Justin.
Congratulations on the film.
I've actually seen it twice, and I found it exhausting
both times in the best possible way because of that
that feeling of dread and foreboding that goes with it.
It's a really tense experience.
And it looks at the events leading up to the
the mass shooting in Port Arthur in Tasmania in 1996.
I wondered when you received the script, how did you react
Did you actually want to make the film once you'd read it?
I was hoping that the screenplay was terrible
and I kind of knew it wouldn't be because Shaun Grant and I
have worked on a couple other films
and that was, it was just because I was living
and I am still living in Tasmania this day time a Australia.
You know, I kind of changed the country forever
and still for many, many people it's incredibly painful.
So you know, you sort of know doing a film about this subject matter,
it's, it's some, you know, it's fraught with a lot of challenges.
So yeah, I was hoping that it wasn't good but it was really good and,
and it just stayed with me and John and I sort of talked about it a lot
and you know, it was me sort of talking about why I wanted to do it
and why write it in the first place.
And, and I just trusted him and I sort of trusted
why we were making it and a lot of it, to be honest, had to do
with a particular scene in the film, which is sort of a particular same way
with the main character walks into a gun store and
sort of buys these
shocking weapons, like he's buying some fishing rods
without a gun license.
And there was something about where that scene
was positioned within the screenplay and the way in which it sort of,
I guess, in a very intimate way, traveled with this character
to that particular scene that that was very powerful to me
and emotionally connected with me about gun reform.
More than anything, I'd sort of read before it
some it was some very powerful writing.
And actually, that scene was something that was a kind of, you know, something
we kept on coming back to as as a very, very strong kind of compass
as to kind of what the film was and what it needed to be.
You mentioned you.
You live in Tasmania and
the events took place in 1996, which sounds a long time ago,
but I'm sure for people in Tasmania and indeed Australia as a whole, it's
no more than the blink of an eye really, because it must still be, particularly
on the island, it's
extremely raw and you will have seen that the first time, I'm sure
so once it was announced that you were going to make the film,
did you face any opposition locally?
And indeed since it's been released as the pain and the opposition to it
Yeah, the day that it was announced that we were sort of making it was
it was a very tricky sort of process leading up to it
because no one wanted anything to do with it, to be honest. And
even sort of victims of crime
in Hobart, which is an organization that allows you to,
you know, have have a sort of dialog and a and at least to sort of
be able to kind of explain the point of view of the film
and why you're, you're making it.
It was very hard to get them engaged as well. So,
so when it came out, you know, there was there there was a lot of shock
and there was a lot of questioning as to kind of what the film wasn't.
I think that there was a sort of fear that it was going to be very explicit
in the in the shootings and
which of course, it's not.
Yeah. Yeah.
So look, it really wasn't where we were shooting the film at the time.
We were in sort of second week of filming.
And, you know, the Prime
Minister of Australia at the time was talking about it in Question Time.
It was that it had hit you know, that sort of nerve
in, in, in Australia on that day. So
it just,
you know, I don't, I don't think we were surprised,
but it definitely made us
deeply aware of the responsibility of doing it.
And it did have an effect on the shoot.
You know, we only had two more weeks to shoot
and there was a, there was a sort of tense questioning
continually about, you know, the why are we making the film?
What's the point of view?
Where do you put the camera?
How do we how do we be sensitive about this
in the best possible way? So,
yeah, it was something that,
you know, people started talking about quite a bit.
You mentioned that scene where the central character goes and buys
some weapons with shocking ease, to be quite honest.
And the film actually has a little bit of a sort of twist in its tale at the end.
When we see the captions
about gun legislation, we think you're being taken down one of them.
Then you realize actually what the aftermath was
of the Australian government's actions police shooting.
Has the situation changed at all in Australia in terms of gun laws?
Or is it much as it was then?
No, I still
look, I think at the time after the the shootings
there were extraordinary gun reforms that happened bipartisan in six days.
So that that definitely happened and that changed the gun
culture in Australia has forever.
But what we sort of discover was that, you know,
over the years there has been lobbying
and there has been softening of those laws
and some of those reforms actually didn't sort of play out.
So even though there were were
incredibly significant changes,
you know,
it was a surprise to us and a shock to us that, you know,
what we sort of mocked might have been in place or
the softening of some of those reforms
and how they had happened were, you know, were concerning. So,
you know, and for a generation of Australians that, you know,
we had a lot of young people come and see the film in, in Australia
and you know, a lot of that had to do with some
just understanding what happened and
and where it happened, especially
for those young people that live in Tasmania.
You know, it is, is it is a, it is a day
that is sort of spoken in very very hushed tones and
very difficult to kind of talk about openly.
So, you know, for many the the idea of gun reform
that had come out of these events, this event and kind of what the history
of the gun reform been in Australia, I think was new to a lot of young people
so you got
Caleb Landry Jones in the main role.
