Wenham Plays It Ugly
Illawarra Mercury
Monday May 3, 2004
THE video tape postmarked ``Australia" landed in director Stephen Sommers' Los Angeles office 18 months ago.
Sommers, a Universal Studios golden boy, was searching for actors for his $200-million horror film Van Helsing, starring Hugh Jackman.
Wenham gambled. He taped an audition in Australia hoping it would grab the attention of Sommers.
``I get this tape, pop it in, and this guy comes up," the 42-year-old American director said. ``First of all he has no neck, bad haircut and big floppy ears and I'm like, `He looks perfect'. Then his performance was amazing."
Wenham had auditioned for the role of Carl, an odd-looking friar who plays Jackman's offsider.
Carl is not aesthetically pleasing. He's no relation to Diver Dan, the character in the ABC television series, SeaChange, that made Wenham a sex symbol in Australia.
Carl needed to be ugly and Sommers could see that Wenham was ugly.
Jackman had already been cast as the monster-slaying lead, Gabriel Van Helsing, so Sommers gave him a call to find out more about the beauty-challenged David Wenham.
The phone call went like this:
Jackman: ``David Wenham? Oh, he's fantastic, I love him, but, as the sidekick? David is this really great looking guy."
Sommers: ``No, Hugh. He's got no neck, he has these big ears."
Jackman: ``No, he's a really handsome guy."
The phone call sealed it and Sommers arranged to meet Wenham.
``When I met him I go: `Wow, this guy is really handsome. What did you do?"
Wenham replied: ``Well, I gave myself a bad haircut, slumped and put this stuff (tape) behind my ears."
Van Helsing opens in Australia on May 6 and in the US on May 7, but last week the film was shown to several hundred journalists in New York.
It was the first public screening and Sommers was nervous. A key to the film was Wenham's performance. To his relief, Wenham generated huge laughs in all the right spots.
``It's a hard role because you're the comic sidekick, and yet you have to deliver the story and people have to buy it," Sommers said.
``When David Wenham is talking about vampires and werewolfs and the mythology, you're listening and you're believing it because he's believing it."
Another key role was that of Count Dracula - Jackman's character battles Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster.
Sommers searched everywhere, but eventually found his Dracula downunder too.
``(During) casting two or three Australian actresses said, `Have you ever seen Richard Roxburgh?'
``It happened three times in a row and by the third time I was thinking `Who the hell is this guy?'
``All three thought of him for Dracula. They said if anyone can pull that role off it's Richard."
Sommers, once again intrigued, watched some of Roxburgh's past work, then made another call to Jackman.
``I called up Hugh and he said, `When I was in drama school, Richard Roxburgh, I idolised that guy."
Sommers' two most recent blockbusters, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, made a combined $1.3 billion worldwide and hundreds of millions more in DVD sales.
The director has his fingers crossed that three Aussie actors can help him score his third.
© 2004 Illawarra Mercury
