By James Mottram
Australian soap operas have thrown up a host of exciting actors, with everyone from Russell Crowe to Rose Byrne getting their start on high turnover TV drama. Few of the best, however, were ever actually legitimate stars of the genre, appearing either as guests, in supporting roles, or on shows that never really caught fire. The major exception is Guy Pearce, who has successfully navigated away from his beginnings as a heartthrob on the iconic series, Neighbours, to now stand as one of the most consistently interesting actors on the international scene.
Despite his classic good looks, Pearce has never come close to being a traditional leading man, instead choosing unusual roles in independent films that have often stretched his considerable talents almost to breaking point. The son of a pilot and schoolteacher, Pearce moved to Australia from England at the age of three, and was drawn to the arts from an early age. Insecure about his naturally thin body, Pearce became involved in body building, and at the age of sixteen, he won the “Mr. Junior Victoria” body building competition. Just two days after finishing high school in 1985, Pearce started his four-year stint as nice guy Mike Young on Neighbours, and, along with Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, helped turn the show into an international smash. It was his brilliant performance as whip-smart drag queen Felicia in the 1994 hit film The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, however, that really launched Pearce’s career as a serious actor.
After a series of interesting but not wholly successful local productions (Heaven Tonight, Dating The Enemy, Flynn), Pearce hauled his wares to Hollywood, and delivered a star-making turn in the thriller L.A Confidential. Since then, he has continued to do bravura work in both Australia (The Hard Word, The Proposition, Animal Kingdom, Jack Irish, The Rover) and internationally (Memento, Ravenous, Death Defying Acts, Factory Girl, Winged Creatures, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, Iron Man Three, Lawless). Coming soon for Pearce is Genius, in which he plays American literary giant, F. Scott Fitzgerald, who famously penned The Great Gatsby. This, however, is no “famous person” biopic, settling instead on the quiet figure of Max Perkins (Colin Firth), who worked as an editor at publishing house, Scribner, and oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, and the aforementioned F. Scott Fitzgerald, amongst others.
Did you know your Genius director, Michael Grandage, before signing on? “No, I didn’t know Michael. I’d heard of him, but I’d never met him before. Obviously, he’s quite a world renowned theatre director, and I was in London, doing something. I’m not sure what I was doing, but the timing worked out, and I got to meet him. I read the script and had a lovely chat with him, and was really keen to come on board.”
Is it always daunting to play a real life character? He’s not the centrepiece of the film, but F. Scott Fitzgerald is such an icon in the literary world… “I’ve played a few real people before…well, they’re all real people, I suppose. [Laughs] But I’ve played a few people who have actually existed, which can be daunting, because there’s a certain expectation. But if my research matches up with what’s in the script, then I feel safe, and I trust that. Also, if there are particular elements of psychology or behaviour or personality that I understand, and I feel that I can do, as I would with a character who hasn’t existed before, then I’m okay about taking them on. I’m still very aware. I constantly refer back to the Andy Warhol film that I did [Factory Girl], where he was far more present in the public consciousness. He was quite a character himself, and he’s very present in people’s minds, where I could probably guarantee you that most people living today probably don’t even know what F. Scott Fitzgerald looks like. With somebody like Andy Warhol, that recognition factor certainly creeps into my mind a bit more, and informs my nervousness.”
You’re working with Colin Firth again…did it bring back memories of doing The King’s Speech together? “Oh, totally! I’d never really known Colin before. I’d met him once or twice because we share an agent, and I’ve always found him to be such a delightful, wonderful, and easy person to be around. We had a great time on The King’s Speech. I wasn’t on that much, but we did have a great time on that. It was really nice to be in his company again. He and Jude were on board when I got the script. I probably would’ve still done it anyway, no matter who was playing the lead roles, but it’s always great when you think, ‘Oh wow! I’ve worked with this person before. This will be fun…again.’”
On a completely random note, Memento is being remade…what do you think of that? “Well, I did tweet something out! I tweeted out saying, ‘Why would they remake it? We all know how it starts!’ I thought that was funny! That was my attempt at humour. [Laughs] I did tweet another one saying, ‘Yeah, I want to do it. This time, I want to play Sammy Jankis.’ I don’t know what I think. I saw on Twitter that people were talking about it, and that’s the only knowledge that I have of it. I’m not sure if it’s actually true or not, but I assume that it is, to some level, if there were rumours out there. Not that I’m suggesting that all of the elements in Memento are perfect – obviously, because I am one of those elements – but one of the things that made Memento so incredible was that it was original. I don’t know if it will work a second time unless you come up with something equally as original. It made other filmmakers look at things slightly differently. There was just something about Chris Nolan’s style. You’d never attempt to cover a Radiohead song. I don’t think covering Memento is a great idea! Unless you do the $200 million, Tom Cruise extravaganza version of Memento, and you actually set it in a whole futuristic world, and you really Radiohead the shit out of it. But still, there was something about Chris’s unique quality that I think will be hard to supersede.”
