Goosebumps were on the menu the day I spoke to Australian actor Rhys Wakefield. We were chatting in the same hotel I’d spoken to the late Heath Ledger in over the years. Aside from the haunting reminder of a great gone too soon, there’s the fact that you’re speaking to another young Australian actor who, at around the same age Ledger was when he made the movie, is about to tackle Hollywood (Like Ledger, he also got his start on TVs ”Home & Away”).
22 year-old Wakefield, who cut his teeth on ”Home & Away” before graduating to the big screen in the likes of ”The Black Balloon” (2008), admits he always looked up to Heath Ledger and is honoured to even been mentioned in the same breath as the ”Dark Knight” star.
“He was just an incredible actor. You could see his growth on screen”, says the actor, “He was amazing.”
Ledger’s ticket to Hollywood was Gregor Jordan’s acclaimed local thriller ”Two Hands”, Wakefield’s gaining admittance thanks to ”Sanctum”, a new James Cameron produced 3D thriller about a group of divers who become trapped in some massive sunken caves. This is the film that’s about to change the actor’s life.
“It’s my last night in Melbourne”, says Wakefield, out stumping his role in the nautical thriller. “It’s very bittersweet. It feels a little strange and sad. I’m excited though. I’ve gone to L.A before, but this is the longest amount of time I’ll have spent there.”
Wakefield’s aware that he mightn’t find as easy as Ledger did over in the states.
“People think that America is the way to go because there are so many more jobs over there. That may be true, but there are also so many more people over there”.
Wakefield, who originally wanted to be an actor so he could play a superhero on the big screen, admits he’s even still a bit taken back by the fact that someone wants to interview him.
“It feels like yesterday that I was in drama class just mucking about”, he laughs, “It’s very bizarre… and different.
The Queensland born actor had heard about ”Sanctum” through his agent, and decided it worth a shot. Wakefield and a mate put an audition on video. Producer Cameron, who would be lending both his name and 3D cameras to the film, immediately responded to the young actor’s reading.
“When [director] Alister [Grierson] called me and said that Jim had responded to my test and then proceeded to read out some of the letters and emails he had received from Jim about me, that was quite surreal”, says the ”Aliens” and ”Terminator” fan. “I’ve always loved [Cameron’s] imaginative movies… they are always such a cool journey. The prospect of working with him was… well, I have no words”.
But would it all be fun and games? On Jim Cameron’s own ”The Abyss”, the cast were said to have gone near crazy from all the time they were forced to spend in underwater tanks. While Wakefield admits there were trying times, neither he nor co-stars Richard Roxburgh or Ioan Gruffudd never started to go all Jack Torrance.
“It was intense. All the underwater stuff was physically exhausting. Incredibly tiring. But it wasn’t too bad and it makes the movie better”, says the actor, who plays Roxburgh’s son in the picture.
Wakefield says that leading up to the shoot he “was going to the gym five times a week and I was going two hours of swim training a day. And then there was rock-climbing as well” so by film’s completion he was ready for a good siesta.
Not only did the actor have to look the part, he had to act the part. Wakefield says he was determined to not only hold his own against esteemed actor Roxburgh but convincingly play the actor’s son.
“We were lucky that, in one regard, we somewhat shot the film in order. We got to know each other and the relationship grew, just as it does for the father and son in the movie.”
It works… as does another aspect of the film: the 3D.
Like most of us, Wakefield is skeptical when it comes to 3D movies but believes Sanctum is one of the few that makes good use of the technology.
“They haven’t used it as some kind of gimmick [here]”, says the actor. “So many films have just jumped on the bandwagon and so many add 3D in post –because they think people don’t know. That’s what’s surprising though, audiences do know… they can now spot what films were conceived and shot in 3D and what films were converted in post.
“Sanctum is a good example of true enhanced storytelling through the 3D medium”.
Wakefield admits he’s had easier co-stars though than the Cameron/Pace Fusion 3D Camera System.
“They were a bit temperamental at times”, laughs Wakefield, “Like any new technology there are some glitches with them that still need to be ironed out. You could be four takes, five takes into a shot and then the camera dies and so you’d have to stop for an hour or two hours while the camera is fixed. That could be pretty frustrating”.
Sanctum opens Thursday
