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Bazaar: The Dish
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Written by: Emma Sloley
Typed & Provided By Mona
Australia: March 2002
Eric Bana is a popular guy. Audiences love him; directors love him; fellow actors love him; Hollywood is starting to love him. Hell, even Ray Martin loves him, despite a history of being the butt of Bana impersonations on the sketch comedy series Full Frontal. Testament to Bana’s appeal: his
appearance late last year on The Ray Martin Show – the actor came across as utterly charming even while mercilessly poking fun at the man so beloved by the blue-rinse audience.
Bana’s specialty is challenging the public’s preconceptions about him. First, he exploded the myth that comedians can’t play it straight with his career-making portrayal of Mark “Chopper” Read. Now, he’s at it again, playing an American soldier in Ridley Scott’s upcoming film about the ill-fated US involvement in Somalia, Black Hawk Down (and yes, he’s utterly convincing, Southern drawl and all), to be followed up with the lead role in Ang Lee’s the Hulk. That’s one diverse CV.
Back in Australia to promote Black Hawk Down, Bana is more than eager to talk about the making of the film. That’s the kind of actor he is – you won’t catch him playing the cynical, world-weary ex-pat, reluctant to talk to journalists or endure the publicity trail: “I don’t understand that attitude,” he says, widening big, expressive eyes. “I’ve always thought that if actors don’t enjoy talking about a project they just finished, they maybe need to rethink the kinds of projects they’re doing. I don’t find it at all difficult to sit here and talk about Black Hawk Down.”
While it seems to most observers as though Bana is starting out on the big adventure of his career, he sees the move into Hollywood blockbuster territory as just another part of the process. Asked whether he feels he’s at a crucial point in his career, Bana says carefully, “I’m at a more exposed time of my career but I see every step along the way as both crucial and a non-crucial time. So right now, to me, is just as crucial as the first time I got up on stage to do stand-up, or the first time I was booked to do a spot on TV.” He starts warming up to the subject. “You know, it’s kind of like Ker-plunk…is Ker-plunk the one with the sticks?” Um…yes. “Every one of those sticks is as important as the other; as more sticks go in there’s more weight on the other sticks. If you think about the weight of that stick, you’re going to go Ker-plunk.” He says this all with a straight face. Like all good comedians, it’s difficult to tell when he’s being serious and when he’s pulling your leg.
That’s the thing about Bana; he can be the funny-man one moment and deeply serious the next, a skill he uses to great effect on screen. Not that too many people in Hollywood have any idea of his comic past. “When I started meeting with people in the US,” he says, “their only knowledge of me was from Chopper, so I was only this heavy dramatic actor. Then a couple of movie executives found out about my past and were saying things like, ‘No doubt you’re just dying to express this comedic side. We’ve got a couple of romantic comedies you might be interested in.’ So I definitely chose not to go down that path.”
The path he has chosen could well lead him to major stardom. In a surprise coup, Bana was given second billing (to Josh Hartnett) in Black Hawk Down; with Ewan McGregor and Tom Sizemore billed in third and fourth. Second billing in a multi-million dollar blockbuster by one of the most accomplished directors around – not bad going for someone who used to don Ray Martin wigs for a laugh. Bana plays Sergeant First Class “Hoot” Hooten {Inserted note: Sergeant Fist Class “Hoot” Hooten is an error in the article. It should read Sergeant First Class Norm “Hoot” Gibson} in the movie, which tells the true story of a group of elite US soldiers sent into Somalia in 1993. Their mission: to abduct the top lieutenants of a troublesome Somali warlord. What followed was one of the worst military disasters for the US since Vietnam. Harrowing subject matter and, as Bana tells it, the shooting was fraught in its own ways as well.
“Morocco [where most of the filming was done] sounds glamorous but, trust me, it’s not,” he says. “We were shooting in the slums in the worst city in Morocco. We were there for five months. I was lucky because I had my wife and son with me but when you weren’t shooting there was nothing to do. Actors were, quite literally, going insane, which was interesting in itself. Lots of people were really missing their wives or girlfriends or families, and it created an interesting dynamic. The movie had its own life outside the shooting, and that was a big impact. When you see the film, the bond between the guys is very unforced.”
