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ric Bana makes a gentle joke as he strides into the hotel room in which we’re meeting. Embarrassingly, E I don’t get it. Identifying me as the journalist, he jovially asks the assistant I’m FUNNY chatting to, “How’s your interview going, Bianca?” Not facing the door, and not recognising his voice, I keep talking, until it dawns on me that the speaker is in fact the Hollywood A-lister whose chiselled face BUSINESS is currently adorning an eight-storey-high billboard in New York’s Times Square. WHAT MADE ERIC It’s an awkward start (for me, at least). BANA SET ASIDE THE Thankfully, joking is Bana’s forte, and he’s not put off by my slow-witted response. DRAMATIC SCRIPTS Despite the slew of serious leading-man TO GO BACK TO roles he became Hollywood-famous for – Mark Read in Chopper, Hoot in Black Hawk COMEDY? THE Down, Avner in Munich – Bana, 47, hasn’t CHANCE TO SHARE lost the larrikin streak that saw him on TV’s Full Frontal in the ’90s, mullet-wigged THE PUNCHLINE WITH and flanno-shirted, brandishing a beer and insisting his name was “Poida”. He did ONE OF HIS IDOLS, HE become “burnt out” on comedy after years TELLS HANNAH JAMES of TV antics, he has said, and actively

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SVS12JUN16p018 18 3/06/16 5:28 PM sought out dramatic roles. The natural-born Working on a comedy, only his second wife on the overseas trip that was part of funny man, however, never went away. on film (his first was 2009’s with his prize. He laughs when reminded of this Now, he’s returning to those comic roots and ), didn’t set and says, “It’s a title many have forgotten.”) in , a -funded off a long-dormant yearning for the bright It’s his marriage that has given him his film, alongside writer/director Ricky lights of the stand-up stage, however. “I do biggest joy. He’s described himself as “an Gervais. Bana plays a radio journalist who, miss it occasionally, and that spikes when ordinary dad with an extraordinary job”, after his hapless sound engineer (Gervais) you’re around other ,” he admits. and speaks with passion of fatherhood. “It’s loses their passports, resorts to faking his “I couldn’t honestly say that it would never the best job, the most rewarding job; it’s the on-air reports from an Ecuadorian war happen. It does claw away at me sometimes. one that takes the most amount of thought zone. The ruse works all too well, and the But I’m an introvert, so I get just as much and energy, but it’s worth every bit of pair have to fake their way into the real war. satisfaction out of making the observation, energy you put into it. It’s the best thing.” Making the movie together left Bana writing the idea down and thinking about On being a father to teenagers, he’s in awe of Gervais’s all-round skills. “It was how it would work. I do little stand-up shows nonchalant: “My daughter [Sophia] just inspiring – he’s one of the few people who in my head quite a lot. Then I move on.” turned 14 and my son [Klaus] is 16 going can write, direct and act,” he says. “And it’s As a true introvert, Bana is very guarded on 17. They’re a really lovely age.” But he’s not a small part; he’s onscreen all the time.” about his private life; the only thing he will not keen to go into any more detail. “I’m The weight of responsibility on Gervais’s good about keeping that stuff to myself,” shoulders, he explains, was huge: “He took he says with that easy, movie-star smile. that pressure really well – I asked him if He certainly is: the walls are up and he he finds it exhausting, but he actually won’t talk about what makes him tick. But finds it easier because there’s no listening back to our interview, I notice he’s middleman. He knows what he wants big on being relaxed, not tying himself down because he wrote the script. We’d do a (“I’m good at keeping light on my feet”), and take and talk about it, keep the camera improvising everything from dialogue to rolling, then try another version.” his career as he goes along (“I tend not The Aussie is a huge fan of a certain to have any hard-and-fast rules”). atmosphere on set: “I’ve always felt like In 2009 Bana stepped behind the having the freedom to have a laugh actually camera to direct a documentary on stimulates your creativity and keeps your his passion for his Ford GT Falcon, energy levels up,” he says. The atmosphere Love The Beast. Today, he doesn’t when filmingCorrespondents was exactly that. rule out a return to the director’s “It was very loose and fun and hilarious,” chair: “As an actor, you’re pretty says Bana with a smile. “It’s like being much just a delivery service for other transported into your favourite movie people’s material. Love The Beast was about or television show, working with someone MAN OF MANY going back to being a storyteller. There FACES (clockwise like him. It’s a real privilege to work with from top left) Eric might be something else down the track…” someone you’re a real fan of.” Bana in Chopper; However, the only career goal he will Gervais, revered for pioneering the mock as “Poida” in Full reveal is simple: “Stay employed! When Frontal; in Black documentary genre with his groundbreaking Hawk Down; on I was first starting out, the actors I admired satire The Office, is a renowned “corpser”, set with Ricky were the ones who had very long careers. who regularly holds up filming by bursting Gervais; in Munich. That’s always what appealed to me.” out laughing at his own material. “I was concerned that I was going to get in trouble for laughing, but it was kind of the other way “I’M AN INTROVERT… I DO LITTLE STAND-UP round,” Bana has said. “In the end it was SHOWS IN MY HEAD QUITE A LOT. THEN I MOVE ON” me telling him off, to kinda pull it together so we could get through some of the takes.” say about his decades-long relationship Having said that, he adds, “For every Gervais said of casting Bana, “I had no with his wife is to clarify that she has taken person like myself, who has been lucky idea he started in comedy. I thought I was his surname: “For whatever reason, every enough to work, there are 10,000 who getting this brooding thespian from Munich Australian publication gets my wife’s name aren’t. I’ve never forgotten that. I don’t and it turns out he’s just an idiot, like me.” wrong. It’s Rebecca Bana, not Rebecca feel like I’m entitled to anything. If the The two “idiots” forged a close bond Gleeson. Always has been, ever since we phone stops ringing five years from now, through the intense weeks of working closely married.” (A fascinating side note that it stops ringing – I couldn’t complain.” together. Bana says, “It doesn’t happen on illuminates how embedded Bana is in It’s a safe bet, however, that the phone every film, but occasionally at work you click Australian popular culture: in 1996 he was won’t stop ringing any time soon. with someone; you can tell early on you’re awarded Cleo magazine’s coveted title of Special Correspondents is streaming on Netflix now.

FOLLOW HANNAH ON @HFJAMES_ PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES DIMMOCK/AUGUST/RAVEN & SNOW, MUSHROOM PICTURES, NEWS REVOLUTION CORP, STUDIOS, , UNIVERSAL PICTURES going to stay friends. He’s one of them.” Bachelor of the Year, and proposed to his

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