Over the coming weeks, we will be posting interviews with some of the key personel of The Margin Of Things to give you a little insight into the people you will be coming to watch. We hope you enjoy.
This week we get to meet Martin Williams the actor and the man who wishes he were the old spice man.
Who are you? What is your background?
I'm the actor and writer behind The Margin Of Things. I have a keen love for theatre and film. I grew up around the beaches of the eastern suburbs. I knew from an early age that I had gift for making people laugh but only really got serious about acting and comedy at the end of high school. And this comedy thing really only took a hold of me in my final year at WAAPA where I did a short film that really killed as a comedy. I had a blast. The director and I became close friends, Sam Barrett, remember that name, and we have done a number of other things since.
What attracted you to ‘The Margin Of Things’?
Well I wrote the thing. So I better be attracted to it. But what I have come to like about it, since rehearsing it away from being the writer in the room, although that probably never goes, is that even during all the shit storm that is going on that it still gets a laugh.
Tell us about the role your playing?
I'm playing Mark. Who is a slippery little beast. While he is someone that says he is between things at the moment and on struggle street due to the dole, he actually comes from a family of real money and importance. He's just in his slumming mode. I guess he's also some one that doesn't really care about too much apart from just making sure he's enjoying himself.
Do you have a process?
WAAPA tried to teach you a process, but what I've learnt from role to role that, a single process won't ever help anything. One needs to ready to adapt. But I guess the biggest thing that is common in all my work is that. Once I'm in on a project I will read the play, screenplay hopefully two times a day and just constantly comb it for clues. I just need to know the whole thing back to front. And this allows me to be spontaneous in the moment. Now I always edge towards trying to find the funny side of things, it doesn't mean I try to make a wise crack, I just try to keep it real, keep it simple and hopefully a little bit funny. Speaking about it too much though makes you sound like a real wanker.
Who are some of your influences?
I draw the greatest inspiration from Jim Carrey's tenacity to succeed not to mention his absolute devotion to make people laugh.
Sam Rockwell of late. He seems to know exactly when to allow his characters to crack and really shake the audience emotionally. Not to mention he's also a gem of a comedien. But his work in Confessions of a dangerous and Moon are just sublime.
Will Ferrell. Seeing anchorman just made go whoah, who is this guy.
And I also look to Vince Vaughn and Edward Norton for huge inspiration just for the fact that they are both obesely tall like myself. THey both have a dynamism that really bursts out of them.
What are you looking forward to most about The Sydney Fringe Festival?
At being apart of something that hopefully allows people to really take in a whole heap of new and talented voices. Hopefully I can catch at least a tenth of what is going on because my goodness there is an absolute boat load of stuff to be seen.
What’s the most recent bit of theatre you have loved?
I just watched August Osage County and flipped out about it. Wow. This show is just awe inspiring and scary at the same time. Because that really is the standard now to which all other theatre must live up to. Every superlative that has been dropped for that show is accurate and I won't try to add another. I was in New York at the end of 2008 and I had the chance to either watch August Osage or The Seagull with Carey Mulligan, Mackenzie Crooke, Peter Saarsgard and Kristen Scott Thomas. I chose the Seagull and was blown away by that as well. I had never been moved by checkhov until that night and it ripped my guts out. So it really is a tie between The Seagull and August Osage County.
Give us your top ten performances either in theatre or in film and why?
1. The Ensemble Of August Osage County. Everyone in it, is just dynamite and alive. If you want to watch a bit of theatre that is alive and bold and bigger than life but still grounded in reality then this is the show. THere isn't one person in it that I could put a foot wrong with.
2. I still remember Ben Chaplin in This Is How It Goes at the Donmar Warehouse in London. I thought he allowed the audience in and then pulled the rug from under us with such skill that you made us empathise ever so slightly with a biggot. Idris Elba was also in that show and I remember thinking this guy is the real deal. He had this quiet understated presence.
3. Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura. I remember getting a preview video tape of this film and just laughing my ass off. I loved every moment of that film and it left a real imprint on what I want to do.
4. Will Ferrell in Anchorman. Wow. Wow. Wow. I hadn't heard of Will Ferrell before then but now, I think I've watched everything. There is nothing better than when this guy finds a great character and pursues it to the end. He really is, along with Jim carrey, while being the biggest comedy stars in the world also just fantastic character actors.
5. Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Enough said. This is what you go to see actors do. To totally transform and take us on a ride. Ridiculously good.
6. Vince Vaughn in Swingers. I still love this film and watch it probably 2 or 3 times a year. He showboat but in the best of sense. He steals every scene he is in that film.
7. Gene Wilder in The Producers. Talk about jumping out of nowhere. Just like Al Pacino in for The Godfather. No one really knew about this guy but after that film every one knew about him. His Autobiography is also a must read for any actor out there. Touching, poignant. And above all classy.
8. Ricky Gervais in The Office. Do I really need to say anymore. Genius. The rapid thought processes that you can see going on, is an absolute joy to behold.
9. Al Pacino Godfather 1 and 2. These films I didn't get to watch until I was 17 but I sat down and watched them both back to back. Really the only way to watch the first two film is that way I reckon. But his performance are just so, so good. So much trust is placed in the what the camera was going to pick up and that the audience was going to go along for the ride. But your grateful that they did trust because after thirty years it still is some of the finest film acting around.
10. The Final One Hey. Who to choose, who to choose. I guess I should go aussie and I think Heath Ledger in his small role in Mosters Ball is the winner. Talk about breaking the mould hollywodd can put you in. With this role Ledger announced that he was no longer just the pretty boy on the block, he was the real deal. I think every performance after this is due to the fact that he went after Monsters Ball with such skill an dexterity.
Notable Mentions: Russell Crow in the insider I still have my movie stub. Tom Hardy in Inception. This guy is going to be a star. And Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth. Still one of the strongest female roles in a very long time.
Well That was Martin Williams Actor. Next week you get to meet the director Wolf jackson.
Stay well till then everyone.
Who are your greatest influences as a writer?
Number One: Neil Labute.
labute has probably been the biggest influence on me falling in love with theatre again.
As strange as it may sound this new playwright made me want re-invest in the theatre and it's
rich history. So he's the one that got me into going back through all the classics.
Where did this love come from? During my mid-year break, while I was in my final year of training at WAAPA, I took myself on a holiday over to London to visit my brother. During that time Ihad the great pleasure to see two of Labutes work in the west end. I saw 'This Is How It Goes' and 'Some Girls'. Both of these productions were phenomenal. But 'This Is How It Goes' just got over the line for overall enjoyment. I remember being transported away from the Donmar Warehouse and into this world. Now the acting and direction was superb. But when I went out and bought the play, I realised then that so much of it was already there. I was awestruck by it.
And since then I have read it at least four times a year. I still have the same copy, it's alittle worn, but the magic is still there and it still transports me.
Number Two: Paul Thomas Anderson.
Now I know this guy isn't on the theatre. But once you read his screenplays and see his films. You get a great sense that this guy is in love with the human condition and all of it's foibles, not just the rosy moments. I call this guy fearless.
The other great thing about him, is that there is a great sense of history cinema in his work, much like scorsese before him. He loves the very nature of cinema bot past and present and allows that to imbue his work.
When someone cares so deeply for the past and where they come from as a film maker, it makes you realise that if you want to stand on the shoulders of giants you better know how they grew to be so big.
Number Three: David Mamet.
Number Four: Sam Shephard
Now it goes without saying that these two guys need to rate on a list and they have to rate high. They are both seemed to define what theatre should be. Gutsy. Showing up the life that appears in the darkness of life and they also created there own sense of rhyme, poetry if you will with in their works. To read their plays is to be given a slice of life with a great big sucker punch to the stomach. It makes you feel alive.