Black Hawk Down is Bana’s first, crucial foray into the US market. Why now and why this film? “I read the script and was really interested in the story,” he says, “and then I read the book and was blown away. After that I was given another draft of the script with a character attached to it, and that’s when I knew Ridley was going to be directing. So at that stage the reasons were pretty obvious,” he says with a laugh and just a hint of hero-worship. “There were other projects around where the role was potentially going to be bigger, but I thought this was a better project. I think it’s more important to be in better films than have bigger parts. You can make the mistake of being seduced by a role and end up being in a crap film. Ridley doesn’t make too many crap films. As the Americans would say, it was a no-brainer.”
Anyone who as seen Chopper will agree that Bana has a remarkable ability to get under the skin of a character (in Chopper Read’s case, a pretty hefty skin at that), and it’s clearly a process he enjoys. “I think it’s a really wonderful exercise in understanding the human race,” he says, “to try as much as you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes – and this applies to everyone, not just actors. Potentially, it teaches you empathy and humility. It teaches you about mortality. It has a spin-off effect that gives you a better understanding of other people’s lives and situations. For instance, with Chopper, I got a completely different understanding of the criminal community than I did before, and I now [through Black Hawk Down] have a new understanding of the armed forces and conflict. I feel very lucky for that. It gets you out of yourself, and anything that takes your mind off yourself for a time has to be good.”
Bana, 34, certainly has a grounded attitude to the acting game now but what will happen after the release of his two Hollywood films? “Ask me in a year,” he says breezily, “because it hasn’t really hit me yet. My life isn’t all that different from day to day. Will it become more of a problem? I don’t know. Will it be more of a problem overseas than here? Maybe. By the time the Hulk comes out, things might be a bit crazy but I try not to think about it too much. I’m a firm believer that if you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen. I’m not so naïve as to think that if a problem arises I’ve got nothing to do with it – I’ve got everything to do with it. I’m putting myself in that position. I feel incredibly lucky that I had some success here before I had some success over there, because while it’s on a different scale you do develop tools, and you develop some level of understanding of celebrity. I feel I’m far better prepared now than if I was 20 years old and my first break was the American market.”
As always happens around this time of year, the Academy Awards buzz is starting to get louder. Bana perks up at the news that the media is calling him a good Oscar chance, but then he immediately dismisses the idea with a self-deprecating laugh. “I don’t think it’s something I need to worry about at this stage,” he says, smiling widely and looking extremely comfortable. “I think I’d feel a bit ridiculous if that were to happen. I’d feel as if I’d robbed the bank again.”
Street Machine: Eric Bana, Legend
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Written by: Steve Nally
Typed & Provided By Mona
Australia: February 2002
With the release of his new film Black Hawk Down, Aussie actor Eric Bana is on the verge of becoming a major international star. For his next movie he will be transformed into that muscular green giant, The Incredible Hulk, but it was his menacing metamorphosis into Melbourne underworld legend
Mark “Chopper” Read that made the film would take notice. Thankfully the down-to-earth bloke who arrived for our interview in a used Porsche 911 is nowhere near as fearsome as his gun-slinging Chopper persona.
Yet the boy from Tullamarine could easily have ended up on the wrong side of the tracks if it hadn’t been for his love of cars; one in particular, his white XB Falcon coupe. So precious is this car that while he’s away it’s stored in a security garage surrounded by the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces of the rich and famous. Bana’s XB is probably the cheapest car there but it is priceless to him. STREET MACHINE turned the spotlight on Bana and his XB.
The XB was your first car wasn’t it?
“Yeah. I bought it when I was 15, so I’ve had it for 18 years. The XB coupe has always been my favorite Australian-designed and made car and I fell in love with them back in ’74 when I was watching Bathurst with the old man. I fell in love with them further when Mad Max came out and always dreamt of owning one. I managed to talk my dad into getting one, way before I got my license.”
He didn’t have any qualms about a 15-year-old having a car?
“No, I guess he thought it was kinda harmless because it was a six-cylinder wreck and he probably couldn’t see the carnage that was to come around the corner.”
Did you ever duck out at night for a bit of clandestine cruising?
