"An Australian movie musical
about Aboriginal Issues" is hardly the easiest pitch to sell in a film
industry obsessed with dollar signs, sure-things and James Cameron
directed epics. However, Bran
Nue Dae director Rachel Perkins has shown that with some
inventive casting, positive attitudes and a handful of up-tempo musical
numbers... the hard sell is the easiest thing in the world.
Web Wombat Movies' Sean
Lynch caught up with three of Bran
Nue Dae's electrifying fresh faced cast, including Australian Idol
veteran Jessica Mauboy, music festival king Dan Sultan and newcomer
Rocky McKenzie and chowed down to some early morning breakfast - an
impressive spread of enormous rissole sized hash browns, sausages and
bacon...
It's everyone's first flick, is it weird seeing yourself on the big
screen?
Jessica Mauboy: Oh
man - my head was absolutely massive [Laughs]. I was
like "I have a BIG head!" [Laughs].
Dan Sultan: It's
almost better though...
Jessica Mauboy:I think
it's because I was sitting too close to the screen... [Laughs].
Because
a lot of actors "claim" they don't like to watch themselves on the big
screen...
Dan
Sultan: In a way it's a lot easier than when you see
yourself pop up on tele or something like that, because TV is such an
everyday thing, it's a little weird - but with the big screen, it's so
over the top it's a bit easier to take in.
The
film was shot up in Broome, and I've heard from a friend who worked on
the movie that the weather was pretty extreme - particularly
the bugs, they're not Mozzies... What are they called?
Jessica
Mauboy: Stingers! [Laughs]
Rocky McKenzie: Sand flies...
Dan
Sultan: Sand flies - they were just awful. They know how to
breed those little Sand flies. Some people copped it worse than others,
I copped it a couple of times, but some people came home with these big
welts on their arms and legs...
Jessica Mauboy: They
were in most of the areas, and we were like "Whhhaaat? Are they
following us?" [Laughs].
Bran Nue Dae has
been working up quite a bit of hype on the festival circuit both here
and overseas - have you prepared yourself for the fact that
this could be quite a big thing? You could potentially just go
around demanding "I only eat ENORMOUS Hash Browns, slave!" from now
on...
How do you mentally prepare
yourself for that? Or does Idol
prepare you for that?
Jessica
Mauboy: [Laughs] It's not normal... Obviously the whole
acting side, I've never done anything like it before. But we've had
just such great feedback, and people are just so excited to get out
there and watch it and see what it's all about. And I think [that
helps] make it easier.
Rocky
has quite a few scenes opposite Geoffrey Rush, is that a strange thing
to comprehend while you're trying to do a scene?
Rocky
McKenzie: It was kind of weird actually, being with him
and then seeing him a couple of weeks later on Pirates Of The Caribbean.
Jessica Mauboy: I
think that gave us more of a boost, Geoffrey - and all of the cast -
were all there helping us anyway. So we didn't really feel like "Oh my
God, that's Captain Barbossa!", they just made us feel normal and
comfortable...
Did you
feel comfortable being built up as a bit of a sex symbol Jessica? Even
Dan's character is almost played out like an indigenous Zac Efron in Bran Nue Dae...
Dan
Sultan: [Laughs] Yeah right! [Laughs]. You just
don't think about it, that stuff and the breakfasts and shit, you just
take it with a grain of salt. It's good to appreciate it and it's good
to enjoy it - because it's a lot of fun - but it's not something you
ever want to get used to.
Rocky McKenzie:
Speak for yourself... [Laughs].
You're playing at almost every
festival possible this summer Dan, how does the movie affect those plans?
Dan Sultan: I guess
it affects it profile-wise. I mean, things have been going ok over the
last year or so, we can play a nice venue now and know we will get a
nice crowd and stuff like that. But I think it's all about to go a
little bit stupid. You asked the question before about "How are we
preparing ourselves" - the thing is - I don't know how you do it.
Jessica Mauboy: You
kind of just take it day by day...
Dan
Sultan: You've just got to have a crack... and hopefully
not f**k it up.
Which festival are you most
looking forward to playing?
Dan
Sultan: I'm looking forward to Sydney Festival, that's
always really good because it's different. It's obviously not like a
camping festival or Meredith...
Having
to deal with Bogans...
Dan
Sultan: [Laughs] Well you deal with bogans, it's just
that...
Jessica
Mauboy: I love bogans!
Quote.
That's going to be the quote on the front of tomorrow's paper [Laughs] -
"JESSICA MAUBOY : I LOVE BOGANS"...
Jessica Mauboy: ...
And Hash Browns [Laughs]!
That can be the name of your new
album - how is that coming along anyway?
Jessica Mauboy:
I've got a new album coming out which I'm going away to write and
record in LA. The only reason I chose LA and New York is just because I
wanted to step it up a little bit and see where musically I can go.
We're going to meet some up and coming producers who are around my age
[21-22] and they are just really hitting it hard in LA at the moment.
It's their sound that is really catching me, so I wanna go over there
and see what they can do for me.
Would you ever consider teaming
up with Dan Duets-style?
Jessica Mauboy: I
would love to get with Dan and even write something - because I love
[his music].
Dan Sultan: That'd
be great, let's give it a crack.
Rocky - I understand you never
intended to be an actor, even though you have an almost Zach Braff
quality to you in Bran
Nue Dae, can you tell us how you landed the role?
Rocky McKenzie: The
producer, choreographer and the director came to my school and wanted to
meet some of the guys from the football academy. A lot of the boys
auditioned, and I felt pretty nervous as first but afterwards I felt
pretty good. Then I got a callback, did multiple auditions..
Jessica Mauboy:
Then we did that acting workshop with Deborah Mailman - which was good
because it really prepared us...
So does that mean you'll go back
to playing footy, or continue with acting?
Rocky McKenzie: I'm
a basketball player...
Jessica Mauboy: [In American
Accent] I'm a b-aaaaaallll player [Laughs].
And how did you guys deal with
the infamous kiss - how many takes was it... and who decided how many
takes it would be [Laughs]?
Jessica
Mauboy: Well we were under pressure because we had to do
it before the sun set.
Dan Sultan: [Impersonating
Rocky] "Maybe we should do that again? No, from this
angle" [Laughs].
But what people don't realise that it's just a bunch of sweaty crew
dudes just standing around them going "Aaand Kiss" [Laughs].
Before
we go, we quite like the idea of rumours starting from people being
misquoted in interviews - so just for us - is there a particular myth
we could perpetuate about the Bran
Nue Dae stars...
Dan Sultan: Dan
Sultan was a good footy player. Did you know that Dan Sultan could have
played footy? They were tossing up between him and Nick
Riewoldt [Laughs].
Surely yours would have to go
against your good girl image Jessica?
Jessica Mauboy: Wearing
no undies [Laughs]
? I'm not... [Laughs]
Neither am I...
Jessica
Mauboy: [Laughs] We never wear G-Strings [Laughs] - wait,
hold on, lacy ones... they've got to be lacey!
BRAN NUE DAE sings into
Australian Cinemas January 14th, 2010
