By James Mottram

“I wanted to come back and do something in Australia,” Frances O’Connor tells FilmInk at The Berlin Film Festival. “But there just hadn’t been anything that I’d been offered that was really great, and then this got sent to me.” This is Cleverman, a new ABC TV series set to make its bow on local screens in June after an acclaimed debut at Berlin. Created by Ryan Griffin, the show stars Hunter Page-Lochard as Koen West, a young man living in a world divided into humans and “sub-humans” – or “hairies”, on account of their hirsute appearance – who have been confined to an area called The Zone. As Koen inherits special abilities that make him The Cleverman, a whole new world of power and responsibility opens up to him.

Ryan Griffen, who drew from Aboriginal folklore and even sought permission from Aboriginal elders, explained before the Berlin premiere that he wanted to take 60,000-year-old stories and “put them in a modern environment.” Commissioned by ABC Indigenous, the show’s arrival couldn’t be more timely, given the recent clamour in Hollywood for tales of diversity. Four of the six episodes were directed by Wayne Blair (The Sapphires), and shot across twelve weeks around Sydney, with an impressive cast including Game Of Thrones’ Iain Glen, Deborah Mailman, Ryan Corr, and Australian-born Hunger Games star, Stef Dawson. “It’s so political as a piece, and it’s really saying something about Australia at the moment,” says O’Connor. “I loved the mythology in it, and the fact that it was written by indigenous people, and that it’s directed by an actor. Even though my character, Charlotte, is very much part of the ensemble, I just really wanted to come and be a part of it.”

Frances O'Connor and Iain Glen in Cleverman
Frances O’Connor and Iain Glen in Cleverman

In Cleverman, O’Connor’s Charlotte is married to Iain Glen’s media mogul, who has his own nefarious agenda when it comes to the “hairies”, which puts him at odds with his more morally focused wife. Though part of the ensemble, Charlotte nevertheless enjoys a hefty character arc (“There’s a complication that comes in that’s really cool,” O’Connor smiles), which O’Connor was able to explore under the steady hand of director, Wayne Blair. “I knew his work, and other things,” the actress says. “We were actually in a film together too: Blessed, which Ana Kokkinos directed. It was a fantastic film, with all of these separate storylines, and Wayne was in my one. I met him briefly there, but I didn’t realise at the time quite what his capabilities were. I just thought that he was an actor!”

Wayne Blair has been involved with much of Australia’s rising commercial indigenous storytelling, directing The Sapphires, as well as episodes of TV’s The Gods Of Wheat Street and Redfern Now. His is a compelling new voice on the Australian film and TV scene, and it’s one that the London-based O’Connor appreciates. “It’s always hard with the predominant power structure being white males,” she laughs. “With them in charge, there are always going to be more stories about that, because they want to see their own stories told, and it’s just harder for minorities to get their stories told too. You could put women in that category too. So Cleverman is very unusual, because the budget is quite big, compared to others. I think it was the show for the ABC this year, in terms of finance, which is great. And to have these fantasy elements, and then to team it with this political thing, and to have it set slightly in the future…well, that’s all very different.”

And with just six episodes in the season, Frances O’Connor – the star of films like The Hunter and the upcoming The Conjuring 2, and TV series such as Mr. Selfridge, The Missing, and Cashmere Mafia – would love for this to be just the beginning of the Cleverman story. “When I usually commit to a series, like Mr. Selfridge, I don’t have to sign on for another season,” O’Connor explains. “And with Cleverman, I don’t have to either, but I like the idea of it continuing.  I think they will do another season of this. It just feels like the story could go longer!”

Cleverman will launch on ABC and ABC iView on Thursday, June 2 at 9:30pm. Stay tuned for more on Cleverman right here, and for more on the show, head to its Facebook page.

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