“We were pretty much a regular working class family. Mum was a hairdresser – I grew up in the back of a hairdressing salon for the first few years – and Dad still works for Caterpillar. I grew up in Tullamarine, out near the airport, which was street machine heaven. I used to go to the Summernats every year. The last time was probably ’93. This car’s been up a couple of times; I entered the grass driving events but didn’t win any gongs. Can you imagine doing the motorkhana in this thing with no power steering?”
Did you run with a car crowd when you were a young fella?
“Yeah, nearly all my mates were into hot cars. One of my best mates, Jack, had a nice ’57 Chev; another buddy had a Landau and he was my navigator in Targa. I spent a lot of Friday nights at the Calder street drags. The people I met way back then I stayed really close friends with because of that car connection.”
When did you start modifying the XB?
“As soon as I could. The first thing I did was put a way too small SAAS steering wheel on it – I only put power steering on three months ago – then we put an engine together for it (351 Cleveland, 30 thou up). The engine was built with not a lot of money many, many years ago and it’s done a lot of Friday nights at Calder.”
“Back when it wasn’t as strong as it is now it ran a 14.2 with a 2.92:1 rear end. I reckon this engine would pull a high 13 (with a 3.5:1 diff). I kept the original single-rail gearbox in it for a long time and that stood the test really well. Now it’s got a five-speed Tremec and a nine-inch in and since then it’s been in a constant state of evolution, as I could afford it. Now is the first time I’ve ever been able to afford the rego on my car without having to worry about it.”
“The Cleveland is just a good reliable, torquey motor but it’s about to be replaced by an alloy-headed, stroker Windsor which is being built by my mate Tony who helped me prepare the car for Targa. We decided to go with the Windsor because there are some great crank and rods combinations around and it’ll be nice to get a bit of weight out of the front-end for circuit stuff.”
You’ve done a Targa Tasmania, would you like to get more serious about racing?
“I’d love to but it’d probably be a few years down the track ‘cos if I was going to go racing I’d want to do it properly. I wouldn’t go all out, nothing stupid, but I’d want to compete a season. So until I can allocate that much time and resources I’ll just keep pottering away with this toy and getting on track. Targa was probably the best five days of my life. I did it in ’96 and I’ve been trying to get back every year since, but because of work I haven’t been able to.”
“I’m hoping and praying I can do 2003. I’m just going to keep developing the car and use it in sprints when I can, rather than hang on to the dream of doing Targa because I’m booked up until August/September this year.”
What does management think about you driving fast in hot cars?
“They don’t read Street Machine, I hope [laughs]. They know a little but I don’t tell them everything, so if you, me and the readers keep it quiet I’ll be laughing.”
Do you have a favourite car film?
“Yeah, it would have to be Mad Max. A close second would be Running on Empty, that’s a great film. I also love Bullitt and The Blues Brothers has some of the best-executed car chases. I’ve been disappointed with a lot of the car films since then.”
Would you like to remake Bullitt or one of the cool 60s car flicks?
“Oh, yeah. If I could find something that was really good and I knew the director was a revhead and had the right heart and mind for it, because I’d be really disappointed seeing a car film that wasn’t right. (But) Car scripts are very rare, full stop.”
How did you get into this business?
“My background was stand-up comedy since 1990. A few years after I started stand-up I got a break on Full Frontal and started doing TV sketch comedy. I did that for five or six years. I always wanted to move into drama but wasn’t sure how to go about that. Then Chopper came up and I jumped at the chance. But most of my background was mucking around at school and doing stand-up; no formal training, no drama school.”
Were you the smart-mouth kid in class?
“I gotta say I wasn’t. I was more the one the teacher would say ‘I hear you do a good Mr So ‘n’ So (impression), cut the shit and let me see it’. I used to get away with murder. I think I discovered early on that there was a bit of currency in it and it gave you a bit of leeway. It got me out of trouble more than it got me into trouble.”
Chopper is a glimpse into the darker side of western suburbs life, isn’t it?
Could you have been a Chopper Read?
“You’re right, definitely. I remember when I was researching the role that this lifestyle was probably only a couple of splinters away from what mine was, in the sense that I went to school with people who went a different direction than myself. I didn’t judge them for it; it’s just the way life turns out. (But) I’m certainly glad that I didn’t follow them.”
