‘Son of a Gun’, the debut feature of Pemberton-born director Julius Avery is hitting cinemas this week. The film is a fast-paced crime thriller starring Ewan McGregor, and is set mostly in Western Australia. Avery chatted to Sophie Joske about the film and told us what it’s like to bring Perth to silver screens across the world.
The film’s central relationship is between 19 year old J.R. played by Brenton Thwaites and experienced criminal Brendan, played by McGregor. J.R. is taken under Brendan’s wing in prison, and in exchange for his protection assists Brendan with various criminal activities, forming something of a father-son relationship. Avery said the story is inspired by events from his own life.
“I grew up hanging out with the bad crew and I kinda grew out of that later on and that sort of inspired my film ‘Jerry Can’ and I guess the themes which I explore in all my films relate to my childhood.” he said.
“I had an older come into my life when I was a kid, an older boy, and he was sort of basically a mentor and I guess he took me under his wing. My father died when I was quite young and so I was always looking for father figures wherever I went and he sort of filled that role. He was very charismatic and very charming but also malevolent as f*ck and kind of, at that time, was so much fun and exciting so that relationship informs the core relationship in ‘Son of a Gun’.”
Avery had McGregor in mind for the character of Brendan, and shared the script’s personal history with him when contacting him about the role.
“I wrote him a letter and I told him about that very personal story and I guess there’s that vulnerability of putting yourself out there and telling the story that attracts them to the material as much as the script.”
But Avery says getting one of the world’s most well-known actors to shoot a film in Western Australia wasn’t something he’d quite believed he’d actually achieved.
“To get Ewan on board was probably the key factor of this film getting made. Without him I don’t think we would have gotten the film made, so having Ewan say yes was probably one of the most exciting things of my life. Because he’s literally an icon, he’s one of the most well-known actors on the planet saying ‘Ok, I’m going to come over to Western Australia in the middle of nowhere and do your film with you and spend three months with you, who I’ve never met’ – I met him a couple of times in LA but you know. I literally had to pinch myself. I actually didn’t think it was going to happen right until we landed. I was like ‘It’s not going to happen, he’s going to say no, he’s not going to be on that flight.’ So when we started shooting I was like ‘Ok, this is happening. Now I’m going to have to come up with something.” he laughed.
The film’s beginning is set in a prison, introduced the audience to a world of highly aggressive masculinity. According to Avery, this was a deliberate effort to explore Australian masculinity onscreen.
“I’ve always struggled myself to figure out what it is to be a man in Australia and I didn’t have a father growing up, I had a single mother and she brought me up with a different set of values to, maybe, a nuclear family, I don’t know, what is a normal family now? But I’ve always been on the outer of that and always interested in understanding what it is to be a man and how you’re supposed to interact and work in this very masculine society, where I grew up in the country.”
The film also features scenes in and around Perth, and a gold mine in Kalgoorlie. Avery said he hopes to show a side of Western Australia that doesn’t often make it to screen.
“I didn’t want to do a postcard picturesque Western Australian version.” he said. “Western Australia, because of the mining, the landscape’s changing constantly. But I grew up seeing it a certain way. I didn’t look at Western Australia through rose coloured glasses, I saw it for what it really was, and it’s a dark place with dark people and there’s a lot of bad ass criminals in that state and I think that’s what I was trying to explore with the locations and the characters and hopefully I’ve done something a little different than what people have seen.”
Avery said the process of shooting the film rekindled his relationship with the peculiar landscape he once called home.
“I like the cinematic ugliness of Perth. I like framing things in a way that brings that out, doesn’t show it in a typical beautiful way but in a way that I saw it as growing up. I had a real love/hate relationship with Western Australia. I think that comes out on the screen [laughs] I couldn’t wait to get out of Western Australia and a lot of kids can’t wait to get out of Western Australia, can’t wait to go to university over east or something. But when I came back I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I got quite romantically involved with Western Australia again. I started to love it again.”
Avery explained that in returning to shoot the film, he discovered that the isolation that made him keen to leave W.A. gave it its own unique artistic feel.
“There’s pockets of WA that you can’t find anywhere else in the world. It’s got its own vibe and I love the art and the music vibe there, it’s so much more different than anything that’s happening on the east coast.
“I think it’s a great training ground because you have to try harder to get noticed but also, I think because of the isolation- like in New York, when you go to New York, everyone’s doing the same thing, and it doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world, they’re just doing it there, and I think Western Australia’s doing its own thing. It’s isolated, it’s got its own vibe that you can’t get anywhere else. That’s why stuff like the music is done so well internationally because it just looks so different.”
Avery’s hoping to bring some of that difference to the world stage when ‘Son of a Gun’ is released internationally. For a first time feature filmmaker, it’s an exciting and frightening time.
“It’s scary as hell. It’s my first film, I’m scared of what all you guys are going to say about me and what you’re going to say about the film. You can’t help but take everything personally and I’m sure you get immune to all that but right now I’m just shit scared. I think fear is such a great emotion and I use it all the time [Laughs] I always get focused when I get scared. Even though I’m shit scared I feel really alive, you know? It’s a weird feeling.”
As ‘Son of a Gun’ goes international with Avery in tow, the director said he has a newfound appreciation for his home state.
“I think there’s some really exciting new voices coming out from Western Australia. It’s where my family’s from, I’m deeply connected to it. You can never take the Perth out of you, it’s always there. I think without that I wouldn’t be the filmmaker I am now. If I’d been brought up on the east coast- I’d hate to think [laughs]”
Sophie Joske
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