Wednesday, October 29, 2008

William Nominated for AFI Awards

William has been nominated for two Australian Film Industry awards, announced today. He has been nominated for:

Best Lead Actor for Unfinished Sky
Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama for East West 101

Both Unfinished Sky and East West 101 have received multiple other nominations.

For the full list of AFI nominations, Click Here.

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Sunday, October 26, 2008

Photos and Video of William at QPLA Conference

I was really fortunate to see William as the keynote speaker at the Queensland Public Libraries Conference on Monday (20th October 2008) and I captured the photo and videos below:

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Article: Redcliffe and Bayside Herald, Tuesday 21st October, 2008

Actor Impresses
Nick Berrett

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SCARBOROUGH State School’s Grade 6 and 7 pupils enjoyed a visit from actor, author, and Redcliffe identity, William McInnes last week.

McInnes, who has appeared on Blue Heelers and Sea Change and written several books, had the pupils in stitches with his tales of growing up on the Peninsula.

He also gave the children something to think about with several words of wisdom. "Acting is like a team sport, it is all about sharing and working together to get the job done,’’ he said.

"Acting is a job, but it is also a lot of fun.’’ McInnes said he would not want to act on Blue Heelers again, although he had had a lot of fun when he was on set.

"It was fun, but I try not to think like that because there is no point,’’ he said. "'If only’ is one of the least useful phrases there is.’’

McInnes, who wrote A man’s got to have a hobby, Cricket Kings, and That’d be right, said he enjoyed writing as he felt he was in charge of the process. "When you are writing a book, it is just you and that is fun,’’ he said.

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Article: Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday October 11th, 2008

Put Down Your Pony Glasses
William McInnes

Somehow the fates were telling anybody who would listen that this week would be an odd one.

How else can you account for the fact that almost all of Sydney were barracking for Manly in the NRL premiership? Well, not all of Sydney, but enough to start some head-scratching.
I don't care who they were playing, when did everybody start barracking for Manly?

Years ago when I walked to the old Riverview Hotel to order my first schooner in Sydney, some old codger called Eric decided to offer a bit of advice.

"You're a big bugger," said Eric, who drank from a pony, a half glass measuring 140 millilitres, and wore a hat that these days would be thought of as groovy but then just looked like the hat old fellas in pubs wore.

I nodded.

"Second rower?" he gurgled.

I shook my head.

"Fullback?" Eric turned his nose up slightly.

"Right, well I'll tell you this for nothing: always drink pony glasses, moderation, know your limits and go for anybody but Bloody Manly Bloody Warringah and you'll be all right. A lot of toffs." He took a swig of his little glass of beer and added as an afterthought, "and always blame the winger if things stuff up".

I thought of Eric this week a bit.

Lots of things were stuffing up and lots of people were looking for wingers to blame. Our tyro of a federal Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, had a crack at trying to take some of the credit for the 1 per cent cut in rates given to the nation by the Reserve Bank.

A week ago, he was offering a bipartisan joint effort on the economic crisis, at the same time blocking budget bills in the Senate. Well, he was having a go, as Eric from the Riverview Hotel would say.

There's nothing much an Opposition can do in times like these, but still Malcolm might as well try. The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, accepting that the banks may not be able to pass on the full rate cut to consumers gave Turnbull a little room to move. It might also have given him some pause for thought, perhaps to ruminate on the fact that things were as bad as some were saying.
The economic turbulence has become the latest soap opera fascination for the broadcasters and commentators, and the Premier, Nathan Rees, probably thinks that is just fine. Any week where he doesn't have to sack some minister and where all of his cabinet keep their clothes on is a good one as far as he is concerned.

And now the whole world is going to hell in a hand basket. The sure sign of the seriousness of the situation is reflected in the faces of the traders who give little reports on the markets, usually on late-night bulletins. Mostly they are pleasantly bland talking heads delivering information as routinely as the weather and sport used to be done.

This week some of these talking heads looked scared. That is something, to see a primal and real emotion on display from a TV talking head. None of the pat explanations would work, none of the tried and true phrases about cycles and curves and seasons. They looked for all the world to be looking for a winger to blame.

