20TH ANNIVERSARY OF HEATH LEDGER'S NED KELLY
20 years ago this week, Heath Ledger starred as Ned Kelly. Here's my interview with actor, Joel Edgerton, and director, Gregor Jordan, on the week of its release.
CASTING controversial outlaw Ned Kelly was tricky, but the movie's success also hinged on finding the right actor to play the man who betrays him. In the wrong hands, treacherous Aaron Sherritt could end up a caricature like Judas from Jesus Christ Superstar rather than a complex and worthy character, tortured by circumstance.
Joel Edgerton proved to be the answer to the prayers of Ned Kelly director Gregor Jordan. Long regarded as one of the best young actors in the country, Edgerton gives the much-maligned police informant heart and sympathy.
“I auditioned in Melbourne for both Joe Byrne and Aaron Sherritt,” says Edgerton. “And (afterwards) I went down to Bell's Beach for a surf. I remember I'd just got out and I was doing a piss in the bushes and checking my mobile phone messages at the same time. One was from Gregor, saying, `Mate, did you hear, you've got the role of Sherritt'.
“Awesome. That's where I found out -- in the bushes having a piss.”
Edgerton gives a superb portrayal of a journeyman torn between staying out of jail to look after his pregnant wife or riding with the doomed Kelly gang.
“One of my beliefs is that people are not inherently bad and they do not do things to affect others in an adverse way,” he says. “Instead, they unwittingly do things to save their own skin or do what they think is right.
“(Should he become a police informant) Aaron is promised by Superintendent Hare that Joe Byrne, the man most important to him, will live. And he's also told he won't have to go to jail and he'll be able to look after his pregnant wife. I think his position is totally justified.”
Arguably the film's most memorable scene is when Kelly and Byrne sense Sherritt is betraying them. It's a tense moment as Sherritt is cornered and forced to lie for his life.
Edgerton keeps the exchange light and breezy, but his watery eyes betray nothing but terror.
“In every movie I've ever done, there's usually one or two scenes that I know if I get them right the whole shoot has been worthwhile,” he says. “On this film, it came down to the day when we shot that scene. Gregor told me, `Just treat it like you are not a traitor. Tell it like you are telling the truth'.
“He's right. If people are put on the back foot and are saving their own skin, they can lie incredibly well. But there was also the nervous factor of, `Do they actually know? Is this a test?' There's so much going on in that scene.”
And the role flowed through to his relationship with the other actors on set -- a feeling of separation from “the gang”.
“I felt a bit funny,” he says. “We went on a big horse trek for a couple of days. Heath couldn't make it 'cos he was sticking around to do make-up and beard tests. So it was me and the other three lads. I had to be careful using words such as `betray' and `traitor'. They are such black and white terms.
“And there was a running joke. The gang would be off to do something and they'd say, `Are you coming Aaron?', and I'd say, `I'd love to guys, but . . .' It was always, `I'd love to guys, but . . .'
“To them, Aaron's like the guy who knows you're moving house on the weekend and says, `Mate, you know I'd be there like a shot, but . . .’
“Aaron's full of excuses.”
When director Jordan told his mate, Bryan Brown, that he would be making a movie about the life and times of Australia's most famous bushranger, Brown's reaction was swift and challenging.
Brown, arching a laconic eyebrow, proclaimed Kelly was “Australia's Hamlet”.
Apart from a descent into madness, the story of the Prince of Denmark has many similarities to the tale of the prince of the Australian bush. Kelly is a genius rebel who rails against the system, makes unforgettable speeches at will and adores his fretting mother.
Jordan recalls he was finishing Buffalo Soldiers when he was sent the Ned Kelly script.
“I went, `Oh yeah, whatever', because I was heavily involved with editing,” he said. “Then I read it and it was one of those scripts that I just couldn't put down and I got to the end and I was crying.
“I went, `Holy shit. I've got to do it. I'm doing it.'
“So I rang Tim (White, producer) straight away and said, `It's got to be Heath (Ledger) in this role. And he said, `Yeah. OK. Do you think you can get it to Heath?' Because getting scripts to Heath is very difficult. To get a script to a movie star, you just don't send it to them.
“Luckily, he's one of my best mates. So I could ring him up and say, `Hey, what do you think?'
“Heath took a couple of weeks to read it and we met up. We just looked at each other and I said, `Do you want to do it?' And he said, `Yeah, OK. Let's do it.'
Jordan says Ledger was the first, and only, choice for the role. And, there's no other way to put it, Ledger shines as the bushranger. He captures the pride, posture and spirit so prevalent in every Kelly portrait. Unlike other Hollywood hunks, Ledger is not afraid to be ugly; he weeps and wails after shooting his first policeman and grimaces like a tormented bull as he's being belted by Peter Phelps' Constable Thomas Lonigan.
Jordan, who rose to prominence after making the successful bank robbery comedy Two Hands in 1999, says he knew when he took-on the “Ned Kelly project” he'd be cradling the hearts and minds of most of Australia.
“I cottoned on to it early,” he says. “Mind you, the depth of feeling has surprised me.”
Jordan and Edgerton say they are at a loose end now. Both are ripe to be snapped up by the US market -- but it will depend on the success of Ned Kelly as to how quickly that happens.
Jordan: “I haven't signed anything yet.”
Edgerton: “I've had some meetings in LA, but nothing's really on the horizon.”
But if anyone can climb the mountain -- this pair can. Only one problem, how do you top Hamlet?