And you’re working again with Stephan Elliott, your director of from Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert? “Yeah, it’s a thing called Flammable Children. [Laughs] I always find it hard to talk about things before I’ve shot them, to be honest, but it’s a story that follows him really, even though it’s not actually him, as a young budding filmmaker, when he was a kid, growing up in the 70s, as a fourteen-year-old boy. It also takes in all his friends, and then all the parents of those kids, and I’m just one of the parents of one of the kids.”
Any flamboyant outfits? “Oh, there’ll be a bit of flamboyance, because it’s set in the 1970s, and the 1970s is always good fun on film, because there’s lots of orange, and big colours, and big hair. Maybe not as flamboyant as Priscilla, but probably just as colourful, perhaps. That’ll be fun! Stephan Elliott, yeah!”
You’ve also got Brimstone coming out? “They’re still doing post production on that. That film actually has some sort of backwards and forwarding going on, as far as the time period. We see the young daughter as a fourteen-year-old, and then we see her as a grownup. Dakota Fanning plays her, and the film spans quite a bit of time. It’s a generational film about a family! It’s dark and horrible! I don’t play the most savoury of fathers in that film.”
You’re in that age bracket now…you can play unsavoury fathers now! “I’m 48 now, but as soon as I turned 40, I started getting scripts, particularly in Australia. I don’t get offered a lot of things, but I started getting offered films where they said, ‘Okay, this movie is about a little boy, and a little girl, and this happens, and you’re the worried dad…or the concerned dad…or the scared dad.’ [Laughs] I suddenly realised that I’d been getting into the dad bracket once I’d hit forty.”
Was that a strange transition to make? “Everything feels a bit strange to me, because I like the surprise of what comes your when you get scripts. One minute, you’re reading a war movie set in WW1, and suddenly you’re reading some futuristic thing, and then suddenly you’re reading a courtroom drama, and then suddenly you’re reading a TV series set in Melbourne. The eclectic nature of stories that are out there is endlessly fascinating. I really enjoy flitting from one thing to another…if it feels right! I don’t enjoy playing the same thing for too long, though I did Neighbours for four years, and then I did Snowy River: The McGregor Saga for four years. But as much as I loved doing those shows, and enjoying them, there comes a point when you say, ‘Ergh, okay!’”
Haven’t they been trying to get the Neighbours crew back together for some sort of anniversary thing? “I didn’t get to go, because I wasn’t there. We started the show in 1985, so in 2015 they did a 30-year anniversary. They interviewed a bunch of us for a little doco. They had a big party, but I wasn’t there for it, so I missed it. But yeah, they’re always trying to get us back together. I actually just worked with Annie Jones again on the TV series, Jack Irish. Annie played Jane in Neighbours. We all remember lovely Annie Jones! It was really delightful to work with her again! Someone’s got a picture from the TV of the two of us on Neighbours, and they tweeted out something like, ‘Didn’t you all just freak out when you saw this moment?” There we are, both looking a little bit older! [Laughs] I actually worked with Annie last year on a music video called ‘Fly All The Way.’ I got Annie in…I see her quite regularly.”
Are you big on Twitter? You’ve mentioned it a couple of times. Is it something that you do? “I’m not big on it, but I brought a record out at home, in 2014, and my music manager told me to get on Twitter and Facebook. [Laughs] I can’t be bothered with that stuff, but one of the reasons why I ultimately agreed to do it, was because there were people pretending to be me on there anyway! ‘Oh, here I am in LA, just looking for work, and yeah, I’m going to be doing Jack Irish at home, and da da da.’ I was looking at it going, ‘Who the fuck is this guy?’ So we had to contact Twitter and Facebook, and say, ‘That’s not me by the way, but I will sign up an account, and do it.’ Twitter I find quite easy, but with Facebook, I look at the page, and there’s just too much on the page, so I can’t be bothered with it, to be honest. But, having said that, we actually had a school reunion last year. It was a thirty-year school reunion, and we all connected on Facebook, which was nice. I use it for that, but social media isn’t really for me.”
So are you doing more music then? Is that still constant in your life? “I’m not doing any more than I used to. It’s just that I managed to finish some stuff off, and stick it on a CD, and get it out, which was actually a really nice hurdle to get over. I’d shied away from all of that stuff. When we were on TV, everyone was releasing a single, and I’d recoiled from that. But I write and make music all the time. There is something quite valuable in having the courage, in want of a better word, to actually make something, and go, ‘Here it is!’ Then you have to actually let go of it. I’m still making as much music as I used to, but now I go, ‘Oh, at least I’ve got that out now, and now I’ll just get more out.’ I don’t feel like I need to be a pop star, and I don’t care to have a big music career, but I just see the value in solidifying stuff, and moving on from it.”
Genius, Brimstone, and Flammable Children will be released in 2017.
