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Sunday Life Magazine: Troy Boy
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Written by: Kirsten Galliott
Photography by: Richard Bailey
Typed & Provided By Mona
Australia, Herald Sun: May 9, 2004
He’s talented, smart and sexy. So why isn’t Eric Bana as famous as Russell, Nic and Heath? Eric Bana lives three lives – family man, actor and nascent superstar. And it’s the third that causes him the most grief.
Two weeks before the film begins shooting, it hits him. The anxiety. The loss of appetite. The physical sickness. "It's absolutely shithouse," sights Eric Bana. "At that point, there is, 'Who the f-k do you think you are, taking on this character? You have no idea what you're doing; you are not able to do this. You're an idiot, you're a fool and you're going to be made a fool of.' That's my starting point."
For a former stand-up comedian, Bana has an intense way about him. But then, some would say his intensity works. In 13 years, the 35-year-old Melburnian has risen from funny man to leading man. And now, after one well-received performance - in Black Hawk Down - and one box-office hiccup - with Hulk, Bana's a sure bet to hit the big time when he takes to the screen in the ancient Greek saga Troy (which is released on Thursday).
With a budget reported to be more than $250 million, Troy is also the most anticipated blockbuster of the year. "It's pretty massive," says Bana, who spent more than seven months shooting the film in which he plays the hero, Prince Hector. "You come to work and see 10 buses that have just ferried in all the extras. There's 500 people queuing up to get dressed and 300 people eating breakfast. You drive past all the stunt guys and then the horse wranglers and the armourers. Then you get to your trailer and you go, 'OK, it's going to be a big day today,' and you close the door, eat your breakfast, come out and there's 1500 screaming-mad Bulgarians."
He may get the shakes before the cameras start rolling but come day one, Bana is Mr. Smooth. He refuses to be overwhelmed by the film, by any expectations or by his co-stars. And in the case of Troy, his co-stars are stellar: Julie Christie, Peter O'Toole and Brad Pitt, possibly the most famous actor in the world. "This is going to sound really arrogant but I'll just say it," Bana states emphatically. "I'm not very good at being in awe of people. I never have been." He pauses to tuck into the salmon and scrambled eggs that have just been slid in front of him at a Melbourne café around the corner from his Hampton house. "I was just as in awe of [Australian actor] Magda Szubanski as I was with Brad Pitt. It only takes two days for Brad Pitt to be Brad and not Brad Pitt. You start forgetting that you're working with Brad Pitt. It's just Brad, this guy whose car is parked next to mine. Sometimes someone will make a fuss and you go, 'Oh, that's right - Brad Pitt. He's the guy who's on the cover of every magazine in the world.'"
The actor formerly known as Eric Banadinovich is one of Australia's most successful exports. In Hollywood, says Australian actor Rose Byrne, his co-star in Troy, "People just adore him; they always mention [his breakthrough film] Chopper. You know, Brad Pitt is a massive fan of that film. People have an enormous amount of respect for Eric."
Yet, for all his success, Bana isn't part of that Aussie-goes-to-Hollywood-and-gets-ridiculously-famous gang. He's no Russell Crowe, no Hugh Jackman. The taxi driver dropping me off for the interview has never heard of him. The staff at the Brown Cow Café - one of his regular haunts - treat him like just another local. There are no whispers or double-takes when he strides through the door, casually cool in an olive cord jacket and three-day growth, even though he is tall (1.89 meters) and - as Sitch points out - startlingly good-looking.
Bana is an enigmatic mix. For the most part, his is the down-to-earth Aussie bloke who just happens to be passionate about three things: 1. His wife of almost seven years, Rebecca ("I'm very blessed"), and their two children, four-year-old Klaus and two-year-old Sophia. 2. His work (he is at his most enthusiastic reminiscing about his boys' own adventure of learning to ride a horse bareback for Troy). 3. His Beloved St Kilda football team ("I haven't seen a game in three and a half years. That hurts"). There's also his obsession with cars but he clams up when asked how many he owns. It's not the only time he doesn't want to talk. A casual question about whether or not he keeps in touch with Aussie hitman Mark "Chopper" Read, whom he portrayed in the 2000 film, is met with a pause and a terse "no comment" (leading one to assume - rightly or wrongly - that he does still see him).
