Actor Bryan Brown is a respected figure in the Australian film industry. After emerging in 70s films such as "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith", "Newsfront", and "Breaker Morant", he earned plaudits for the TV series A Town Like Alice and The Thorn Birds, and international movies that include "F/X: Murder by Illusion", "Cocktail", and "Gorillas in the Mist". Now he stars in and produces the 60s crime pic "Dirty Deeds".
Your character, Barry Ryan, is a gangster but he seems a likeable guy at the same time. How do you approach playing a character like that?
Guys like Barry are leaders. They didn't get to be at the top of their game through being bland characters, or not being good at what they do. It's the same as the bloke who's CEO of a bank. He becomes leader because people respond to his thoughts and ideas and direction. These guys, when you take away the world they're involved in, they're charismatic individuals and people want to work with them.
That gives "Dirty Deeds" a twist, showing a gangster tale that's based on fact but also depicting a realistic background for it...
The crime genre has been around for a long time, but I think Tarantino helped move it into a new direction by unwrapping these characters and showing what their wider lives are like. These blokes have kids and wives and mothers and grandmothers. And they have to deal with all of them. Going into that territory allows itself an area of comedy and an area of understanding, which makes for a richer piece all round.
The Chicago gangsters who visit Australia in "Dirty Deeds" have little idea of what to expect. Would that be very different today?
I would think if the Chicago Mafia came to Australia today, they would probably think that it was full of blokes who go around wrestling crocodiles - whether that be Crocodile Dundee or Steve Irwin. But one thing they would not be wondering about is where they could go to get a pizza. They would feel far more at home in that respect, to the Americanisation of countries like ours, with your McDonald's, KFC, and pizza chains. That difference doesn't exist any more.
Have you and your "Dirty Deeds" co-star Sam Neill been friends for a long time?
Sam and I go way back. I actually met him in Sorrento in Italy, where they had a film festival of Australian films. He was there with "My Brilliant Career" and I was there with "Breaker Morant", and that was probably around 1979/80. We became friends then. Then he went on to England to do Reilly: Ace of Spies, and I went over to America to do The Thorn Birds, but that was when we became mates.
