Caffeinated Clint
Clint Morris catches up with the stars of the current Aussie smash, “I Love You Too” – Peter Helliar & Megan Gale.
Megan, had a question from a reader “Your surname is Gale – did people assume you were full of wind at school?”
Megan: I’ve never gotten that one before! [Laughs]. Nah, I’ve never got that before – Never!
Pete: I thankfully escaped being called ‘Peter Smelliar’ at school!
But surely they had fun with the ‘Hell’ part of your surname, Pete?
Pete: ‘Hell’ raiser!
Megan: ‘To Hell-iar with that!’
Speaking of, what the Hell-iar is up with this film’s movie poster! They’ve got the wrong names above the actors faces!? It’s all out-of-order!
Megan: Yeah, I was talking with someone else about that the other day – it’s kinda weird, hey!? They’ve got Brendan Cowell’s name above my face – and I tell ya, I definitely don’t look Brendan Cowell! [Laughs] But they do do that a fair bit on posters these days – put the wrong names above the people’s heads. I guess it’s for a reason?
Peter: I always wondered why they did that too and it use to bother me, but I’m sure it’s for contractual reasons.
How’s life as a supermodel going for you….Pete?
Megan: Don’t laugh! Pete has a great body of work – you should see it.
Peter: Yeah, I didn’t think it was appropriate to flaunt it in this film, but I might give audiences a peep in the next film.
So is that how Pete convinced you to do the film Megan, he showed you his body of work?
Megan: Oh yeah – that body, yummy! And that beard he had at the time – seriously, it was all about the beard! That lumberjack Grizzly-bear look always does it for me.
Peter: When we decided one of the characters in the movie should have a beard we decided it was either going to be me or Megan. She tried to grow one, but it didn’t work out.
Megan: All jokes aside, I did the film because I loved the script – it was a beautiful story that Pete had written, and I just wanted to be a part of it. I’ve had a lot of offers for films but not a lot of them have struck a chord with me – not like this one did.
Honestly, when the script came your way and it said ‘Written by Peter Helliar’, was your first thought ‘Oh shit, really!?’
Megan : Ha ha. No – because I knew Pete had written it before I saw the script. I’ve known Pete for years because my boyfriend (Andy Lee) worked on Rove with him. One night I was sitting out the back in the green room when Pete came in and started telling me about this script he’d written, and how he’d written a character that he thinks would be right up my alley and…
…He added “by the way Megan, you’re doing it!”?
Megan: No, in fact I had to audition!
Really? He made you work for the part!?
Megan : Yeah, I wanted to – I wanted to prove to him that I could actually act. There’s a few models out there that have tried acting, but I don’t know how much of them that you could say are actually good at it – so I wanted to prove to Pete that I did have some acting chops.
Pete: But quite frankly, there was nobody else that was going to be able to play that role – it was written as a glamorous beautiful supermodel-type… I mean, who else is there in Australia!?
So it was either Megan or Magda Szubanski?
Pete: Yeah (Laughs). To Megan’s credit, she said to me ‘Don’t feel bad for me if I don’t get the role. I understand that there are a hundred different factors that come into play when casting a movie, and I also realize it isn’t necessarily your choice’.
Admit it, you didn’t want your ass kicked by a 5?10″ model in front of the Rove studio audience, right?
Pete: Yeah, she’s a friend of mine, and her boyfriend is a friend, so I was going to be seeing her around, and I didn’t want it be awkward. I didn’t want her to be giving me greasies if she didn’t get the part. But she had nothing to worry about – from the moment she started her audition, we knew she was the one. If we didn’t get Megan, we would’ve just been settling on someone – and I didn’t want to do that.
Speaking of, where’s Rove?! Why isn’t he in the movie?
Pete: Yeah, nah… I didn’t really want Rove in my first movie. Yes, I’d love to work with him on a film one day, but considering it was the first one I just didn’t want it to come across as a ‘Pete and mates’ movie.
You wanted to work with people you didn’t like on this first film, that’s what you’re saying, right?
Pete: Yeah. I only wanted people who were good at their craft [Laughs]
And you wanted beautiful people only – no ugly dudes!
Pete: Yeah, exactly – sorry Rove! [Laughs]
But let’s backtrack, why are there only beautiful people in this movie? Something against the fugly’s mate?
Pete: Brendan Cowell is a handsome guy but, well, how do I put this…he’s not what you’d call your typical romantic lead. On the other hand, Peter Dinklage is a very good-looking dude. But man, c’mon – I’m in the movie! You think I’m beautiful? [Laughs]
In the dark, mate. And Megan, didn’t you change the nationality of the character you’re playing from something-or-other to Italian?
Megan: She was originally Spanish, and I just thought, since I was more fluent in the language, she should be Italian.
Pete: She just wanted to do the Leggo’s Pasta Sauce ad again, basically.
Megan: The ad was basically my audition tape [Laughs]
Pete: I did one of those Leggo’s commercials too, and people have given me so much shit, saying my accent was atrocious.
Megan: I think you actually did a pretty good job of the accent.
Pete: I had a coach, and he said I was fine on the day, but I’ve had some people say to me that I was shocking in the commercial.
Megan: No, I think you did pretty damn good – can’t say the same for some of the other actors that did those ads though!
Now that you’ve got TVs ”The Bounce”, and a promising movie career ahead of you, will you try and juggle a career in both TV and film, Pete?
Pete: I think I see the whole thing as a creative process – I’ll just take it as it comes – but I do want to do more movies. Definitely.
Are you working on the next one, yet?
Pete: Yeah, I’ve written a script called Mr Busby Marries a Lesbian. We might film it in America – in which case, I doubt I’ll be in it.
Megan, let’s talk about Wonder Woman. Now you were originally supposed to play the crime-fighting Wonder-Bra wearing superhero in ”Justice League”, but the film fell through. Did you at least get to practice lassoing in a few guys?
Megan: I did fight training, but I didn’t get to do any lassoing.
What?! So did you even get to take the Invisible Jet out for a whirl?
Megan: No, no.
There’s a rumour they’re about to announce that ”Justice League” is back on- in which case, you might get the call to play Wonder Woman, er, again.
Megan: Are they!? There’s always some kind of Justice League rumour surfacing, but I personally don’t know what’s going on with it. I’d love to do it though. And I’d love to see the movie come to fruition. If it is indeed back on, it’d be interesting to know who’s directing it – because George Miller [who was originally attached to direct the film before it fell apart] is going to be busy with the new Mad Max film for the next couple of years.
Pete : Speaking of which, she’s playing the Tina Turner role in Mad Max 4.
Megan : Yeah, but only because they wanted someone who could deliver a hit song for the soundtrack, too [Laughs].
Speaking of superheroes, ”I Love You Too” features an Incredible Hulk watch. Did you have to get permission from Marvel to feature it?
Pete: Yeah, we had to get their permission to feature it. And there’s a scene at the end of the film where Yvonne Strahovski dresses up in a generic superhero costume – originally, that was going to be a Spider-man costume. And it would’ve been great if she could’ve dressed as Spider-Man but it would’ve been tough trying to convince them to let us use the likeness, so we settled on the generic one.
Whatever the case, you’re both doing bloody well. What do you do with you money? Any charities you support?
Megan: I’m the national ambassador for the Red Cross.
Pete: I support nobody! [Laughs]
Megan, even if you don’t end up playing Wonder Woman Megan, you still keen on attacking Hollywood?
Megan: I’m going to head to L.A next month, actually. I haven’t been over there this year at all so I’ll go and see if there’s anything going.
I LOVE YOU TOO is now Showing