And he won best actor last year for this performance.
And he really is outstanding to be honest.
I've only ever really associated him with supporting roles
and things like three billboards and things like that.
Never really seen him in in a lead role.
I wondered why you chose him for this particular part
and how did you persuade him to take it?
It was very instinctive.
I think Shaun and I were thinking, who is the sort of type of actor
that we would, you know?
And there was something physically about Caleb that we were
we're very sort of just my dog
and the dog's name is Garcon.
And if you get
definitely
yeah. Look, he was
he was
someone that physically we thought was really interesting for the role. But
you know, after a while we thought, why not Caleb?
So we actually met him in Los Angeles and had a meeting with him
and and that changed everything for us.
And we thought you know, this isn't
actually such a crazy idea or take some buying Australian.
This is a very immersive act.
There's a quality about him that, that, that feels feels right.
To the vision of the film and.
Yeah.
And he any and he came on this incredible kind of accent and watched
a whole lot of neighbors and home and away from the nineties to kind of,
you know, getting that particular kind of dialect going and,
you know, had an incredible voice coach.
But yeah, I would never have thought about casting an American for this role.
But, but there was something so particular about Caleb, and he's extraordinary.
He's one of the finest actors I've worked with.
He really is.
I mean, he is brilliant.
But I've got to say, for me, it's it's a film that's actually anchored
in full performances.
This Hayden, this Judy Davis.
Anthony Lapaglia as his Dad,
Essie Davis as Helen.
They're all fantastic and they all interact they all show
the effect he has on them as individuals.
How did you manage to get them all together?
Because that's such a powerhouse quartet and they're all in demand.
I'm very lucky.
I really am.
That that's like a kind of chekhovian
ensemble for them.
I was just very lucky, you know, I, I, I know.
I also think that the script is really strong and the conversations
were very easy to, to be had about the work.
And Judy was someone that I just
kind of admire enough of.
She's just extraordinary.
And, you know, I have to pinch myself.
When she was on set, remembering all the films that I
have watched of Judy's that, you know, really inspired
me and changed me as a, as a young filmmaker.
And then,
you know, Anthony,
I've been a huge fan of and and of course, he was also my partner.
And so, you know, and to be honest, that was really important about the screenplay.
I always saw
it wasn't, you know,
especially the first half of the film was like a family drama.
And there was something kind of very intimate
and very kind of family about it.
And, you know, it even Cycle and character was
was in a sense a kind of extension of the family
so to get that kind of yeah, that quartet.
Right. Was was really important.
I've got to ask you about the title of the film,
because we do hear the central characters name
Martin a couple times in the film.
And then Dave Martin is the name of the shooter.
No, you don't.
It's actually it's never mentioned I into the school
and I heard somebody call him Martin, maybe his mother.
But I we got that wrong.
But I'm intrigued by very, very I was very particular about this.
I can I can imagine you thinking it, but I
yeah.
Yeah, but I wondered where
I mean, we learn where niche mom comes from in that it's
it's it's a nickname that he hates, but I'm wondering if something's for real
or whether it was something that you created
look, it was it was interesting because it was
this this sort of name was rumored we'd heard sort of on the,
you know, around the place as you kind of hear these, these sort of stories of, of,
you know, this being a kind of nickname, a sort of derogatory nickname.
But that actually it came from
a discussion about identity when we were sort of looking at the script
and wanting to understand kind of, you know, what what
digging deeper into kind of what we felt as though that sort of point of view was.
And, you know, this sort of idea of someone outrunning a knife and sort of,
you know, shackled to them and desperately trying to be part of other tribes,
you know, and and that that felt really powerful.
And in Australia, that that that is, you know, everyone's
got a nickname and everyone either loves the nickname or hates the nickname.
And there is this kind of continual questioning about,
you know, the name you have or how people perceive you,
whether you're part of a group or as I said, a sort of tribe.
So there was there was just sort of something about the title
and that name that sort of seemed to speak to, you know,
kind of what was in the underbelly of the of the screenplay anyway.
So I wondered if perhaps it was a sort of typically cruel
nickname that he'd been given at school, which the kids,
because it was Martin backwards, meant that they were stupid
I think that there was also this
sort of really kind of literal
thing of nets as well, you know, that, that that kind of
I mean, I remember sort of going to school and it always be the outbreak from
one kid and suddenly, you know, you're going home
and having to wash your hair three times and
that that is a very Australian thing.
I just remember, you know, growing up and being at school and nets
being being the thing that sort of suddenly drove everyone home to be washed
and then come back the next day and try to get, you know, so it was
there was something about it.
There was a there was there was sort of a nostalgia kind of
feeling about it that I think also spoke to Sean about
we run out of time, which is a real shame.
But thanks very much for for allowing me to have a chat with you
about such a tremendous film which has
such an impact.
And thank you once.
So thank you very much indeed.
No worries. Thank you so much. Thank you.