July 2009

Richie Rich

With a string of awards under his belt and a new family, East of Everything star Richard Roxburgh contemplates his next move

WORDS KYLIE MILLER

When Richard Roxburgh describes the events in his life as “erupting all around me”, it seems unlikely that this is what he means. A few minutes into our chat on the Byron Bay set of his ABC television series East of Everything, however, the soft-spoken leading man stops mid-sentence and leaps from his folding chair.

Soon he is using a stick to probe a pile of leaves a metre from where we sit. “Look at the snake!” he cries, leaning forward and poking at the ground. “Oh, it’s a baby. It’s a little baby snake! I don’t know whether it’s a tiger… it’s probably a brown snake.” One hundred metres away, filming is underway and people are walking around the natural bush set in decidedly un-snake-proof open-toed shoes.

Questioned about the wisdom of the lead actor provoking a deadly snake, baby or not, he laughs. “I wonder if we should move it somewhere?” he says half-heartedly, looking towards the nearby crew. It’s a surreal experience.

Since graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1987, Roxburgh has cemented himself as one of Australia’s most successful actors, accumulating credits in dozens of film, television and theatre projects and working with some of the biggest names in stage and screen.

He starred with Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes in Oscar and Lucinda, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge!, Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible II, Sean Connery in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale in Van Helsing.

His performances have drawn acclaim and numerous awards. In 1997 he won the best actor award from both the Film Critics Circle of Australia and the Australian Film Institute for his leading role in Doing Time for Patsy Cline; last year he picked up a Helpmann Award for the theatre production Toy Symphony.

Roxburgh has found similar success with directing, first with theatre projects — including an award-winning adaptation of Tim Winton’s That Eye, The Sky, and the critically acclaimed Ray’s Tempest, based on his own idea.

His debut feature film, Romulus, My Father, received a record-breaking 15 nominations in the 2007 Australian Film Institute Awards, and went on to take out the best film category, while its stars Eric Bana, Marton Csokas and Kodi Smit-McPhee all won acting awards.

The acclaim has opened numerous doors and Roxburgh has found himself in new and exciting territory. “I’m in a really fascinating stage of my life... there’s just so much on; things I’d never have predicted,” he says.

“It used to be that you might get invited to do an acting project and that would be for a couple of months, but if it’s to direct a film that’s the best part of a year. That is a big change that I’m coming to grips with as well.”

Casually dressed in the clothes of his East of Everything character, travel writer Art Watkins, Roxburgh looks at home in the natural bush setting. Articulate and warm, he does not waste words; each point is carefully considered and contributes to the conversation.

“There’s a lot on for me at the moment. There’s a lot of ground shifting, it’s really just one of those times where you think ‘my God, things are erupting all around me’.”

Another significant change is the growth of his family. In 2004 Roxburgh married his Van Helsing co-star, Italian mezzo soprano Silvia Colloca, and the couple have a two-year-old son Raphael — Raphy — whom Roxburgh adores.

“I have my own little family now and that’s my greatest pleasure in my life,” he says. “It’s also changed things. I’ve just sold my place in Sydney to get a place that’s more suitable for family and we’re trying to contemplate where to move in Sydney. I’m flying down this weekend to look at properties actually.”

While the family maintains a home in Sydney, they split their time among several countries, including Colloca’s family base in Milan. When filming wraps on East of Everything, Roxburgh will fly to the US for discussions about various projects before joining his family in the UK, where Colloca is doing an opera tour and a series of recordings.

“There’s a directing project that I’m thinking about at the moment — we’re just trying to work out the logistics of it — but essentially it would mean me flying straight from here to Boston and being there for quite a long time.

“I really would like to direct a film again; I just need to know that I’m going to have enough time because I’m an incredibly slow thinker.” There’s also the matter of his family, and where they might end up.

“What we’re getting closer to is a place where we’re going to sit while we bring up our child or children,” he says. “It’s figuring out where that’s going to be — that’s quite a big thing to figure out, as anybody with kids would know.

“It’s likely to be Sydney, but we’re pretty determined that Raphy has a strong sense of Italianness too, because he is half Italian, so we’ll obviously try to spend some time there.”

In the meantime, home is Byron Bay and all the pleasures that life can bring on the sunny northern New South Wales coast. Is there a particular appeal to shooting a TV series in this part of the world?

“Probably the snakes,” he laughs, returning to the subject du jour. “It’s a blessed piece of real estate, Byron Bay, and there’s so much to do. And on this project there’s a very strong sense of working in a community that has a sense of place and has a sense of belonging.

That’s pretty unusual on a film or TV project.” Wherever he goes and whatever he does, Roxburgh tries to keep his family close by. While in Byron Bay, the couple has spent time wandering through markets, revelling in the pleasure of their toddler son, occasionally adding to a burgeoning collection of home movies.

“He loves any sort of activity at all where there’s colour and movement and I just get such a kick out of that, out of seeing him on fire,” he says, before excusing himself to join his wife, who has just arrived on set with Raphy. “It’s just really special.”

East of Everything returns to the ABC on 25th July at 7.30pm.