STACK NZ Dec #69

DVD & BD

FEATURE

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Michael Caton, best known for his roles in films likeThe Castle, leapt at the chance to take on a darker role in Last CabTo Darwin. But he tells John Ferguson there were some drawbacks as well. HOW’S the SERENITY?

According to Caton, the other key character in Last Cab is the Australian landscape itself, in particular the sleepy outback communities rarely depicted in local movies. He says they had to fight hard to shoot on location in places such as Oodnadatta and Daly Waters, which meant they had to work to quite a tight budget. But the welcome they received in these isolated townships, not to mention the locals’ involvement in the film itself, made it worthwhile. “The population of Oodnadatta is 140 and I think 120 of them are in the movie,” he notes drily. But while he enjoyed filming in Australia’s smaller communities, he says life on the road wasn’t always easy during the shoot. “I had the marvelous idea that I would have a little motor home, so I would have a bit of continuity,” he recalls ruefully. “It was full of lots of sharp angles – you had to go outside to change your mind. The only good thing about it was that the motor home couldn’t really be where everybody else was, which meant I was a bit isolated, which was good; it sort of reinforced that loneliness.” Of course, as well as being a road movie, Last Cab to Darwin also addresses the serious issue of euthanasia. Caton believes that one of the reasons that the film has resonated so well with audiences is that it looks at both sides of the debate – and he is unsure what he would do if he found himself in the same position as Rex. “I’m all for really having the conversation and I think people should be allowed to use euthanasia if that’s what they so desire,” he says. “But at the same time, don’t underestimate the human spirit.”

Caton jokes. “We reduced the audience to tears but unfortunately I also reduced myself to tears! It was probably not the thing to do, but it did go down well.” Although he was the only actor from that read-through who actually ended up in the film, Caton is full of praise for his supporting players, who include both familiar faces like Jacki Weaver (“we probably wouldn’t have got the film up without her”), David Field and John Howard, and some talented younger co-stars. “The casting was really special I thought,” Caton enthuses. “Young Mark Coles Smith… I really love characters that play both sides of the line – they're the best characters to play what a great talent. Tilly is nothing like Mark, he’s a very sophisticated young actor. But Mark arrived at Oodnadatta 10 days before and picked up the local lingo and patois and as far as the kids were concerned, he was Tilly. And then you had Emma Hamilton, who was actually Australian but who has never worked in Australia before. She couldn’t get into any of the acting schools here so she went to RADA. We fell madly in love during the shoot – we had a wonderful

I n person, Michael Caton is as laid back and likable as many of the characters he has portrayed on screen. And that’s perhaps why more darker roles, like his latest in the drama Last Cab to Darwin , don’t come his way as regularly as he would like them to. “I love roles like this but they don’t get offered to me a lot,” he agrees. “I seem to have created some sort of archetype and that’s what I get cast as. So to do something like this, to me was a treat. I really love characters that play both sides of the line – they’re the best characters to play. I have met a lot of actors who play a lead and they want to have the white hat on all the time. I’ve never been like that.” In Last Cab to Darwin , as he acknowledges, his character Rex, a cabbie from Broken Hill, is a bit dour and something of a loner. So when he discovers that he has terminal cancer, he keeps the news to himself and sets off to the Northern Territory, hoping to make use of controversial new euthanasia legislation that has just been introduced. However, while driving across the outback, he reluctantly acquires some travelling companions in the shape of a carefree Aboriginal young man named Tilly (Mark Cole Smith) and Julie, a former English nurse (Emma Hamilton) who has been working in a pub. Caton was aware of Reg Cribbs’s play, on which the film is based, but admits he hadn’t seen it on stage. However, Cribbs and director Jeremy Sims’s script made an immediate impression on him, particularly when he participated in a live read-through in front of an audience at the Dungog Film Festival. “I think it was Jeremy sussing me out,”

• Last Cab to Darwin is out on Dec 9

affair without the sex! She’s become a really great friend.”

DECEMBER 2015

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