“Having this car and this hobby kept me very straight because the nights that we’d go out on benders, I’d be the one who’d say ‘I’ll drive’, simply because I love to drive. And while I’d get on the grog occasionally, my first thought would be ‘Can I go for a cruise when I get home?’ and when I knew I couldn’t it made me question drinking, doing drugs, whatever…I kept away from a lot of stuff because of my interest in cars.”
"For me it was really healthy because I spent more money than I should have or could have but at the same time it kept me on the straight and narrow. Even now - and Street Machine readers know this - if you've got a love of cars it doesn't go away because you get older. I remember going though a stage in my career when I wondered what people would think if I turned up somewhere in this great big thing (XB), wondering if they'd judge me."
"As I got older and I had to start taking my work more seriously I though my taste in cars would change but nothing has changed. If anything, it's helped me stay in contact with what I like. People are intrigued when I tell them about the coupe. Suddenly they get a really sharp glimpse into way, way deep down (inside me) and they can't reconcile that with other things."
Your career is really going places; will you have to relocate to LA?
"Melbourne is my home and it always will be, but it's like golf: if you want to be at the top of the game you've got to go on tour. I like LA; it's awesome for cars. One of my best buddies in LA has a beautiful Plymouth Road Runner, which I've driven. It's Vitamin C Orange, it's got the Air Grabber and Pistol Grip and it's an awesome car. We have constant shitting sessions. I call his car a Buick and he's worked out what a Holden is and he calls mine a Holden."
It must be a good feeling to know you've got films lined up?
"It's bloody awesome, 'cos I know the other side all too bloody well. My first job was collecting trolleys at Coles New World, then it was washing cars, packing shelves at Coles, working at a one-hour film place, an ice-cream parlour, I worked at Denny's as a dishwasher, a glass boy, a barman, a clerk, a courier, selling jeans in my parents' Cheap Jeans store, a big mixture. At the end my mates said 'You're mad, you should try this stand-up comedy thing. You'd be really good at it'. I'm not one of those people who feels they have to make people laugh all the time, I find it painful to be around people who are always 'on' all the time, so stand-up didn't seem like the obvious choice to me. Then I had a go and loved it."
You obviously met Chopper Read during filming, what was it like?
"I've never met anyone like Mark, he's a one -off. I've truly never known anyone like him. You have to meet him to get a real sense of what his presence is like and I tried to convey that in the film. I found him incredibly entertaining and charming but, at the same time, there was always this thing lurking underneath that you knew of. You knew you may not get to see it but it was there and that's constantly on your mind when you're with him."
What did you think when you first saw yourself as Chopper?
"It's kinda weird. It's always a gradual thing. You put on the weigh (14 kilos in a month!), grow the moustache, shave your head, put the wig on, have the teeth done - you're constructing the look piece by piece with the makeup artist - but there is a moment at the end where you to 'Where am I?' But I get that more now when I see clips of Chopper. You forget what you look like when you're doing it."
What about the tattoos, did you get one as a memento of the film?
"No I didn't, but that's a good question. People say how do you choose roles and I have a theory: I have to be so in love enough with the idea of doing a movie that at the end of it if somebody said, 'Right, you've got to get a two-inch by two-inch tattoo of that film on your back' I'd do it. But I don't like tattoos myself. It'd be an interesting bunch of tattoos though. There'd be a Castle, Chopper, The Incredible Hulk, later this year a gold nugget, and a helicopter from Black Hawk Down."
If the film company said you had to move to the States would you take the XB with you?
"No, and it'll never happen because it's becoming less relevant where you live. I'm only there when I need to be then I piss off and that kinda sends them crazy in a way, but it's good. Plus, I'd never risk putting the car on the road over there. I always have photos of the car with me and I show people over there and they go [puts on LA accent] 'It's like a Ford Torino or a Mustang, but it's not a Mustang, it's like a Road Warrior car, you know'."
What cars would be in your dream garage?
"Pretty much what's in it now. I've never really hankered for huge-dollar cars. I like engineering and design which is why I love my XB and 911s. I'm not that big on Lambos and Ferraris.I like the early ones. If money were no object I'd go to Allan Moffat right now and buy that red Trans Am Mustang. I really like the HK Monaros, but I'm not big on the new stuff (coupes) from either company (HSV and Holden)."
So your classic car is?