Bana likes to stick to the schedule. He'd rather not have a profile written on him but he agrees for the sake of the film ("I'm not in the business of Eric Bana dotcom; I'm Eric Bana, the actor"). He doesn't care about becoming "a star" - in fact, he would probably cringe at the tag. He doesn't particularly like revisiting the past. ("Let's go back to Troy," he says more than once.) And he has issues with the media's obsession with whether he plans to move to Hollywood. "I swear to God, in a [press] junket [I get asked], 'Do you live here now?' Second question is, 'Would you ever move here?' And the third question is, 'How much time do you spend at home?' You're sitting down, talking about a film and you might have four other cast members sitting either side of you. Is this a geography class?"According to Bana, he just wants to keep a low profile - recognition within his industry, relative anonymity beyond. "There's perception that the minute your head is on screen, you become a movie star and your life changes," he says earnestly. "Some people would like to believe it - and I certainly know a lot of people who aren't very famous who are convinced it's a problem for them - but it's not like that." He gestures around the half-full café. "The reality is there is a very small group of people for whom it would be a problem [to sit here]. Brad Pitt would not be able to do this. Jennifer Aniston would not be able to do this. George Clooney probably would not be able to do this. But I can and I know other actors who can."
"He's very unaffected," says his mate Dave O'Neil, who me Bana 13 years ago when the two of them did stand-up at a Melbourne pub. "He does acting for the work; he doesn't really like the fame side of it." Bana, he adds, has always been a professional.
"He took a businesslike approach to comedy. A lot of people were on the dole and stumbling through it. He always turned up on time, he was always sober, he was a nice guy. A lot of comedy guys are drug smokers or alcoholics but Eric was always very normal. There are never any drug stories or stories where he's taking off his clothes. He's very straight."
His story is well documented. Bloke walks into a bar, knows the owner, a microphone is shoved in his hand. The punchline is that he makes a good fist of his first stand-up routine (ironically, taking the mickey out of Americans, his future employers) and realizes he's finally found something he's genuinely good at. Does stand-up for several years before making his mark in TV comedy shows such as Full Frontal. Mullet-man "Poida" becomes his trademark; impersonation are his bag. Although his eponymous show lasts just eight weeks before being canned, he has already discovered acting. Rob Sitch casts him in The Castle. It's all just baby steps; different forks in the road. Until Chopper.
When director Andrew Dominik chose Bana for the role of Chopper Read, who is infamous for his penchant for tattoos and killing people, it was a make-or-break moment. Bana nailed it. "Chopper is just genius," gushes Byrne, who presented Bana with the AFI Award for best actor. "I think it's one of the most exciting cinema performances I've seen in my life. It's like our Taxi Driver," She's not the only one citing De Niro. Matt Cameron, who was the head writer on Bana's sketch comedy show Eric, says, "He has always had a great facility for transformation, as he proved with Chopper. That was a Raging Bull, Robert De Niro moment."
"Five years ago, when we head that Eric Bana was going to play Chopper, my colleagues and I went, 'Yep perfect!'" recalls Sitch. "But at the time, all I heard was, 'That's a weird choice.' And all that underlines is that there is a great misunderstanding about what acting is - and also a great misunderstanding about what Eric can do."
What he does do, Bana says, is live three lives. Life No. 1 is as a "normal working guy". His job may be surreal but he says he still clocks in and clocks off, much like the rest of us. The, explains, there's life No. 2. "It's the smallest component of my life but the only one that anyone sees. In my case, I'm lucky that it's only one or two months promoting a film. So I'm flying around at a billion miles an hour. A different hotel every day or two. Going through different time zones. Talking to 1000 people a day." Finally, part three, "which is one that takes up most of the year and is the one that people have least interest in knowing about because most people are only interested in the two- or three-week thing. This is where my life is more normal and more domestic because I'm at home, doing homework, having time off playing mum and dad and husband. I get to completely indulge in that." For a long time, he says, he managed to convince himself that he had just one simple life "but I have three completely different lives and the jumping between those three can really mess with your head. They're different mentally; they're different physically; they're different chemically. And it takes a while to get on top of that. I'm 35 and I've just started to work it out."