Midweek saw the telecast of the second US presidential debate between the senators McCain and Obama. John McCain tried hard to be folksy but looked a little like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family only being allowed out of the cellar as long as he didn't get too cranky. "Now friends," he would say a little too much and all the while Obama was all loose-limbed elegance and seemed to be on the verge of smoothly segueing into some Brook Benton song. The phrase he is most fond of is "you know". As one would say it to friends.

It was a town hall debate and the audience was made up of a cross-section of American society.

Hello! I wasn't quite sure why the debate was being telecast live but somebody at the ABC deemed it to be important enough to be so I watched a little.

I wondered if McCain or Obama would barrack for Manly.

It was that sort of a perplexing week. When McCain pointed to Obama and referred to him as being "That One!" I thought to myself, this is the "Blame the Winger" moment of the 2008 race.

Then the sky began to fall again. Central banks across the world acted in unison to drop rates in a concerted effort to instil confidence in the markets. Well, that's what the talking heads said.

In Great Britain, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced a huge shoring-up of the nation's financial institutions that bordered on the part-nationalisation of the banking system. Even in the US rumours of the Government taking equity in the banks were run up the flagpole. Nationalising the banks. Ben Chifley would have started turning comfortably in his grave and reached for his pipe.

One person's misfortune is another's opportunity. The Commonwealth Bank licked its lips and started looking for ripe pickings, swallowing BankWest.

An acquaintance of mine said she loved all the turmoil and the rich buggers getting it. Whatever that meant. Things have changed a little. It's more than just sweaty late-night financial talking heads at stake. It's people's super and savings and certainty. But some people can't be told. Some don't get it.

Amid all of this turmoil somehow Gunns of Tasmania, they of the pulp mills and woodchips, announced that Don Burke, the former television gardening guru and king of lifestyle entertainment in the days when people had money to spend on their gardens, would be their spokesperson. Talk about a career move.

And then I pause for a breath. Well, Don's having a go. I think of old Eric and his pony glasses and of his talk of moderation and knowing your limits. A fundamental truth that too many forget. Well, there is a time for everything.

But I must say with the greatest respect to old Eric, I'm glad Steve Menzies scored that try. The Beaver was a good player. So well done him.

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Article: The Australian, September 29th, 2008

William McInnes on Families

In the late '80s I had a job stacking plastic chairs at a Family Fun Day. What the Family Fun Day was in aid of I am not quite sure, but I have a feeling it was something to do with the Bicentennial.

There was a lot of talk about good Aussie tucker, which basically meant some guy in a big hat with a beard was cooking sausages and onions on a barbecue. Yes, it must have been the Bicentennial. It was very hot and there were lots of plastic chairs to stack and lots of families.

It seemed, though, that there was not that much fun. Children screamed, parents yelled, faces were painted, politicians spoke, someone who had the biggest, blondest perm and wore the brightest Lycra sang her new single. And the speakers didn’t work properly. It didn’t really matter. It wasn’t much of a song. It mattered even less when another man with a beard started talking into a microphone and sounded like some alien from Dr Who.

Meanwhile, a litany of names of lost children were called out in a drone by a woman with a loudhailer. A friend who was also stacking plastic chairs looked across to me as a nearby father stood simmering while a mother shouted at him: “She didn’t want to be a tiger, she wanted to be a zebra!” A little girl cried tears down the remnants of her tiger face, newly minted from the chaotic and understaffed face-painting stall. “They were out of zebra paint,” sulked the father. A little boy holding his father’s hand smiled in his zebra stripes. The mother said something but we didn’t hear it.

The speakers suddenly worked and out across the day boomed the cry of the bearded man: “Families are what makes our country. They are a cornerstone of our society.” My friend looked to me and said: “Willy, we’re in trouble.” We laughed quite a bit, as I remember.

Well, that was when we were younger. Both of us, I suppose, had a fairly limited understanding of what a family was. I suppose there are those in marketing who can plot the makeup of each succeeding idea of what a family is. They seek to create that most mythical of all concepts – the average, everyday family. I can’t remember what that day’s average family was like.

To be honest, my friend and I were well into the process of leaving our parents behind and striking out on our own. For life is about change, and indeed life can deal out many different hands to different people. And although it can be seen as a game of chance, there are a few immutable truths about the whole thing. One is that our time is finite. The other is that what the bearded speaker said was true. Family is a cornerstone of our society.

