Warwick and Wayne – Mystery Duo

by Helen Barlow

The running gag was that Thornton, who most famously made the award-winning dramas, Samson & Delilah and Sweet Country, has never cast Blair in his movies. While Blair, who started out as an actor, and of course directed the comedy hits, The Sapphires and Top End Wedding, has a dry sense of humour, what comes as a surprise is that Thornton is quite a cad, and as it happens, is a very fine cook [later this year, he will feature in NITV series The Beach, showcasing his cooking skills].

Here is an abbreviated version of our chat.

The ABC publicist suggested I speak to you together since I’ve spoken to you separately in the past.

Warwick Thornton: We’re a comedy duo. Neither of us are very fuckin’ funny unless we’re together.

Wayne Blair: Some would argue.

Have you ever had a disagreement about anything?

WT: Hell yeah!

What about?

WT: I don’t know. All the time, especially when I’m shooting for Wayne (Thornton was cinematographer on Blair’s The Sapphires and Septembers of Shiraz.)

WB: I like to annoy him too. I keep him on his toes, because not many people annoy him. “Oh, it’s Warwick Thornton!” So, when I annoy him, I love it.

What do you mean by “Oh, it’s Warwick Thornton”!

WB: He comes with a personae.

WT: And an attitude.

WB: Yes, and an attitude.

WT: He’s the ugly cinematographer you drag out occasionally and spray down to shoot the film.

WB: Yeah, if I was the sheriff of the town, he’s the hired gun that comes in and does everything. He’s at the bar; he controls everything.

WT: And he’s chasing the ladies and he’s drunk and he sleeps in the gutter and occasionally gets up and shoots a film.

WB: Exactly!

I thought Warwick was more outgoing while Wayne was a little more serious.

WB: Oh yes, that is very true, I think, but no, there’s a similar essence between us. I think there’s a complement actually. I might be a little more reserved.

WT: I can’t take him seriously because he’s an actor. Anyone who stood in front of the mirror one day and went “I want to be in front of the camera”, I just think they’re the weirdest, most unique beasts in the world. So, I can take the piss out of him.

WB: He’s never cast me in any of his films. I act in other people’s films, but not his.

WT: That’s a really sour point that comes up occasionally when we’re drinking. “Why haven’t you cast me?” Well, I’ve never found the right role.

WB: It’s funny I’ve directed him in Episode 3 of the series. He’s a main character at a Brahman bar that sort of exists in our world. He has to give Sofia Helin’s character (The Bridge star plays an archaeologist) a little bit of what for.

WT: I try and chat her up and she basically just looks at me and says, “Fuck off!”

Has that ever happened to you before?

WT: Actually, it’s pretty easy to act that one because it has happened a lot. Would that be Method acting? (he asks Blair)

WB: I think you were a little nervous that night, but once you’re invited into the world, you forgot who you were; you became Method.

WT: You know what the bastard did to me? He changed my lines. So I memorised them and I was nervous about them all day and then he rocked up just before we shot the scene, “No, I don’t want you to say that, I want you to say this.” So, he set me up.

So, you’re scared about being an actor and that’s why you have this negative thing about Wayne being an actor.

WB: Wooow Helen, the truth hurts when only one’s in love.

WT: I made a 2013 film called The Darkside and it probably had the best Australian actors – bar Wayne Blair who wasn’t in it. Part of the reason for making it was I had an absolute actor phobia. The irony of this series is that I’d never done a TV series before, I’d done features and what-not, so I was actually scared of it, because everyone was saying, “Oh with TV we go really fast.” I don’t really get the speed. I care about what we’re actually making, the concept and the arc. I don’t care how fast you shoot. The irony is having Wayne there who really supported me; we didn’t shoot really fast. I’ve shot a lot faster on features, so that’s a load of bullshit.

WB: On a feature you might have four or five main actors, but on this we had ten or twelve key actors who were a key part of the story over six episodes. You’ve got to be on the front foot.

WT: He’s done that before, but I hadn’t. So, this is where this man was gold. He saved my arse so many times.

WB: But my perspective of you is that you feel comfortable with actors and they’re comfortable with you. There’s a bit of a cowboy with the way you communicate and that perhaps comes from you being a bit scared of it. But when you relax into it and trust yourself, you’re fantastic with them.

There are a lot of women in the cast, who Wayne might have felt more comfortable with after The Sapphires and Top End Wedding.

WB: I didn’t look into it but that’s an interesting comment.

WT: It’s the way it was written. There is a big arc. The Jay Swan character (Aaron Pedersen, fabulous as always) is a very unique beast. I sort of joked that he’s borderline on the spectrum. He has this amazing sixth sense and knowledge and is an absolute purist. He’s an Eastwood kind of western good guy. His path is very clear, and he doesn’t sway much from that. But the women have a much bigger arc, journeys of discovery and knowledge to become better human beings. That was really exciting, and what drew me in the first place.

Jay’s police partner Fran Davis played by Jada Alberts (Redfern Now, Wentworth, Cleverman) is a brand-new Constable fresh out of training. She’s an Aboriginal woman who’s trying to further her community, not only to help with law and order, but to empower Aboriginal women. If there are young Aboriginal girls in communities, not only in the desert, but in the cities, who go and become a policewoman, that could really help. In a lot of our communities there is a fear of police, because a lot of bad things have happened, and a wall has been created. It’s the best place to have women and I’d be really excited even if one girl joins as the result of the series. I’d really feel we’ve accomplished something, beyond entertainment.