He's still working it out. The only thing he knows for sure is that despite the dramas, the anxiety and the intrusions, he absolutely loves his life. "But I've always loved it," he adds. "I was just as happy 15 years ago as I am now." What remains to be seen is just how happy he will be after Troy slings him even further into the limelight.
Maxim: Hot Zone
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Written by: Eric Alt
Typed & Provided By Mona
USA: May 2004
Trojan Man Eric Bana gives us the lowdown on Troy, this summer's epic sword-and-sandals battle royal.
During a visit to the Spartan kingdom of Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), Trojan pretty boy Paris (Orlando Bloom) seduces Menelaus' wife, Helen (Diane Kruger). A ticked-off Menelaus implores his brother Agamemnon (Brian Cox) to gather up the troops, which include kick-ass warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) and famous wanderer Odysseus (Sean Bean), to get Helen back. Since Paris is a lover, not a fighter, the defense of Troy rests in the hands of his brawny older brother Hector, played by 'Black Hawk Down' and 'Hulk' star Eric Bana.
'Troy', for the two of you who didn't make it through the Illiad in high school, is a simple tale of boy meets girl, boy romances girl, girl's husband declares war on boy's people.
Maxim: So what's Hector's story?
Bana: He's Paris' older brother, and he's the prince of Troy. What I like about him is that he's on a reluctant journey: He's put in this position
because of his stupid younger brother. It's cool to see this guy stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Maxim: How grueling were the battle scenes?
Bana: Extremely, but it was fun. Lots of sword and horse-riding training. I'd never done anything like it. On 'Black Hawk Down' we did gun stuff, but this was different. We basically did fight choreography every single day. It was like being a pro athlete.
Maxim: Not to mention the punishment on the little Bana.
Bana: Yeah, there's that as well! [laughs] You're just covered with stuff-a shield across your back, a sword in one hand and the reins of the horse in the other. Plus, you're wearing the most ridiculous excuse for footwear you've ever seen.
Maxim: You got your start doing stand-up-any plans for making a comedy?
Bana: No, I did that for a long time, and I'm glad to move on. American audiences are like, "Do a comedy." But Australian audiences are like, "We've seen enough of your comedy." So I can't win.
Maxim: You've done 'Black Hawk Down', 'Hulk', and now this. Are you sick of violence?
Bana: I should be done with it now. I guess I'm making up for all those years of stand-up. But I did 'Finding Nemo' too!
Maxim: But you played a shark.
Bana: Oh, right. [laughs]
Filmlink: Bana in the Works
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Written by: Unknown
Typed & Provided By Mona
Austalia: November 2004
As the mythological epic Troy roars its way onto DVD, Aussie legend Eric Bana chats with Filmlink’s Erin Free about playing the heroic character of Hector, working within the Hollywood system and saying no to James Bond.
Scan Provided By:
Dushkology
The dust has now settled on the fact that Scottish actor Dougray Scott is all set to be the next James Bond, but a few weeks ago when FILMLINK spoke to Eric Bana for the DVD release of the mythological epic Troy, all eyes were on the Australian actor to don the tuxedo and down the martini.
"I was racing my car on the weekend," laughs Eric Bana on the phone from his home in Melbourne. "This bloke came up to me and said 'You're James Bond!' I asked him who said that, and he said that the commentators had announced that James Bond was driving in the next race! Then I went home and it was on the freaking six o'clock news! So it's been absolutely bloody hilarious. And the worst part about it is that I was asked the question in a press junket probably a dozen times. I categorically stated that it's something that I would never do, and it's like no one has listened. And then somehow something broke over the weekend, and they decided that I was James Bond! And I'd never had a conversation with anyone about it."
Such silliness and wild rumours always start to circulate when an actor is on the way up, which is exactly where Eric Bana is going. With the startling Aussie crime drama Chopper as his calling card, the one time comic has scored roles in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, Ang Lee’s box office “disappointment” Hulk (“Yeah, it didn’t make seven trillion dollars…”) and the smash hit Troy, where he click perfectly with the inherent dignity and bravery of his character Hector, who squares off memorably against Brad Pitt’s Achilles.
