Redcliffe and Bayside Herald - October 19, 2005

Actor tells local story
EDITION: 1

"I don't know about the fame bit. I try not to take myself too seriously."

AUSTRALIAN stage and screen actor William McInnes returned home to Redcliffe last week for his first book launch. A Man's Got to Have a Hobby - Long Summers With My Dad is McInnes's amusing andentertaining collection of memories of growing up in Redcliffe and the importance of his father, mother and other members of his family. Richard Lancaster was at the launch and found an easy-going, quietly spoken bloke, comfortable with his appreciative audience and ever ready to laugh at himself.

RL: It's really quite revealing watching you relate to the people here today. It's like you were in the company of old friends.

WM: I have been. Some people here today grew up with me.

RL: You appear not to have allowed fame to get in the way of enjoying life.

WM: I don't know about the fame bit. I try not to take myself too seriously. You can't believe some of the guff that people write about you. Anyway, I'm not famous.

RL: If you had your life all over again, would you change anything?

WM: No, I really couldn't do that. If that happened, I wouldn't be the person I am today and I'm sort of quite happy with who I am.

RL: You get scripts given to you to read. What makes you look at a script and say: "This is the one for me''?

WM: If it's a good story and the people involved with it are professionals - then I'm interested.

RL: You've played a wide variety of characters in recent times. Does it take you a long time to get into the character that you're playing?

WM: It can take weeks or sometimes only days to get into the essence of a character - it all depends on how you are in yourself at the time.

RL: It appears that Aussie actors still have to go overseas to make it. When will we see you go overseas?

WM: I don't think that you have to work overseas to be a successful Aussie actor. It really does depend on how you define success. Anyway, no one has asked me yet! (laughing)

RL: How do you define success?

WM: Critically, personally. Just because someone earns a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean they are a successful actor.

RL: Which is your preference, stage or screen?

WM: I like both. You have to work a lot harder on stage. Theatre blows the cobwebs out a bit - you can't hide on stage.

RL: So every so often you go back to the stage.

WM: Yes, I try and do a play a year. It's a different kind of acting - it's like a workout.

RL: Is the old Redcliffe you know lost forever?

WM: Change has to happen - because that's part of life. Many people don't like it, because it can be scary. It's like losing a bit of your life, a bit of your certainty. I don't live in Redcliffe now, so it's not my bag to say whether it's good or bad. Redcliffe residents are the ones to decide what they want their city to be like.

RL: You've always been very strong about keeping Moreton Bay protected.

WM: It's important that everyone works to look after this bay. It's not only an important natural resource, it's an economic one, a tourist one, and an educational one as well. It's therefore very precious.

RL: What does theimmediate future hold for you?

WM: Currently, more travelling with this book. Finishing the next one, which is called Cricket Kings. I'm doing a play in Melbourne written by a mate called Steve Rogers. I've got two movies to do, one's called Stepfather of the Bride and the other Kokoda.
Enough to keep me busy for the time being, I think.