By Dov Kornits
“I’m a fucking actor,” says David Field. “There’s not much difference between comedy and drama; it’s just that comedy is disproportional. It’s disproportional drama. You still have to believe in it. In fact, the more you believe in, it the funnier it is.”
Australian audiences have certainly had no trouble in believing veteran actor, David Field, when it comes to his powerful performances in gritty, hard-edged fare like Chopper, Ghosts…Of The Civil Dead, Silent Partner, and Everynight…Everynight. And while he’s often been very, very funny on screen (check out his sly comic turns in Two Hands and Gettin’ Square), comedy is not what Field is known for. “It’s heightened,” he says of comedic acting. “The meaning that I have to comedy is that it’s disproportional drama. The fact that there’s a worm in an apple means a lot to George Costanza [in Seinfeld] because when he was six-years-old, his father gave him an apple with a worm in it…all of a sudden, it’s built up. But it’s just a worm in the apple, it’s no big deal…and that to me is the art of it.”
David Field made art out of the small details in the first season of the Australian comedy series, No Activity, which screened on the local streaming service, Stan. Written and directed by Trent O’Donnell through production company Jungle (The Moodys), the six-episode series followed various oddballs, including police detectives, Hendy and Stokes (Patrick Brammall and Darren Gilshenan) on a stakeout, and their target, Bruce (Field) and Jimmy (Dan Wyllie), a pair of crims who bizarrely aspire to opening an “art café”.
Co-created by leading man, Patrick Brammall, with Trent O’Donnell, the series is low budget and largely improvised, punching way above its weight in terms of laughs and invention. “Trents roughs up a story, and then they tell us which way to take it,” Field explains of the process. “It’s generally half a page. Then Dan and I sit together and we start working up what we want to bring to it. Then we get on set and start working it up with Trent. We’ll do a take and then he’ll say, ‘it’s in the zone, but maybe push that thing a bit further.’ Like your insecurity, or whatever it may be. Then we build it slowly for the next 10-15 minutes. And once you get the rhythm on and you’re in the zone with the person that you’re working with, off you go.”
Akin to walking a creative tightrope, extended improvisation is famous for producing either rocks or diamonds. David Field and Dan Wyllie often extract fine-cut gems from the process, and though risky, this method of working is nothing new to the veteran actor, who recently went gloriously against type in the local drama, Sacred Heart. “I did improv way back in acting school, but also in a lot of the theatre that I’ve done, you do impros to work things up,” Field explains. “But even in film, I like to do impros to get in the zone.”
The fact that Field gets to do his improv work with Dan Wyllie has been a major bonus. Though a fine dramatic actor (Romper Stomper, Chopper, Puberty Blues, The Code, Secret City, Love My Way), Wyllie’s comic chops are among the most celebrated in the country (his performance as Perry Heslop in Muriel’s Wedding is a pure masterclass, and he actually lifted scenes from Richard Roxburgh in Rake), and his work on No Activity is truly side-splitting. “Dan’s a smart mouthed fuckin’ funny prick,” Field laughs. “I’ve known him for a long time but we’ve never really worked together. I’ve always yearned to work with Dan. He’s one of the best actors around, hands down. I love his work.”
As the second season of No Activity kicks off, things look decidedly similar: Hendy and Stokes are once again on a stakeout, this time parked outside the house of a rich couple (Damon Herriman and Rose Byrne) who’ve been reported missing. They occasionally check in with dispatch officers, April and Carol (played by Harriet Dyer and Genevieve Morris, of whom Field enthuses, “They’re fucking great little actresses, those two”), and keep an eye on new players, Neddy and Steve (Anthony Hayes and Chum Ehelepola), the kidnappers in charge of the rich hostages. So just where do Bruce and Jimmy fit in? “We’ve been assigned to look after this kidnapping of this rich couple,” Field replies. “We take it over. We’ve come back on the job after the first season. The café hasn’t really worked out for us,” Field laughs. “It’s pretty simple: things didn’t work out, they needed a bit of dough, and the only thing that they know how to do is what they do, so they’ve gone back into the game.”
Though No Activity is notable both for its bone-dry brand of comedy and the fact that it was the first original extended work ever commissioned by a streaming network in Australia, David Field isn’t exactly across the show’s new media cache. “I know nothing,” the actor laughs. “I think that Stan have done really well out of it, and that’s why they’ve done a second season. I just do as I’m told. I stand where I’m told and say what I’m told, as Billy Hunter used to say.”
No Activity: Season 2 is streaming now on Stan.