Why does Mamet rate above Shephard. Well, the simple answer is that, today that's how I'm feeling. Tomorrow it might be reversed.
But anyone who wants to know anything to do contemporary theatre and american theatre in particular needs to read a fuck load of both of their works. Preferable all of them.
Number Five: Harold Pinter.
This man made me fall in love with four wonderful letters. B. E. A. T. Beat.
Getting to perform Pinters play's makes you realise that, the best part of acting is what is going between those four wonderful letter. An entire relationship can get summed up or a Birthday party can go to shit.
I still remember being lucky enough to be perform a collection of Pinter works at high school. It really made you love acting and made me relish the english language again. It broke me out the blaseness, the close enough, is good enough mentality that too many teenagers fall into. I got cast in this collection of plays and fell in love with english language and the devastating effect it can have on people but more importantly on an audience.
Number Six: Eugene O'neil.
As is the case with most Australian actors when they finish high school they start to do the rounds of the drama schools. And I was no different. It took me four times before I got in. But during that time I was constantly searching for the monologue that would best sum up who I was as an actor and allow me to Tear The Cat in. One summer my father gave me his beaten up copy of 'Long Day's Journey Into Night'. I read that tome of a play in one sitting. Here was a play that had everything I was looking for. It spoke straight from the heart, was so autobiographical, that it stung but some how transformed it past it merely being just autobiographical.
I went about learning a number of the Edmund and Jaimie speeches and reading all of his other plays. I loved what he had to say about the world and the voice that grew into his final play. I learnt those monolgues but never got to use them for the acting schools. In fact I still know those speeches but am yet to perform them.
Number Seven: Arthur Miller.
A View From The Bridge. Enough said. This play is freakin' awesome. It's like Macbeth, perfect in it's structure and aweful for it's tragedy. Every time I read it, even though I have read it countless times before I get lost in Eddie's Journey and am crushed by the end of the play.
The rest of Miller's work is just as good obviously. But A View From The Bridge is the money.
I did the very first scene from the play, while I was at WAAPA. And while it wasn't intitially the scene I wanted to because it had none of the fireworks of the later scenes. As we rehearsed it night and day and around the clock I got to learn that if you can build all the tension in the first scene then eventually the spring has to pop up.
Number Eight: Woody Allen.
I know another film guy. But the man has written for stage and wonderfully well might I add. But Allen is someone to admire just for the pure fact that he continues to work from his own scripts.
he found his voice and it's so clear and so clearly his own that you can't help but admire the man. I mean this is the guy that is responsible for the two greatest romantic comedies of all time, Manhattan and Annie Hall. I love this guy.
My final two are both writers but it's their books that have touched me.
Number Nine: Gene Wilder.
His Autobiography, Kiss Me Like a stranger is a great read and gives you great insight into the way this man worked. BUt it's his getnle nature that really comes across.
And finally number ten: Gregory David Roberts.
He gave as Shantaram. My favourite book of all time.
And I will finish just by quoting the book because that's all you need to know:
"With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own"
Well I hope this gave you a little insight into Martin Williams the writer. Later in the week. Martin Williams the actor.
Stay well till then.
Who are you?
I am an actor who works in bars to support my dream of being a full time actor not reliant on working in bars to support myself.
What is your background?
I have been interested in acting since I was in grade 5 in primary school. Since then I have been involved in acting in all sorts of ways; set construction, lighting design, stage managing and I guess most importantly, acting. I received my formal training at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts between 2004 – 2007. Since arriving back in Ausralia in 2008 I have been working in both theatre, film, and television.
What attracted you to ‘The Margin Of Things’?
I am interested in being part of the Sydney Fringe Festival and supporting my friends writing.
Tell us about the role your playing?
Bryan, I feel, resembles a significant part in all of us. No really, Bryan is just a guy trying to make sense of the world and dealing with his vices.
Do you have a process?
Yes, I hope so.
Who are some of your influences?
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Edward Norton
and my parents.
