Bryan Brown

Bryan, you've done over 60 films but only three plays. Why return to the stage now?
Because I like theatre and I love a challenge. With ZEBRA! I've found a new Australian play where I can create a character first – that's what I live to do. OK, it's my first play in 19 years but the set-up is a New York bar post-GFC and it’s me, Colin Friels and Nadine Garner trading brutal, savage and funny dialogue. If we don't fuck it up it should be a very entertaining night.

There must be a fear factor...
Look, I've always been a confident bloke. I'm grateful to my mother for that. But I'm not a fuckwit and I know what it is to fail. Badly. Humiliation? That's life. If my wife fears something she’s got to do it. Me? I rationalise things. Scary? Sure. Risky? Probably. But can I create something that leaves people walking out of the theatre like they've been kicked in the nuts? I want to find out.

You've described the thrill of acting as comparable to scoring a try.
My oath. This play is a lot like a footy game. It's 80 pages just as a game is 80 minutes and in both mediums you can't lose your concentration for a single second. One lapse could spell catastrophe. That's why my days begin with whacking in the headphones and listening to a reading of the play. Then I sit down with coffee and go over the script. Next I drive to the STC with the earphones on again and rehearse for six hours. I don't go out, I don’t do anything. My whole life right now is learning lines. I'm fucking knackered... but exhilarated.

Is it true you gave away a career as an insurance salesman to act?
True. I was 20 and I walked into AMP one arvo and they had drama club auditions on. They gave me a piece of paper and told me to read it. That was a very strange, thrilling moment. Suddenly I knew where I was meant to be.

That must've been quite an epiphany for a ratbag kid from Panania!
I'm a Sydney suburban boy shaped entirely by the western suburbs. That part of Sydney taught me everything I needed to get started as an actor – how to play, navigate swamps, run free, feel free, get educated, be a larrikin, muck around, fuck around, push boundaries and get away with what I could while also being responsible and helping my mum raise a single-parent family.

What do you remember about the Sydney of your childhood?
Sydney was the Big Smoke. My mum had told me stories of the ten years she lived in the Cross and worked at Mark Foy’s department store. As a teenager I'd skive off school and get the train into town to go to the ice rink or the movies. Then I landed my city job and pretty soon I was hanging out in illegal gambling clubs on Forbes Street. Sydney has always been a fun place for me. People in this town work their arse off but they do it knowing the beaches are close and that 15 minutes from the city is the chance to rip your daks off, hit the surf and wash the filth of nine-to-five existence away.

Has acting ever been work for you?
From 21 to 25 I just mucked around in amateur theatre while this bug inside me wondered: 'Am I really gonna be an actor?' Then I went to England. My first year was in the north in an old van going to schools twice a day doing plays for kids. It was only when I auditioned for Peter Hall and ended up with the National Theatre of Britain for a year alongside people like Sir John Gielgud that I learned about professionalism.
That's when acting became work. I'd been given a wonderful opportunity and I had to respect it.

How did you make the switch to film?
Stage and film are completely different disciplines. What unites them is that you're trying to create a real situation, a believable moment for an audience. And while a camera can zoom in and out to emphasise a point, the lovely thing about stage is you get a lot of time to find the character. On film you have to be fast on your feet. You may want and intend to do that for film but you rarely get the chance. More often you've got
to drop in, create something, establish your role’s essence in 10 lines a day and then leave it to the director to use you to make his points.

Wikipedia lists your trademark as: "Frequently plays Australians".
Do you reckon if you looked up Robert Redford or Bruce Willis it’d say 'Frequently plays Americans'? No way! But that's all they play. Look at the American films I've done and I've played an Aussie in them all. But not by design. For Cocktail I just walked on set and opened my mouth. No one said I'd have to be a Yank. Same with FX, Along Came Polly. They hired me, so they got me.

Ever make it to the Oscars?
Never the ceremony itself but 20 years ago the Oscars did live crosses from five cities around the world and Rachel [Ward] and I were presenters from the Opera House. When they cut to us the teleprompter with the script dropped out – with a billion people watching! Holy. Shit. But here's the thing: the lessons of professionalism meant I'd kept a hard copy of the script with me as back-up. Imagine if I hadn't done that?
'Sorry world, Australia's fucked it up.'     

ZEBRA! Plays at the Wharf Theatres, 5 Mar–30 Apr.

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