Article: The Herald Sun (Melbourne), April 16th, 2007
McInnes Plays His Dad's Hero
A SUCCESSFUL career in politics was the highest calling in the childhood home of actor William McInnes.
Although the politicl achievements of McInnes' late father only ever amounted to being a perennial candidate for the Labor Party in an unwinnable Country Party-held seat. A figure such as World War II Prime Minister John Curtin, who McInnes plays in an ABC telemovie, was an icon not to be joked about despite his obvious failings.
In his first six months as Prime Minister after being elected in late 1941, Curtin contended with the backlash from the bombing of Pearl Harbour, then dramas closer to home with the fall of Singapore, the bombing of Darwin and the imminent threat of invasion from Japan.
If his father, who never quite understood why his son would want to be an actor, was around to watch him portray Curtin, McInnes says "firstly, he'd probably think it was a load of shit". "He'd watch it though. I think he'd like that a bloke like Curtin is getting remembered," McInnes says. "My old man's time was one when service and putting yourself on the line was a real mark of a man and Curtin was a bloke who got on with it against some pretty decent obstacles. "For my dad, politics was the highest calling, worthy of real respect and he respected Curtin because he stuck his neck out."
McInnes is the spitting image of file photographs of Curtin in the biopic which will air at 8.30pm on Sunday. What was first set to be a four-hour mini-series was reduced to a tight 90-minutes that charts the tumultuous early period of this unlikely character's reign as prime minister. McInnes shows Curtin to be an alcoholic and a workaholic.
He also gives viewers the chance to marvel at how, despite his obstacles, Curtin managed to stand up to a heavyweight of the British Empire, Winston Churchill, and forge a strong tie with the United States though General Douglas MacArthur. He was a wartime hero who defied sceptics and his own health, which deteriorated, it is said, largely due to the stresses of his job.
McInnes, with a childhood behind him where political debate around the dinner table was the norm, says it's a shame Curtin isn't better remembered. "You'd be stretched to get 10 people in a row who knew who John Curtin was, but everyone knows who Abraham Lincoln was," he says. "It's actually quite scary how many people don't actually realise that Australia was engaged in war with Japan and that (that) technologically advanced, friendly and clean country above us was once a militarist fascist regime hell bent on creating an empire, and we were on its list."
McInnes says his own knowledge, despite being a staunch Labor voter and studying history at university, is limited. "I knew about him, but not a lot," he says. "I remember the kids show Seven Days and he was on that one day acting like a pork chop. "I remember my father talking about him as well, but it's amazing how thin our knowledge of ourselves is."
McInnes says the highest respect should be given to people who "just get on with it". And despite his character's personal demons, McInnes says Curtin was one of these people. "He was this slightly fragile bloke with questionable mental health, an alcoholic, and he was pretty much thrown in the deep end and told: 'See how you go', during one of the most significant points in Australian history."
AAP
A SUCCESSFUL career in politics was the highest calling in the childhood home of actor William McInnes.
Although the politicl achievements of McInnes' late father only ever amounted to being a perennial candidate for the Labor Party in an unwinnable Country Party-held seat. A figure such as World War II Prime Minister John Curtin, who McInnes plays in an ABC telemovie, was an icon not to be joked about despite his obvious failings.
In his first six months as Prime Minister after being elected in late 1941, Curtin contended with the backlash from the bombing of Pearl Harbour, then dramas closer to home with the fall of Singapore, the bombing of Darwin and the imminent threat of invasion from Japan.
If his father, who never quite understood why his son would want to be an actor, was around to watch him portray Curtin, McInnes says "firstly, he'd probably think it was a load of shit". "He'd watch it though. I think he'd like that a bloke like Curtin is getting remembered," McInnes says. "My old man's time was one when service and putting yourself on the line was a real mark of a man and Curtin was a bloke who got on with it against some pretty decent obstacles. "For my dad, politics was the highest calling, worthy of real respect and he respected Curtin because he stuck his neck out."
McInnes is the spitting image of file photographs of Curtin in the biopic which will air at 8.30pm on Sunday. What was first set to be a four-hour mini-series was reduced to a tight 90-minutes that charts the tumultuous early period of this unlikely character's reign as prime minister. McInnes shows Curtin to be an alcoholic and a workaholic.
He also gives viewers the chance to marvel at how, despite his obstacles, Curtin managed to stand up to a heavyweight of the British Empire, Winston Churchill, and forge a strong tie with the United States though General Douglas MacArthur. He was a wartime hero who defied sceptics and his own health, which deteriorated, it is said, largely due to the stresses of his job.
McInnes, with a childhood behind him where political debate around the dinner table was the norm, says it's a shame Curtin isn't better remembered. "You'd be stretched to get 10 people in a row who knew who John Curtin was, but everyone knows who Abraham Lincoln was," he says. "It's actually quite scary how many people don't actually realise that Australia was engaged in war with Japan and that (that) technologically advanced, friendly and clean country above us was once a militarist fascist regime hell bent on creating an empire, and we were on its list."
McInnes says his own knowledge, despite being a staunch Labor voter and studying history at university, is limited. "I knew about him, but not a lot," he says. "I remember the kids show Seven Days and he was on that one day acting like a pork chop. "I remember my father talking about him as well, but it's amazing how thin our knowledge of ourselves is."
McInnes says the highest respect should be given to people who "just get on with it". And despite his character's personal demons, McInnes says Curtin was one of these people. "He was this slightly fragile bloke with questionable mental health, an alcoholic, and he was pretty much thrown in the deep end and told: 'See how you go', during one of the most significant points in Australian history."
AAP
posted by WilliamWatch at 2:54 PM
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