"Allan Moffat's Coke Mustang! I love old 356 Porsche convertibles, and I've got a soft spot for T-Birds because of my old man. I always loved the '65 models and the 'Baby Birds', the '55 though '57 series, and I've always loved coke-bottle Corvettes. I think the early 70s would be the cut-off point, but I love 60s stuff, the old Pony Cars. I'd never want to get to the point where I can't enjoy what I've got, so I don't know that I'd every have room for more than one other car, a classic soft-top of some sort. I'm really happy with what I've go."
Ever tempted to sell the XB?
"Never. There's probably been half a dozen times when I'd had no right to hang on to it financially, I literally couldn't afford to fuel it or keep it registered, but I refused to sell it and I'm really glad I never did. It's not the best coupe in the world, it's still got hints of the old body that will always poke through, but I've got to the point where I don't worry about it anymore. I've realized that the soul of the car and the relationship I've got with it is far more important than it being perfect. It was never built to be an award winner. I just love the car and I love driving it."
"I bump into people from school who go 'Have you still got that big, thumping white thing?' and I go yep. I just love it. I have two recurring nightmares: one is I wake up and it's the morning of HSC exams and I haven't studied and the other is I go to my garage and the coupe's gone and I literally have an anxiety attack. There's just so much (memories) there from the age of 15 to now, and the way my career has gone it means so much to me."
Elle: First Buzz, The Incredible Hulk
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Written by: Stacey Woods
Typed & Provided By Mona
USA: February 2002
The Incredible Hunk with plum roles in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down and Ang Lee’s The Hulk, Hollywood is giving Eric Bana a (super) hero’s welcome.
Eric Bana might easily credit his success as an actor to his country’s most notorious murderer. When producers were casting Chopper, the 2000 film adaptation of the best-selling memoir by Australian serial killer Mark “Chopper” Read, it was Read himself who suggested Bana for the part. Read believed Bana, a well-known comedian at the time, possessed “the correct level of insanity to play [him].” Judging by the critical accolades showered on the thirty-three-year-old for his deft portrayal of a charismatic sociopath, it seems Read has an eye for talent. After Chopper, director Ridley Scott (Hannibal, Gladiator) picked Bana to star alongside Josh Hartnett and Ewan McGregor in his new film, Black Hawk Down, about American soldiers in the 1993 Somalian civil war, and Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) awarded him the coveted lead in his upcoming big-budget comic-book adaptation, The Hulk.
Born in Melbourne to a Croatian father and German mother, Bana was crowned Australia’s comic laureate for his hilarious dead-on celebrity impersonations on the sketch TV show Full Frontal and later his own series, Eric. But despite his renown for barb-witted humor, in person Bana is mild-mannered and unassuming, “He kind of melts
into the background when he’s not working, but he’s got a very strong presence on the set,” says Hartnett. Black Hawk producer Jerry Bruckheimer agrees: “He’s just so intense and versatile. He can become the character he plays.” It was likely this chameleonic flair that won Bana the seven-figure, multisequel deal to play the dual role of the Hulk’s affable scientist who morphs into a muscle-bound superhero.
On a dare in 1991, Bana then a part-time bartender assembled the stand-up routine of impressions, from Sylvester Stallone to Billy Ray Cyrus, that would
become his trademark. But comedy was merely a means to an end for Bana, who had more serious dramatic aspirations. “I had always dreamt of doing what I’m doing now, but I had absolutely no idea how you go about it,” he says. Bana approaches his work with what he calls “literal obsession,” doing endless research and even physically transforming himself for parts—he gained thirty pounds for Chopper and slimmed down to 6 percent body fat to play Black Hawk’s Sergeant Norm “Hoot” Hooten. (added information: correct character’s name is Sergeant 1st Class Norm “Hoot” Gibson)
Although he’s now a bona fide member of the Hollywood elite, Bana has no plans to leave Melbourne, where he lives with his wife, a former TV publicist, and two-year old son (“I think being an actor is like being a tennis player: You go where the tournament is, you finish, and then you go home,” he says). Nor will he rely on his homeland fame—let alone Hollywood’s fixation on Australian hunks—to ensure Stateside stardom. “I have my own agenda; it’s a pretty simple one,” Bana says. “It’s just about picking the projects that I’m really craving. They may be big, and they may be small.” For now they’re huge.
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