by Dov Kornits
The new crime flick Unseen Enemy is not the usual kind of film pumped out by local creatives. Co-director Mathew John Pearson and writer/co-director Salvatore Samperi go delightfully and without hesitation down the road of blistering old-school action with this rampaging tale of a private eye (Samperi) battling a crime syndicate. There are yakuza, roundhouse kicks aplenty, pole dancers, and all manner of action filmed across the blazing streets of Sydney’s west.
There’s also Aussie actor Aaron Scully, who steals all of his scenes as Dean, a mullet-wearing crook as funny as he is menacing. Also an acting teacher, the talented Aaron Scully has directed films with his students, one of which, Voices Unheard, snagged runner-up for Best Feature Film at The SF3 Smartfone Flickfest in 2024. Scully has also appeared on TV shows like NCIS: Sydney, Harrow and Home and Away, and Unseen Enemy further solidifies the enormous potential of this actor on the rise…
How’d you get cast in Unseen Enemy?
“Well, that answer probably goes back about a decade or so. I run acting classes in The Hills District, and Salvatore Samperi was attending all those years ago. Quite some time after, he teamed up with Mat Pearson, and they were very focused and committed to making a feature film together. I happened to be involved in a number of their filming projects leading up to Unseen Enemy. I was lucky enough to be asked to play Dean in the very early stages of development.”
Were there any inspirations for the sort of charming slimeball that you play in the film?
“Early on, Sal had the idea of making my character a bit of a bogan, which wasn’t in the script; I’d played something similar with him in a short film previously. Not long after that, I happened to be wandering the streets of Blacktown, and I crossed paths with a group of teenagers with mullets, gold chains and tattoos. I had a light bulb moment: ‘That’s how I should play him!’ During rehearsals, Mat had given me permission to improvise in certain scenes, which also allowed me to play around with more ideas. Several years ago, I had learnt from casting director Greg Apps on how to bring a little bit of humour and charm to dramatic scenes. Once Sal and Mat had locked in the filming location where my character lived and worked, which was a fancy high-class apartment, it became even more clear to me that I should play him as a contradiction. He is a bogan who wants to live the top dog gangster lifestyle, but he doesn’t have the means to do so. I also took a little bit of inspiration from Damon Herriman’s character in Mr Inbetween as I saw some similarities. To Sal’s credit, he ended up adapting later scenes and fight choreography to suit my character more.”
Your character is a bit of a scene stealer, was that something you got the opportunity to contribute to, or was it all on paper?
“Well, that’s nice of you to say. I had an opportunity to watch the film at a cast and crew screening and the action and fight scenes are so good in the third act that I figured there is a chance the audience might forget about Dean by then. The script version of my character at the early stage was simply an intimidating presence in the story, but Sal and Mat allowed the actors to workshop ideas in rehearsals with them. Each actor was given their own group chat with the directors to discuss ideas. For me, this was the best thing that they could have done, because I took full advantage of it. I would send them ideas with photos and videos of me improvising and playing around with the character. They would also send me videos back of the rehearsals, so I could see what was working and what wasn’t. This process gave me enough confidence to know that we were all on the same page when filming started. By the time filming finished, a lot of the crew were saying things to me like ‘Those shoes are so Dean’, which made me feel like everyone understood the character that I was trying to do.”
How did the acting bug bite you in the first place?
“When I was very young, my parents were friends with an actress who would run drama classes. They had sent me along and I can still remember some of the games and performances we would do. This gave me an introduction to performing. But the bug probably bit me when I was in high school… that’s when I could stand on a stage and make my class laugh. At that time, all I knew was that I just wanted to keep doing more of that.”
What’s next?
“I’m currently in the editing stages of a sci-fi action short film called The System. I play a character called Eli who is on a mission to find his estranged son. The film also has an amazing fight scene between Sal and Artom, who plays Siroos in Unseen Enemy.”
Unseen Enemy will have its premiere at The Ritz, Sydney on Wednesday 26 at 7:00pm. Click here for all ticketing and venue information.
