Guy Pearce on Animal Kingdom

Building on an increasingly diverse body of work, the great Guy Pearce now has another top Australian movie to add to his resume: David Michôd's Animal Kingdom. A chilling ensemble drama set in Melbourne's gangland, Kingdom sees Pearce playing Detective Senior Sergeant Nathan Leckie, the smart, patient career cop who hopes to get 17-year-old 'J' (James Frecheville) to testify against his violent criminal uncle (Ben Mendelsohn).

Where are you today Guy?
I'm in New York. We're making a five-part miniseries for HBO of Mildred Pierce with Kate Winslet, and Tod Haynes directing. It's very different from the [1945] film; it really goes back to the book.

What role do you play?
I play Monty Baragon, the wealthy playboy that waltzes into Mildred's life and changes things for her, so to speak.

Animal Kingdom, I think, might be one of the best films you've ever done. Would you agree?
Absolutely. I think it's a really remarkable piece of work and David [Michôd] has a beautiful eye and a really great sense of character and psychology. I think it's delightfully executed and I'm very pleased to be part of it. Funnily enough, the favourite film of mine that I've been in that I always tout is The Proposition - another Australian film. I feel really great to have been part of these two.

What made you take the Leckie role?
That was the character David asked me to play so I saw his [short] film Crossbow and that clinched it for me. When I saw Crossbow and thought "wow, he has a really cinematic vision and it seems effortless." I wanted to be part of that world of his. And then Ben [Mendelsohn] was cast and the other actors and I was really excited by it.

What did you like about the way your character was written?
The mundane quality of him; the rather pedestrian way that he goes about interviewing ‘J', which felt very real to me. Listening to various police tapes, you get a sense that that's how it really is. It's not like TV cops where they're kind of hammering down on the table and saying "Confess dammit!" They're just going through asking questions, and they're really prepared to take as much time as it takes. You get a sense that Leckie is happy to take his time and really believes that through this kid he's going to [solve] this terrible crime.

Leckie's moustache is an interesting style choice.
In a way it's a bit of a uniform - something that police tend to hide behind, even if they're not consciously hiding behind it. I think if you can't see someone's mouth move that well then you don't really know what's going to come out of it. So David was very particular about me having that moustache. It's been a topic of conversation, that moustache!

You have that great little scene in the supermarket with Jacki Weaver [Smurf]. What was it like playing against Jacki, who embodies such evil in such a petite package?
As we know Jacki is fantastic; we've all been watching her for years and I think I'd forgotten how remarkable an actress she is. She's very buoyant, [she has] a really present way of going about delivering her lines. It's great working with her. I think her performance is just fantastic.

What you recall about working on the The Hurt Locker? Did it seem at the time like it was going to be a big Oscar winner?
I was there for literally three days, so absolutely not! I didn't think that it wasn't going to be a good film, because I really like Kathryn Bigelow and her work. Even being on something for a long time it's sort of hard to tell - even if you work on LA Confidential for four months you still don't know if it's going to come together. Funnily enough it was while we were doing Animal Kingdom that some of our producers turned up and said "we've just came back from the Toronto Film Festival and seen Hurt Locker and geez, what an amazing film." So I really started to hear about how good it was via other people, before I'd even seen any of it.

You seem to be cherry-picking these small parts - you had a very small part in The Road as well. Is that a deliberate choice?
Well you know I'd rather cherry-pick larger parts! [Laughs] I guess you take the best that is available for you and if you're not being offered the lead roles you have to pick the better of the smaller roles that you are being offered. There's a part of me that really enjoys it but I have to say, dipping in and out of things doesn't satisfy the part of me that wants to be an actor.

Doing something like The Road - obviously I would work with John Hillcoat and like with David Michôd, I would do anything for those guys. They could just ring me and say "turn up" and I'd be there. It's been a real honour to be part of The Road and an honour to be part of The Hurt Locker as well.

It's funny, I said to my wife today, I'm in all these films that haven't come out yet and I've got to remind myself of what the process was. It doesn't sink as deep into your memory when you were really were only there for a short period of time.

So you have a few more films about to come out?
There's The King's Speech that I've done, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and of course Animal Kingdom. Where normally I might have done two films in a year, now I'm doing four or five.

Is it that there aren't many good lead roles out there that you're interested in seeking?
Look, I think there's lots of good roles out there - just not necessarily ones that they'd want me for. If a good lead role comes along and people are willing to risk their dough on me then great, but if not, it's just the way it sort of works. I don't have sour grapes about it. It kind of ebbs and flows, you know; suddenly a film like Memento comes along and suddenly you've got an incredible leading role in something.

I showed Memento to my parents over Christmas, because it's such a great film. And they loved it despite the bad language.
Right! Right! Well, apologise to them for me!

Over time, you must have been offered some really big, dumb Hollywood movies. Is that the case?
Obviously there's a couple of dumb things and you think, "They're throwing one hundred million dollars at this?" And not necessarily dumb things; certainly things that I didn't feel I could do very well - not having the self-confidence to be the cool leading guy in that particular film. It's a real mixture of things out there. In the last two years, since the financial crisis, people aren't prepared to risk the money on really interesting independent films. There's a lot of money going to big, very conventional studio films. Independent films are still being made, just not as many. So that's why I think they're relying on actors with big names that are going to be a drawcard. No one wants to lose a whole lot of money at the moment. So that has changed things for someone like me. And that might change back again. Who knows? Nick Dent

Animal Kingdom screens from 3 Jun. Like this film? Then vote for it in the Inside Film Awards.

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