All he wants to do is surf, play guitar and, oh, make a few
Hollywood blockbusters.
Unfortunately,
the simple life isn’t really on the cards for
this Australian star, writes Laura Collins
BRENTON THWAITES L
ike most Aussie actors who have gone on to break the big time, Brenton Thwaites cut his teeth on soapies. A gig on short-lived Foxtel series Slide preceded the greener pastures of Home And Away, where Thwaites played bad boy Stu Henderson. Then he moved to LA, as is the rite of passage for most ambitious young actors, and proved he had more than just a cute accent and really great eyebrows. Like Heath Ledger and Hugh Jackman before him, Thwaites had
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that elusive thing many of his peers hadn’t quite nailed: leading-man talent. Not long after leaving Australia, he was scoring accolades from the likes of Jeff Bridges and Helen Hunt (who called him “one of those people who is obviously a movie star”). But the 26-year-old is, in fact, incredibly shy and does his best to avoid the spotlight. As he explained to ELLE during the press tour for his sci-fi film The Giver in 2014: “I got on Twitter because it was a way to express guitar and surfing,
and who I was, but now – it’s still fun, and I can do that – but I think it’s more of a business. I thought it was a personal thing that actors could do themselves, but now it’s become a tool that studios are trying to use to sell their movies.” These days, while much of his time is spent living the nomadic existence of a next-big-thing, recent projects have meant he’s been based, on-and-off, out of Sydney for the past few years. (During this time he started dating naturopathy student and artist Chloe Pacey. The couple are expecting a child in late February.)
“HE MOVED TO LOS ANGELES, AS IS THE RITE OF PASSAGE FOR MOST AMBITIOUS YOUNG ACTORS, AND PROVED HE HAD MORE THAN JUST A CUTE ACCENT AND REALLY GREAT EYEBROWS” According to Thwaites, the Australian film industry is a pretty appealing place to be, and the respective teams behind his next two films – Gods Of Egypt and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales – would likely agree. Gods was filmed in New South Wales, while Pirates was based mostly out of Queensland. “I’ve been lucky because [those roles] came to me as opposed to me going to them,” he says. Yes, Thwaites seems like the kind of guy things “just come to”, but as his star gets brighter, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to hold that against him. In addition to big-budget films, he received indie kudos thanks to a role opposite Ewan McGregor in jailbreak thriller Son Of A Gun. “I’d love to do more independent films, but at the same time, I guess a balance is perfect for me.” In Gods Of Egypt, Thwaites plays Bek – a mortal not-quite-hero who teams up with
PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDRE VASQUEZ; ALAMY
cara who? Look to these leading men for a case of major brow envy
DANIEL RADCLIFFE
JOE JONAS
ZACHARY QUINTO
DAVE FRANCO
Wizards don’t need brow combs.
The cutest JoBro defines brow goals.
Almost bigger than his Star Trek pay cheque.
One thing he’s got over brother James.
the god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) to take down power-hungry Set (Gerard Butler) and get the girl, Zaya, played by fellow Aussie and Mad Max: Fury Road star Courtney Eaton. It’s one of the biggestbudget films Thwaites has worked on and he’s the first to admit the stakes were high… and that he knew nothing about Egyptian mythology when he signed on. “I still know nothing about it!” he says. “I guess Alex [Proyas, the director] took a little from Egyptian mythology and mixed it with fantasy.” The fantasy factor meant most of the acting was done in front of green screens. “Well, blue screens,” says Thwaites. “I don’t know why they used blue; I think because there was a lot of greenery and they needed to use a contrasting colour. Either way, it was quite challenging.” Of course, just because he’s chalking up credits alongside Hollywood stars Gerard Butler and Johnny Depp (who once again reprises his role as Captain Jack Sparrow for the fifth Pirates film), doesn’t mean he’s forgotten his roots. Born and raised in Cairns, Thwaites was effectively bumming around – skateboarding and expressing half-hearted interest in drama studies – when he was convinced to audition for the role of Romeo in a local production of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet. It turned out to be a springboard to the small screen. “Australian TV was a great training ground for me,” he says. “That is the best way to start because the more parts you get, the better – anything that contributes to you learning your roles and becoming more relaxed in front of the camera. For me, [Home And Away] was great because it was very repetitive. When you work on TV, it’s so quick – you have to learn your lines quickly, and you have to shoot quickly. The turnover is so fast it doesn’t take long for you to get a feel for your own style.” A keen learner, Thwaites says being in the right headspace before you step onto a film set – blockbuster or not – goes a long way. “The more open you are and the more committed you are to a movie, the more open your co-stars will be. As a young actor it’s a learning experience, but more in terms of understanding how other actors work and how approachable some people are.” Wait, so not all his co-stars want to be a mentor to, dare we say it, the next Joel Edgerton? Apparently not. Though Thwaites, as always, is impressively diplomatic about saying so. q ELLE.COM.AU @ELLEAUS
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