The family unit is where we learn about life. It’s the launching pad from which we make our way through life. It’s where our characters are formed and our values are born. It’s where we find what we want to rebel against or stand up for. And even though life is full of a fondness for change, the importance of the family is still paramount.

But although the family’s role may be the same, its makeup and recipe can change. That’s where the market researchers come into play. Since that day stacking plastic chairs there have been countless more Family Fun Days held around this country, and more tears over face-painting and fractious parents and lost children announcements, though thankfully not as many giant, permed, Lycra-clad warblers.

Kids are now staying in their family home long after my generation deemed it time to fly the coop. Eighteen to 20 years seemed to be the general departure age for me and my cohorts, but now it seems as if a midlife crisis is shared over a cup of tea around the breakfast table with mum and dad.

Economics can be one factor of how the family structure may differ, for economics is a social system based around people, not just a set of figures as some commentators may have us believe. Job opportunity and the cost of living may determine how long offspring stay in the family nest. The level of debt a family unit carries might determine how much a family can engage in its society. This is where public and government assistance to maintain a general level of family engagement should be encouraged. Not to pass on laws of dos and don’ts, or to pry into how a family lives its life, but to ensure that opportunity is open to all.

You only have to look at how childcare has become a major concern for many families. The collective gasp was audible when the profit-driven ABC Learning Centres lurched precariously during the latest saga in the global credit squeeze.

Australia has also become a more diverse country. There are more single-parent and mixed-parent families and indeed more same-gender parental families. Both parents may work. As a society broadens the idea of itself these changes are bound to occur, and as long as the diversity of the society’s institutions is maintained, then, really, Family Fun Days can only become even more exciting. For the bearded speaker was right, and even though on that day in the late ’80s I could never have imagined myself ever doing anything else at a Family Fun Day other than stacking chairs, both my friend and I ended up starting our own families.

Not long ago we wandered around a packed event on the banks of the Yarra River. It was teeming with people, all odd shapes, sizes and colours, but really it seemed it was teeming with families. Both our youngest children stopped by a tent that had a line stretching back through the crowds and, funnily enough, back through the years. It was the face-painting tent. Our girls looked up at us. “I hope they haven’t run out of zebra paint,” I said. “Oh Willy, we’re in trouble,” said my friend. Surrounded by families, both our own and countless others, we laughed quite a bit.

William McInnes is an actor and author. His latest book, That’d Be Right (Hachette Australia), was published in August.

Article: The Courier Mail, September 20th, 2008

William McInnes Admits His Preference for Nudism

Margaret Wenham


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IT'S easy to get sucked in by William McInnes.

Like when you ask the man who's a star quality staple of Australian film and television, who's also now turning out best sellers, whether he prefers acting or writing and he says - in all smiling earnestness - "I prefer nudism to anything".

And then there's the times he goes off on a tangent, reminiscing about companies that were around in the 1970s and their TV ad jingles."Pick 'n' Pay Hypermarket," he hums, before joining you in a laughter-laced, shrieking chorus of "Any old iron" from the old John Zupp commercials.

Melbourne-based McInnes is back in his old home state for the Brisbane Writers Festival. He's also here to promote his second autobiographical book That'd Be Right, released last month and already ensconced on the lists that matter.

A series of yarns forming a loose chronicle of McInnes' life growing up in Redcliffe - it's also a political and sporting history told in that wonderful vernacular of Queensland and the 1970s.

Words such as grundies and dacks and expressions like getting creamed by someone, after which you'd crack the s ... s.Australians, he tells The Courier-Mail, define themselves through sport and politics.

Certainly such things were defining for the 44-year-old McInnes, whose parents' involvement in Labor and lively commentary on the personalities of all political persuasions made their mark.

McInnes finally comes clean. Both acting and writing are personally rewarding.

"I like a bit of everything and the good thing is you don't have all your eggs in one basket," he says.

McInnes says one of the rewards of writing is the correspondence he receives from readers who relate to the times, places and events he's writing about.

He's soon to start another film, Blessed, while one he's finished, Prime Mover, should premiere early next year. But is there another book on the boil?

"A history of nudism in football and I'm going to call it Showertime," he says, his brow creased with mock sincerity.

McInnes will be speaking at the Writers Festival at the State Library of Queensland at 4.40pm today.

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Podcast Interview - ABC.net.au

To hear an interview from ABC radio with William, hosted by Richard Fidler, CLICK HERE.

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