Sheep in wolf's clothing

In the refined surroundings of an upper-crust hotel, John Jarratt looks quite at ease. He’s on the publicity trail for his film Wolf Creek, the horror film that’s attracting both excitement and controversy in arguably equal measure. When I arrive, he’s finishing up an interview with a television program. As that interview wraps up, he’s asked to do “that Mick Taylor laugh, right down the barrel of the camera”. It’s a request he politely declines. “You’ll have to see the movie if you want that,” he says.

Jarratt is casually dressed, but sports the stubbly chin that he shares with his character in Wolf Creek. That character (Mick Taylor) is the psychotic loner who wreaks havoc on the lives of three young backpackers who encounter him in remote Western Australia. But apart from the stubble and the piercing blue eyes, there’s little of Mick in the actor as he speaks calmly about the film.

Probably best known for his television work, most recently on McLeod’s Daughters, Jarratt is a stalwart of the Australian film industry. He’s been appearing in Australian films since 1975, when Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock brought him to prominence. Over the intervening 30 years, he’s appeared in over 30 films, telemovies and TV series.

So when Wolf Creek came along, it was “just another movie” for the actor. Well, not quite. “The difference [with Wolf Creek] is that it was a good script, a really good story. And the character I was to play a gift, an amazing character. You don’t get to play those kinds of roles very often, so I just grabbed it with both hands and ran with it.”

Unlike so many Australian actors who sweat on getting juicy roles, Jarratt was given something of an armchair ride into the part. “Greg McLean [Wolf Creek’s director] when he was 12 years old got scared out of his wits watching Picnic at Hanging Rock. It just had an effect on him, and when he was at NIDA, he invited himself to a play [Dead Heart] in which I played a redneck country sergeant. So he saw that and he’s always been interested in me. So he basically had me in mind for the entire cruise.”

“I didn’t have to audition for him or do a screen test or anything. I met him over a cup of coffee, just to make sure I had the part”. That cup of coffee certainly seems to have cemented his relationship with McLean. This month, he begins work on McLean’s second feature, Rogue, another story set in the Outback; although this time the killer is a crocodile.

The shoot for Wolf Creek (principally in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges), has already entered Australian film legend, with stories of Portaloo privations doing the rounds. But for Jarratt, the location and the conditions were important.

“The Outback’s the fifth character,” he says. “It’s almost as scary and monstrous as I am; and I’m sort of part of it, I’m grafted to it.” But he’s quick to add, “It’s such a beautiful part of our continent. And to watch what [McLean] does with it... stunning. It’s $1.4 million - The Proposition was $40 million. What Greg’s done - him and Will Gibson, the cinematographer (and the sound man, just quietly) - is extraordinary. If they had a $40 million budget, it’d be extraordinary; but with $1.4 million, it’s extra-, extra-ordinary. And that’s Aussie dollars; about $800,000 US.”

Despite the depth of his experience, little could have prepared Jarratt to play the monstrous Mick. So he fell back on a tried and true technique to get into the character. “I like to build a character from when he was born,” he says. “Right from parents, brothers, sisters, friends, jobs; until he gets to page 0, which is the page before page 1 - the page before I step onto the screen. So if I do that, I should have, at least vaguely, right up to that page; and when I get on the set, I step onto that page and I’ve done my work, I should have hold of him.”

The actor, it seems, had a strong hold on Mick Taylor. “I’m very proud of this,” he says. “I mean, I know when I’m crap, and I’ll tell you [when that happens]. But I think I cracked it this time, and I’m very proud of it. I’m proud of the film, and I’m proud of the performance. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done - I can’t do any better than that.”

With a character as strong and as awful as Mick, audiences have sometimes had trouble separating the actor from the part he’s playing; even to the extent of having people come up to him after screenings asking him to convince them he’s not the monster portrayed in the film. Jarratt however seems to take it all in stride. “Yeah, it happens all the time,” he says, “especially with women.”

“It really freaks women out. Like Jaws is the man’s scary film - being eaten alive while you’re fishing or something; but is the women’s one. The bloke following you in the lane actually grabs you, that’s what’s so scary. I’ve had women absolutely quake when I come up to them. It’s like ‘God, it’s him!’ and they freak out. I’ve actually had say to people, you know, hang on, I’m not like that. So it’s obviously had an effect; but all I can say is it must be a bloody good film to get that kind of reaction out of someone.”

Perhaps strangely, the force of Jarratt’s performance wasn’t enough to garner him an AFI nomination for best actor. For the first time, when talking about this, do Jarratt’s eyes betray, ever so fleetingly, a flash of Mick. Jarratt puts the snub down in part to “the girl’s blouses who go and see the movie and can’t sit through it.” “What kind of criteria is that,” he asks rhetorically, “for an awards evening? They’ve gotta get rid of that system. It just doesn’t work.”

“I thought I’d get a nomination - I never thought I’d ever win it, because of who he [Mick] is and because I’d be up against Hugo Weaving and all these marvellous actors who I respect - and I said so.”

Still, Jarratt can look on the bright side. “I got to go to the Sundance and Cannes film festivals,” he muses. “It actually worked out fine. If I’d got a nomination, I wouldn’t have said boo to a mouse. If I didn’t win - which I didn’t think I would - I wouldn’t have said boo to a mouse. But not getting a nomination got me a page 3 story in the Weekend Australian. The best thing about the AFIs is the press you get out of it. We scored all the press by not getting nominated. So they did me a favour in the end.”

Wolf Creek opens nationally on November 3, 2005.

David Edwards

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John Jarratt - the interview

Film: Wolf Creek
Release: November 3, 2005
Rated: R18+

See our review of Wolf Creek HERE

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