CHARACTER ACTORS IN RECENT AUSTRALIAN FILMS One of the unfailing pleasures of going to the pictures in the studio hey- day—say, the 1930s to the 1960s—was the way the edges of the films would be populated by faces whose names weren’t always familiar but who brought a whiff of the real to the often-glossy goings-on. BRIAN MCFARLANE HERE WERE ONE-NOTE DELIGHTS in Strangers on a Train (1951). In Britain, Dora like gum-chewing Iris Adrian (Two- Bryan, often relegated to one-minute turns as Gun Gertie in Roxie Hart, 1942) or the spiteful hussies or common floosies, could flesh Tperennial drunk, Jack Norton (Ale-and- out a character when the chance arrived, as in Quail Club member in The Palm Beach Story, The Cure for Love (1949) or A Taste of Honey 1942) in American films or bony-faced Sam (1961), as it also did for Thora Hird in A Kind of Kydd scuttling round both sides of the law in Loving (1962), after years of slatternly charladies British ones. There were also, though, the full- or perky maids, and for Raymond Huntley, so scale ‘character people’ who were given more often reduced to an amusing sneer, but allowed chance to establish themselves without being a to do real character work as the sniffy Davenport threat to the stars’ dominance. humanized by war in The Way Ahead (1944). The list is endless, and the examples given purely It’s an odd term, isn’t it? It almost seems to sug- arbitrary. gest that some actors have the job of creating characters or of conveying character whereas It was very often the nature of such players that others, stars presumably, are there for some they tended to represent types. It wasn’t, on the other reason. Does the term imply, about stars, whole, variety that one expected of them: most that their function is to be charismatic, to compel often, they offered the pleasures of recognizable our attention by their physical presences and personas caught in slightly different circum- all the signification that goes with these (strong, stances from film to film. Equally though, and stoical Mel Gibson; neurotically driven Judy perhaps almost contradictorily, their function Davis, etc), to carry the brunt of the action by was often to anchor the film in a kind of every- the sheer force of their perceived personalities? day reality that acted as some sort of warranty Even if this is the case, it’s hard to imagine a star for the actuality of the film’s main narrative. I’ve devoid of character interest at some level of our been writing here so far about the past, because awareness, and to categorize others as ‘charac- it was studios with stables of contract players ter actors’ seems to suggest stars aren’t acting that accounted for the steady appearances of ‘characters’. these players who so effortlessly stamped their roles with a sharp sense of self and of society. Be all that as it may, it is probably safe to say that the label ‘character actor’ usually refers New Australian cinema, from say 1970, never to players other than those in starring roles. To had a comparable studio system, and neither, in recall the studio years of the US and the UK is that period, did Hollywood or Britain. Neverthe- to conjure up such names and faces as those of less, I’d want to insist that one of the strengths William Demarest, so often the hero’s fast-talking of our cinema has been in the depth of charac- friend as in Hail the Conquering Hero (1944), or ter work it has exhibited. Every now and then, Lee Patrick as Sam Spade’s secretary—she’d as was the case overseas with the likes of an seen them come and go—in The Maltese Falcon Edward G. Robinson or an Alec Guinness, a (1941), or George Macready, malevolently and character star would emerge, the most notable ambiguously observing the seductive power Australian example being Geoffrey Rush, who, of Gilda (1946), or Norma Varden, skittishness while eschewing conventional star roles, has giving way to terror as she is nearly strangled dominated films through the sheer force and 36 • Metro Magazine No. 143 Metro Magazine No. 143 • 37 and incidence of the supporting players, The character players have, as they always indefatigably in recent years, giving one who, since the early days of the revived do, the work of filling out the film’s diegetic of his best performances as the humane industry here, have given verisimilitude—a world. In Australian films, they are apt to barrister in The Castle (1997) and weight- sense of what Henry James called ‘felt be rural types, either salt-of-the-earth or ing the supernatural romance, The Inside life’—to enterprises that often scarcely thick rubes, dim suburbanites, profession- Story (2003), with a sturdy sense of reality. deserved them. als, workers, cops and crooks, corrupt politicians and local dignitaries. Noth- These are only four of the most prolifically An image that has stayed with me for over ing specially different about the range, appearing names. One could have added twenty-five years is that of Ray Marshall but they are an important element in the Bill Hunter, a character star in Newsfront as a deserted father trudging home to look way that our films project the nation. For and Muriel’s Wedding (1994), but imbu- after his children in The FJ Holden (1977). instance, as the industry has matured (I ing everything he did with the effortless In every lineament of face and body at don’t mean that it has become secure, just authority that made supporting roles in that moment, and in the ensuing domestic that, in some ways, it has become more films like Strictly Ballroom (1992) and The scenes, is etched a lifetime’s weariness and sophisticated, and that more can be taken Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert the dogged decency that keeps this wry for granted), the stress in films of the last (1994) so memorably vile. Or John Howard battler on the job. Marshall, also unpatroniz- few years has been away from the stories (not that John Howard), who settled after ingly funny as the country-town mayor in of rural hardihood and youthful coming-of- a brief fling as a leading man into being Newsfront (1978), was symptomatic of the age which seemed peculiarly common and one of the most enjoyable character play- way so many character actors of the first apt in the earlier days of the 1970s revival. ers—the bonhomie ever likely to topple decade of the Australian revival helped to Now, Australian character actors are found into deviousness—in demand on TV (his give those films such a lived-in look. Think, representing urban types more often than temporizing Bob Jelley in SeaChange was for example, of Carole Skinner’s short-order rural strugglers. It’s almost a surprise to a small miracle of comic timing) and the big cook in Monkey Grip (1982), with only a find oneself as far off the beaten track as screen (cf. Japanese Story, 2003). Or fellow few minutes at her disposal, encapsulat- Jeannie Drynan’s outback café in Paper- SeaChange alumnus, Shaun Micallef, who ing laconically a life of unrewarding routine. back Hero (1999); and it is certainly not just has tempered his stand-up comic talents to Oh, there are dozens of these, sometimes surprising but jarring to find country town the requirements of the sleek, wittily writ- given space to suggest background and dwellers depicted in such a retro manner ten politicians he plays in The Honourable complexity, sometimes there to vivify a as they are in Strange Bedfellows (2004). Wally Norman and Bad Eggs (2003). Or fleeting moment: they deserve a full history. David Field, who was so lethally—almost Here, I shall be able only to concentrate on The gender balance among character sueably—right as Bob Hawke in The Night those who, in the last five years or so, have players seems to have evened out some- We Called It a Day and as a corrupt police- made good films stronger and made feeble what over the last couple of decades. man in Gettin’ Square (2003), in which Aus- ones look better than they are. Stars have The male-dominated ensembles of such tralian actors co-starred with Timothy Spall, risen, glittered and gone to richer pastures; films as Sunday Too Far Away (1975), a major British character star, reminding us, of course, it is the likes of Judy Davis, Mel The Devil’s Playground (1978), The Last when the lines get blurred, of what a useful Gibson, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman of the Knucklemen (1979), Money Movers term this is. Or Gary Sweet, action star of who have made Australian movies known in (1979), Stir (1980), and the Mad Max mov- TV’s long-running series, Police Rescue, the world, but they can not then be counted ies (1979, 1981, 1985) have become less adjusting to the character demands of the on, except intermittently, to be working here prevalent, though it is probably still true to harrowing Alexandra’s Project (2003), in in the way that the character actors can. say that there are more choice character which his macho image is brutally cri- parts going for men than for women. And tiqued, or of the poolside venality of the In recent times, it has not always been pos- how tenaciously some of these men have laidback crime boss in Gettin’ Square.