What are you look forward to most about The Sydney Fringe Festival?
Seeing lots of plays, meeting actors, directors writers etc.
What’s the most recent bit of theatre you have loved?
The Emperor Jones at the National Theatre in London and The Seagull by Siren Theatre Company.
Give us your top ten performances either in theatre or in film and why?
It’s hard to specify my top ten performances because I believe there are many great ones but in all different categories. So I will list ten that spring to mind right now. Why I think they are good is because they all encapsulate believable character development , are entertaining to watch, and actors I respect.
Philip S Hoffman in Love Liza
Ed Norton in Down In the Valley
Yael Stone in Ladybird
Arnold Schwartznegger in Predator
Robert de Niro in Raging Bull
- Jack Nicholson in every role he does
- Phil Hartman in the Simpsons
- Chris Farley in Almost Heros (and pretty much every role he does)
- Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski
- Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights/Magnolia
So that's Will Carter ladies and Gents.
Stay tuned because next week we will be meeting the writer and actor Martin Williams.
Who are you? What is your background?
I grew up in a small country town in northern NSW. I traveled 2 hours on the bus each day to Tamworth where I attended school. It was here where I first got the acting bug when I took drama as an elective. I stayed with it all the way to year 12 and for the HSC. The following year I moved to Sydney where there would be more opportunity to do acting. I started off doing community theatre and then went on to films and commercials but there is nothing like walking out onto a stage with a live audience and performing. It's such a rush!
What attracted you to "The Margin of Things"?
First and foremost I'd have to say Marty. I've done a few short films with him and we get along great and he always has good ideas and is a great writer of dialogue. So when he mentioned he had written something for the Sydney Fringe Festival, I was like, 'I'd love to read it and be involved in some way!' It was also the chance to get back up on stage. I haven't done any theatre since the beginning of 2007 and I had been looking at things to do so this project was the perfect opportunity.
Tell us about the role you're playing.
I play the character JOE. Joe is a crim who has just gotten out of jail and decides to go and see an old mate of his and after a drunken night out gets involved in a heist that his mate has got planned with another friend of his. Joe sees this as the perfect opportunity to get some start up cash to try and get his life going again.
Do you have a process?
I like to create a back story for all the characters I play. For instance Joe has been in jail but the script never explains the whats? Wheres? Whys? Etc. So I like to think of what has happened to him to get him to the point he's at? What did he do to get put in jail? What was life like for him on the inside? Does he have family? Etc. Hopefully by exploring all these things it comes out in my performance.
Who are some of your influences?
As far as acting goes, Russell Crowe would have to be one of my all time favs! In all of his films I never feel as though I'm watching Russell I always get lost in his performances.
I'm also a big fan of Edward Norton's work, Primal Fear, American History X, Fight Club, such diverse performances but pulled off with great ease!
Robert Rodriguez is a definite influence on me! As a keen film maker myself he makes things seem so easy and obtainable. His book, Rebel Without a Crew, was a great inspiration and made me think that making a film doesn't have to be too hard or expensive. A worthwhile read for anyone interested in making films.
What are you looking forward to most about the Sydney Fringe Festival?
First and foremost to perform on stage again but also to hopefully go and see some of the other new and exciting theatre productions being put on for the festival.
What is the most recent bit of theatre you have loved?
Unfortunately I've been unable to get to the theatre for a while, so the last great film I saw was (believe it or not) an Aussie horror film called "The Loved Ones" I saw it at the Sydney film festival and it was absolutely awesome! Such an original idea with some great performances and twist and turns you can't see coming. It stars Xavier Samuel and Robin McLeavy. I think it comes out in September so go see it!!
Give us your top performances in either theatre or film and why?
Russell Crowe (The Insider)
Edward Norton (Primal Fear)
Kevin Spacey (Se7en)
Kate Winslet (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Tom Cruise - (Magnolia)
Well that was the first one guys. We hope you like it. And make sure to stay tuned for some more up and coming interviews.
