Playing Patrick Jane in The Mentalist, Simon Baker reached the apex of world tv, however the actor says one thing was all the time holding his profession again – his beauty.
“When I was a younger actor, I feel like I was always kind of somewhat of a character actor, but I didn’t really have those opportunities, because, you know, I was conventionally good-looking,” Baker tells TODAY, tongue firmly in cheek.
But there’s some reality behind the joke.
As the hunky Aussie, who regarded like he arrived on set recent from catching just a few waves, Baker was a straightforward alternative for those who wanted a conventional main man.
“Now I’ve got a little bit more mileage, I’ve been through a bit of stuff, I have this great opportunity to play interesting characters,” he explains.
A fantastic instance of this in motion is Baker’s function within the new Australian thriller Limbo, by which the 53-year-old performs a hard-bitten cop with a heroin habit, investigating a chilly case in a distant mining city.
It’s the newest film from acclaimed Indigenous filmmaker Ivan Sen (Mystery Road), who additionally served as author and cinematographer on the venture.
Shot over a comparatively quick timeframe in Coober Pedy, Limbo is rendered totally in black and white, however Baker’s character exists within the gray space between good and unhealthy.
“When I first fell in love with the movies, there were a lot of characters that existed in grey areas, and then the world shifted and everyone felt obligated to display this righteousness all the time,” Baker says.
“Things became more polarised, as in being wrong or right, and to me that’s almost inhuman, kind of like an AI concept.
“Particularly you see in films these days, you’ve got the goodies and the baddies, and I think there’s a lot more of the human experience that exists in the grey.”
The actor, who had his directorial debut in 2017 with the WA-made adaptation of the Tim Winton novel, Breath, says he didn’t all the time see eye to eye with Sen on Limbo.
“I think I probably could safely admit to the fact that I’ve challenged directors a lot of times about certain things,” the actor admits.
“And Ivan really enjoyed being challenged, and I really enjoyed being challenged by Ivan, and we really felt like a very, very cohesive team.”
Teamwork is crucial on such a lean manufacturing, not least as a result of Coober Pedy presents some difficult capturing circumstances.
“It’s dusty and it’s windy, and it was cold early in the mornings and cold at night, and then it got back to 30-degree heat in the middle of the day,” Baker remembers.
“And the ground is lighter than the sky, you’ve got this sort of white dirt, it’s gypsum … so it’s almost like this sort of science fiction film; the landscape is incredible and such a strong part of the film.”
In Limbo, Sen as soon as once more harnesses the tropes of a police procedural to look at the Indigenous expertise on this nation.
“We’re talking about an ancient culture that has existed through storytelling, through oral history, through art,” Baker says.
“So, it makes absolute sense that these stories are on our screens, and that all Australians embrace these stories as part of the evolution of our culture, and pay our respect to the trauma that has existed and exists within indigenous society.”
Limbo is in cinemas now.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