"I had a lot of feedback from people when I was preparing for playing Hector," Bana says. "They told me what Hector meant to them and they were really full on - even more so than when I was doing Hulk. People would say, 'Oh, I grew up reading The Illiad and Hector's my favourite character.' So there are core elements that you're not going to mess with. But with him, one of the things I found really important was that he was the voice of reason. He's one of the only characters operating in an area of practicality, and I wanted people to sympathise with him, and to really feel for his plight because he's actually trying to do what's right, and what's practical."
The role of Hector is a major, scene stealing one, the kind that many other actors would probably grind their feet into broken glass to get. But Bana, like so many other Australian actors in the states at the moment, not only scored the big role, but nails it in a very distinct and memorable way.
"We're kind of lucky in a way that by the time anyone internationally has even hard our name, we've got such a wealth of experience in our home country doing whatever we have done, whether it be drama school or stand up comedy or in TV. That gives us an advantage and also enables us to negotiate. I was always surprised at how many people wanted to give me advice - not people close to me - when I was doing things like press junkets. They'd think that I'd never done an interview before! It's a huge advantage; it's almost like having a resume that no one gets to read."
Though really making a mark in Hollywood, Bana is currently running off a very strange irony: he's never really been there in a big way. All of his movies have been shot principally on location away from LA, and he lives happily and quietly in Melbourne when he's not working on a film. Though many try and make it complex, for Bana being a high profile actor seems remarkable simple.
His initial rules for making a name for himself in the states were equally simple: no TV, no romantic comedies and no comic book movies. He naturally relaxed the third rule to work with Ang Lee on Hulk, and is now considering the second one as well. "Those were kind of basic rules that I established when I got started and I was serious about it," Bana explains. "But Hulk was obviously a deviation solely because Ang was directing and besides that I was very much attracted to the drama. So yeah, essentially with one deviation, I stuck to it. I don't have any plans to do a comedy right now, but I would love to do a comedy one day. The drama does take its toll, and at some point, you would want to do something lighter."
And after his years working the standup comedy circuit and then TV sketch comedy on Full Frontal and with his own shows, Bana may even one day return to the stage. "I've got to be honest, I hadn't thought about doing comedy for a while, and then when I was doing press and talk shows, I was actually having a lot of fun with it. And I thought, "Oh god, I really want to do a couple of gigs at the moment.' I'd gotten a bit of a taste for it again. And to be honest, occasionally I do think about it. The only immense problem I would have is that my material is just so old and I couldn't even get it out of my mouth. But enough has happened over the last five years for me to come up with something new but I don't know. I do occasionally think about it. Yeah maybe one day.unannounced of course. Maybe I could start a vicious rumour, and do it in a James Bond tuxedo!"
Woman's Day: Eric Gets a Hero's Welcome
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Written by: Unknown
Typed By Mona
Austalia: August 9, 2004
Troy hero Eric ‘Hector’ Bana was relaxing in his new Sydney palace last week with his family when he received an urgent summons to attend the court of the god of movies, Steven Spielberg. Faster than 
you could say, “Sometimes the Gods bless you in the morning and curse you in the afternoon,” brave Eric mounted a winged steed and flew to Olympus, er, make that Hollywood, for secret talks with the great one himself.
Gossip says Spielberg wanted to sound out Our Eric over a major role in his grim new flick, tentatively titled Vengeance, about the slaughter of 11 Israeli athletes by terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Though all involved with the project have been sworn to secrecy, Eric has apparently been offered the plum role of an agent for Israel’s secret service, Mossad, called on to track down the killers.
Although he already has hero roles in Troy, Hulk and Black Hawk Down to his Hollywood credit, being anointed by Spielberg is a great career coup for Melbourne born former comedian Eric, who turns 36 on August 9.
But proving that he's as great a family man as he is a Hollywood hot-shot, Eric was back on Aussie turf within 24 hours of his big meeting. At Sydney's Mascot Airport, he was welcomed by his wife, Rebecca Gleeson-who met Eric when she was publicist on The Eric Bana Show-and their young son, Klaus, five. Eric Maintains he only wants to shoot one film a year, and he wants his family to travel with him wherever he goes. Unless of course it's to Hollywood for just one day!
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