[Encore Magazine]

Interview: Ryan Kwanten

ryan kwanten

Ryan Kwanten might be best known as Jason Stackhouse, the oft-shirtless Southerner in True Blood, but that’s not the only thing on the Australian’s resume. He stars in Red Hill, coming out tomorrow, November 5. Kwanten plays Shane Cooper, a police officer who moves to Red Hill with his pregnant wife. As he adjusts to his new surroundings, a nearby convicted murderer is out for revenge. Encore spoke to Kwanten about filming Red Hill on a tight schedule, the perks of being a True Blood star and his upcoming projects.

How did you get involved with Red Hill?
All that was pitched was that it was a western, so it originally piqued my interest because I’m a huge western genre fan. So I thought, wow, this is nice spin on what I hope would be a modern day version of that. I started turning the pages, and obviously Shane Cooper is a reference to the movie Shane and [actor] Gary Cooper. But then I thought this character couldn’t be more different from the classic iconic western hero. Shane was a guy full of false and fallibilities, yet you’re so used to seeing the John Wayne/Clint Eastwood style, who no matter what force was put up against them, you felt like that they’d be okay, that they were going to draw their gun quicker. I felt with Shane, you never quite knew that. Every time he got knocked down, you were kind of helping him up. That was a really endearing quality, and I find it far more fun playing those tortured, bruised and battered characters than I do the impenetrable ones.

I thought, if [director Patrick Hughes] can dedicate that kind of passion to this film, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t join him on this journey. This could be the beginning of something special. I really feel like I’m going to look back in 10 years and say, “Wow, I was part of the first Patrick Hughes film,” in the same way that I’m sure actors of the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple do.

How did you prepare yourself for the film shoot? How did you get into character? And how did it feel to come back to Australia and play an Australian?
This is the first time I’d worked in Australia and played an Australian in eight years. [It felt] surprisingly bizarre because I’m so used to hearing the word “action” and putting on a version of the American accent. So I really had to turn off that filter in my head that switched on to that. I didn’t really get an adjustment period because we finished shooting season one [of True Blood] in Louisiana, and from my very last scene, I jumped straight onto a plane, flew 13 hours to Sydney, then two hours to Melbourne, and then drove seven hours to this really remote part in High Plains, Victoria called Omeo. I met the director for the first time, shook his hand, put on the jacket for Shane, they turned on the rain machine, it was subzero temperatures and went straight into one of the most emotional scenes of the film. So it was like trial by fire, really. I’m not a method actor, but that’s the method that I had to employ for this film because there was no other way to survive it than to just embrace it.

How would you compare shooting a television show to a film?
This film is its own beast. Usually, in film shooting, you’re afforded a lot more time. The great thing about True Blood is that we get 15 days an episode and a nice amount of money. For a television show, it’s a huge luxury to have that amount of time. It’s almost like shooting a film in that time, shooting 50 minutes. We didn’t have that luxury on this film. It was really the polar opposite. Usually on film, you would have three months to shoot 90 minutes. We had four weeks. So that was the major difference. Then you have to solve things creatively. You can’t throw money at somebody and say, “Here’s another two hours,” or, “Here’s that crane shot you wanted, you want that crane? Here it is.” You have to analyze something in the moment and think, ‘What’s the best way to deal with it?’

Any examples?
You compromise the whole way, you really do. It goes back to what I said, sometimes those compromises and those creative choices that you make in the moment where you think you’re taking away, I guess, from the true nature of the story, but in essence, you may be adding to it. It’s just those spur of the moment decisions that you have to trust. There’s one example of that is in my now favorite scene. At the time, I said to Patrick, “I can’t believe we only had one take to do this.” This is a scene that I’ve looked forward to shooting. It was a scene at pretty much the end of Act Two when my character comes home and he confronts his wife, and his wife says, “How was your day?” It’s still my favorite line of the film. I have to turn around and give a white lie and say that it was great. That whole sequence for me was just one shot. We had 10 minutes to shoot it. I remember being quite agitated at the end of that because Patrick said, “Yeah, that was great, we got it.” I remember walking outside and thinking to myself, “God, I was so looking forward to shooting that scene and to have it be over so quickly, it can’t be right. We must have missed something.” I look back at it now and I really enjoy it. It goes back to trust. I have to trust that Patrick is getting the performance that he wants and he has to trust me that I’m giving it everything that I can.

Did you use your experience filming Shane Cooper to inform Jason Stackhouse’s desire to be a cop in season three of True Blood?
Not really. The Shane Cooper character’s far more analytical type, far more cerebral, whereas Jason’s trying to wing his way into the cop force. It was kind of hilarious to me that of all the people who should not be welding a gun and in a position of power, it’s Jason. I had so much fun playing against Chris Bauer [who plays Andy Bellefleur], because these two characters could not be more polar opposites and I think the dynamic that they have is outrageous.

How did True Blood prepare you for Red Hill?
True Blood has changed my life, without a doubt. There’s not a day that goes by, not really an hour that goes by, where I don’t pinch myself and think how unbelievable lucky and fortunate I am. To be sitting here doing this kind of thing is every young actor’s dream. I work unbelievably hard and I’ve had had a very adventurous life to get to this point, and I certainly don’t take it lightly. But, yeah, True Blood has afforded me many opportunities, and now I guess because of the clout of the show, because of the mainstream quality of it, really good quality film projects have come across my desk. I like to think I have a desk.

What’s your favorite True Blood episode?
There’s not a script I read where I don’t think this is amazing and then I think, wait a second, I’m going to actually have to do this now. So, to try to pinpoint one thing…there are so many mind-blowing things that Jason does that, even when I look at back at it and watch the show, I think, “I can’t believe that I actually did that.” It’s almost like this Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing that overtakes me when I do it. He’s so unlike me that it’s a real liberation to play this guy. He has no will power and no real thought process. [With] this guy, there’s no choice; he doesn’t know what he’s doing the next second let alone the next day.

What’s next for you?
I just finished this horror/comedy of the Shaun of the Dead vein playing the straight man against Steve Zahn and Peter Dinklage, who are two phenomenal character actors. I’ve just signed on to act and produce a film called The Family, which is the story of the Charles Manson murders. I’ll be playing Charles Manson.

Who’s directing?
Scott Kosar, who wrote The Machinist with Christian Bale. I’m also signed on to play a young man in a film called The Twenty-Something Survival Guide, which starts off as a romantic comedy with a young man who’s living a very rambunctious life. Then he finds out that he’s got testicular cancer and he desperately wants kids. So he starts calling all these ex-girlfriends asking, “Will you help me in creating this baby?” The script goes on [about] the lengths that he goes through to make it happen. All very, very different roles.

[November 4, 2010]