US:One, two three, Aussies give vampire flick a bite

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2004
US:One, two three, Aussies give vampire flick a bite

By Peter Mitchell

LOS ANGELES, AAP - The video tape was postmarked "Australia" and landed at Stephen
Sommers' Los Angeles office about 18 months ago.

Sommers, a Universal Studios golden boy after directing a string of profitable hits
for the grand old movie house, was searching for actors for his most expensive project
yet, the $US150 million ($A204.11 million) horror film, Van Helsing, starring Hugh Jackman.

Before the tape landed on his desk, Sommers had never heard of David Wenham.

Wenham gambled.

He taped an audition in Australia then mailed it across the Pacific, hoping it would
grab the attention of Sommers, or one of his producers or studio executives.

"I get this tape, pop it in, and this guy comes up," the 42-year-old American director said.

"First of all he has no neck, bad haircut and big floppy ears and I'm like 'He looks perfect'."

"Then his performance was amazing."

Wenham had auditioned for the role of Carl in Van Helsing, an odd-looking, hunched-over
19th Century friar who plays Jackman's offsider - for Americans, that's sidekick.

Carl is not aesthetically pleasing.

He's not a relation to Diver Dan, the character in the ABC television series, SeaChange,
that made Wenham a sex symbol in Australia.

It would help, the director thought, if the actor playing Carl was ugly.

Sommers saw the audition tape and could see Wenham was ugly.

Even better. Wenham was extremely ugly.

Jackman had already been cast as the monster-slaying lead, Gabriel Van Helsing, so
Sommers gave Jackman a call to find out more about this mysterious, beauty-challenged
Australian actor called David Wenham.

The phone call, Sommers said, went like this.

Jackman: "David Wenham? Oh, he's fantastic, I love him, but, as the sidekick? David
is this really great looking guy."

Sommers: "No, Hugh. He's got no neck, he has these big ears."

Jackman: "No, he's a really handsome guy."

The phone call sealed it and Sommers arranged to meet Wenham in person.

"When I met him I go: 'Wow, this guy is a really handsome guy, what did you do?" Sommers said.

Wenham replied: "Well, I gave myself a really bad haircut, slumped and put this stuff
(tape) behind my ears."

Sommers laughs about it today. He has since discovered Wenham, 38, was voted one of
Australia's sexiest men.

Van Helsing opens in Australia on May 6 and in the US on May 7, but last week the film
was shown to several hundred journalists in New York.

It was the first time the final cut was screened publicly and Sommers was nervous.

A key to the film was Wenham's performance.

To his relief, Wenham generated some huge laughs in all the right spots.

"It's a hard role because you are the comic sidekick, and yet you have to deliver the
story and people have to buy it," Sommers said.

"When David Wenham is talking about vampires and werewolfs and the mythology, you're
listening and you're believing it because he's believing it.

"He's so honest. A lot of actors couldn't pull that off because he's the comic sidekick
and yet, when he's serious you're buying every moment that he's serious."

The other key role was the casting of Count Dracula.

In Van Helsing, Jackman's character battles Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster.

"My wife said to me, she read the script, and she said 'You know, Dracula is going
to be tough. It has been done 100 different ways, 100 different guys, it's a really hard
role," Sommers said.

Sommers searched everywhere, but eventually found his Dracula downunder and again it
was an actor he had never heard of.

"We were casting a lot of actresses (in Los Angeles), and several from Australia showed
up, and in a matter of a couple of days two or three Australian actresses said out of
the blue 'Have you ever seen Richard Roxburgh?'

"I was like 'No'.

"It happened three times in a row and by the third time I was thinking 'Who the hell
is this guy?'

They said 'You have to see him. He's one of the best actors in Australia ever and they
went on and on about him.

"All three thought of him for Dracula. They said if anyone can pull that role off it's Richard."

Sommers, once again intrigued, went to the video store and watched some of the 42-year-old
Roxburgh's past work.

"Then I called up Hugh and I thought, well, here's another Australian, Hugh's got to know.

"How many people live in Australia? They all know each other don't they?

"So I called up Hugh and I asked Hugh about him. And he said 'Look, if you could get
Richard in this movie, when I was in drama school, Richard Roxburgh, I idolised that guy.

I thought if I could get anywhere near that guy's acting credentials it would be fantastic'."

Sommers' two most recent blockbusters, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, made a combined
$US830 million ($A1.13 billion) at the worldwide box office and hundreds of millions more
in DVD sales.

The director has his fingers crossed that three Aussie actors can help him score his third.

AAP pm/cjh/bwl

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