Dave Sullivan came after me and punched me in the nose and took her straight back to Melbourne.”
As well as being comfortable with each other, Neill and Caton also both look right at home on the farm in Rams. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the country,” Neill says. “I’ve got a farm, so I’ve spent a lot of time mucking around in woolsheds, and driving tractors. When I was younger, every summer, I’d head for the hills, so to speak.” Michael Caton was equally well acclimatised. “My family comes from Central Queensland,” he says. “They were all horsemen and drovers and station managers, and I’ve always gone back there. I’ve mustered sheep and horses in The Conondale Ranges, and I’ve worked in pumping and irrigation. So I was pretty comfortable.”
Rams was shot entirely on location in Mount Barker, a small farming town (with fewer than 2000 residents) located in Western Australia’s Great Southern Region. “It got pretty hot at the end, but it was lovely when we got there,” Neill says of the WA shoot. “We actually took a long break in the middle of the shoot. It was about a month or so. I actually went off and did another film. We started shooting in Spring, and it was just beautiful. It was just fantastic. You’d look down, and you’d be surrounded by wildflowers. So, we started off and it was all green, and then we came back, it was all brown. The drought had taken hold, and everything had changed. So that’s how we captured the change of seasons that we needed for the film.”
There are several bushfire scenes in the film which bring back haunting memories of the fires that crippled Australia just before COVID-19 crippled us again. When the cast and crew returned to Mount Barker after the shoot’s aforementioned hiatus, those scenes had to be shot immediately in order to fit in with the region’s bushfire controls. “So we just had to come back and torch things,” Neill sighs, recalling the devastation of the nation’s bushfire crisis. Rams was filmed well over a year ago, way before both the bushfires and the pandemic. “It was a bit more prescient than what we could have ever imagined. That bushfire footage has been extraordinary.” Adds Caton: “Some of the news footage has just been astounding,” the actor sighs.
Remakes of international films are rarer than proverbial hen’s teeth in Australia, which makes Rams a fascinating outlier. “That’s usually a job for the yanks,” Caton laughs. Had they seen the 2015 Icelandic film, Hrutar? “I saw it a few years ago, and I didn’t want to re-view it,” Sam Neill says of the original film. “We changed things up a lot, and kind of turned things on their head.” “The second act is very different,” adds Caton.
The man making the changes was actor turned director Jeremy Sims (Last Train To Freo, Beneath Hill 60), with whom Caton had previously worked on the profoundly moving 2015 drama, Last Cab To Darwin. “He’s an actor first, of course, so he knows what you’re going through,” Caton says of his director. “He’s not one of these technical directors where it’s all about ‘the shot.’ A lot of those directors don’t know how to talk to actors. Your whole idea about a scene can go out the window because it’s all about ‘the shot.’ Jeremy’s not like that. He’ll nudge you and push you in the direction that he wants you to go.”
Maybe a bit too much nudging and pushing? “It was pretty alpha male directing,” Neill smiles. “I’d just let the dust settle, and if I didn’t like something, I’d just quietly suggest perhaps doing it another way, and Jeremy would definitely listen. It’s important for directors to listen to actors, just as it’s important for actors to listen to directors. Jeremy’s not necessarily set in his ways, but he’s got strong ideas.” Caton adds: “He’ll really push you. If you’re not getting where he wants you to be, he’ll call, ‘More, more! Again, again! Do it again! More!’ He’ll speak to you as the take goes on.” At the time of our chat, Caton was working with Jeremy Sims on the rebooted Packed To The Rafters series. “Is he shouting, or is it going quietly?” Neill enquires. “Oh, no, he’s very nice when he’s doing stuff like this,” Caton sniggers. “It’s only when I’m in one of the lead roles that we have our mutually insulting relationship.”
Either way, it works, with the results on the screen, with Neill and Caton both delivering characteristically fine work, in a rare film that forefronts actors of their vintage. “Old geezers,” Neill laughs. “We’re actually a big demographic…people our age still go to the movies,” Caton adds, mentioning the considerable box office success of Last Cab To Darwin. “How often do you get to do a film like that? To be at the centre of a film like that? It’s very rare. You’ve gotta grab these films when they come up because they’re so rare. They shouldn’t be, but they are.”
The slightly advanced years of Caton and Neill meant that the physical demands of the film certainly took their toll. “For an old bugger like me, it was exhausting,” Caton admits. “By the end of the week, we were knackered,” Neill adds. “We were working long hours, and then we were staying at Albany, which is a long schlep from Mount Barker. They were long days.” The actors were also thrown right into the action of the film, and were only doubled for one majorly physical scene, according to Caton. “Don’t spoil the movie magic,” Neill quickly admonishes him. “Don’t give away all the secrets! We weren’t doubled at all! We did all our own stunts!”
Rams is released in cinemas on October 29.