As two of our leading indigenous directors, do you feel a pressure to serve your community?

WT: It’s our job, it’s our duty, that’s a given. It helps us get up in the morning; that we’re trying to empower as well as putting out our own dirty laundry to create conversations.

WB: We want to tell a story but we’re accountable every minute to our communities and the communities we shoot in. It’s so layered it’s not funny, but we want to tell a story too. It just comes with what we do.

You both excel in your abilities to have that context and to entertain as well.

WT: You have to find a balance and there is as much a financial balance as a community and moral balance. That financial balance comes through happy endings in a way.

Really?

WB: That sense of hope, that sense of optimism layered within a fractured community. In the world they live in, there’s a sense of hope at the end or during the story.

WT: And that’s hard work. It’s something we had to learn since our first short films, to balance truth and hope. There’s a dark side to the community but you need to put hope at the end.

After Lee Tamahori had success with Once Were Warriors, he realised his dream of making a Hollywood procedural, Mulholland Falls. I have a feeling you like procedurals as well as westerns (to Warwick).

WT: Yeah totally. Black people like Star Wars just as much as anyone. I should be allowed to make Star Wars if I wanted to. Star Wars is just a bloody western anyway: the lawless land but somewhere on the other side of the galaxy rather than in the desert.

WB: Being in Berlin now, I remember how my first trip to Berlin was 16 years ago with our shorts and I didn’t understand how our story, that came from myself growing up in Rockhampton, was something the whole world wanted to hear. I was a little naïve, but it was like, wow, and now we’re back with a story that Ivan Sen started with two feature films, that Rachel Perkins took over for the first series and now we’re doing it again.

You’re both hitting 50.

WT: That’s your prime. The films get better because you don’t give a shit. You’re so immersed in performance issues in your early years as a writer-director.

In everything.

WT: Yeah, absolutely. Then you get to a point where you’re old and smelly and you just start writing from the heart rather than the pocket or for the award season. You’ve come from a journey through life with some actual real knowledge about humanity and fear and love and death. It starts coming after 50 in a way. Before that, you’re emulating other stories.

WB: You have the confidence to be wrong. When we worked on this one, we were blessed with strong scripts and a good cast and a story that existed before us. There was that pressure to get it right, but then there was this element where you trust each other and go, “Let’s just do it!” And we do it with love, grace and talent, so we can never go wrong.

WT: We’ve been there, we’ve won everything, There are no excuses now. In Australia, we’ve been making the best television in the world and I think we have with this. When I first read the script, I was a little dismissive. I’d made my features every couple of years and had been very happy. But I’m really proud of this, really excited.

Would you like to work overseas?

WT: It’s about story. You can never say no. If something comes across your, er, I don’t have a desk, I don’t even have a television, but I do have a lounge. So, if a good script comes across my lounge that I’m lying on. In between shooting films, I just lie on the lounge. I’ve got an iPad.

WB: What shows do you watch on the lounge?

You love cooking shows.

WT: Yeah, I watch cooking shows more than I watch cinema.

What’s your favourite dish? Is he a good cook? (Blair nods.) Does he cook on the set?

WB: No, not on the set but at his house when we all stayed in Broome (where the series was shot).

WT: Whenever I do a film, I get them to put me in a unit or a house with a kitchen because I like to cook for the crew. That’s important for me. If someone’s having trouble they come around, I cook them a feed and have some wine and a yarn. If people need to run off some steam or have a party, I’ll cook five dishes.

Like what?

WT: It depends on where we are and what we’re doing.

WB: You cooked that fish dish and a prawn dish, I remember.

WT: What, in ten weeks you just remember two fucking dishes? I cooked like 100 dishes!

WB: Helen’s asking for one dish. I just mentioned two!

WT: Sicilian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean. I can do whatever. It depends what mood I’m in and what’s available in the town.

Who would have known? Where did it come from?

WT: I was taught by John Whitteron, who is an amazing documentary cinematographer and also did some drama. When I was 17 and I first started I was doing some loading for him on a film and I asked him if I wanted to be a good cinematographer, what would be something I should really focus on? John thought for a minute and said, “Learn to cook, because then you create that family when you’re on a location”. John comes from a very deep documentary background and he’s talking about when you’re sitting in the desert and you have a campfire and if you can cook, you create this beautiful family situation after you finish shooting and you’re actually nurturing your crew with food, which is really important. So, I’ve learnt to cook.

You have a son who’s coming up in the business.

WT: Dylan [River] was second unit director and DOP (director of photography) on this.

How was it bossing him around?

WT: He bossed me around.

WB: He bossed us both.

WT: We were in trouble all the time with him. These young upstarts.

WB: Dylan cast me in his first short film (2015’s Nulla Nulla), so that was good. That went around the world and in Australia it won all the awards. But his dad hasn’t cast me.

Too close to home! I want you to cuddle each other and act like you’re best friends.

Mystery Road Season Two comes to ABC and iview on Sunday April 19 at 8.30pm

Read our story about the making of the first Mystery Road movie here