William McInnes Watch

Promotional Ad for Books Alive

2009-09-11T08:20:00.001+10:00

Nice legs lady... whoa wait!!

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So wrong, yet, strangely, so right. William in drag for a cameo in "My Year Without Sex", written and directed by his wife, Sarah Watt (left).

Click photograph for the full sized glory.

Article: Perth Now - Friday, August 21st, 2009

2009-08-23T12:44:00.002+10:00

Horse Play

Maria Noakes, in STM Entertainment

REMEMBER the fuss in 2007 when Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe stripped off to play the psychotic and violent Alan Strang in Equus?
Well, now the controversial and seminal piece of British theatre is coming to Perth. In a coup, Perth Theatre Company has secured the exclusive southern hemisphere rights to the thought-provoking play.
The PTC production cast is headed by charismatic star of TV, film and theatre William McInnes and rising star and WAAPA graduate Khan Chittenden.
Centring on a bizarre act in which 17-year-old stableboy Strang, played by Chittenden, gouges the eyes out of six horses, Equusexplores humanity, truth and the fragility of life.
As child psychologist Dr Martin Dysart, played by McInnes, unlocks Strang’s obsession and sexual fantasies involving horses, he struggles with his own sense of purpose.
“He begins to question what is normality, what is it that I’m actually doing to these people (his patients), what is returning to an everyday functioning life – and is that normal, is that real?” McInnes says.
Revelling in the challenge of playing Dysart, McInnes says he’s looking forward to treading the boards again.
“That’s why you do a play like this. You get up and you want to blow the cobwebs out and have a go at a role that not many people get the chance to do,” he says.
But he’s is quick to dismiss any sort of controversy surrounding nudity in the play.
“If there’s a bit of nakedness in it, it’s not the point. The point of it is it’s all in context,” he says. “I mean you can see a streaker at the footy.”
When Equus debuted in London in 1973 it rocked the conservative majority and caused outrage and awe in equal measure. McInnes believes the play still has the ability to shock and confront audiences.
“I think the message of Equus is something that can still be confronting, that can still be an important piece of theatre,” he says.
“In the end it’s about compromising what you want life to be with the knowledge that life is incredibly brief and fragile.
“It sounds like a pretty heavy night at the theatre, but it’s entertaining and if people want to go and see something that’s going to make them think a bit then Equus is a show they should go and see.”
And how does theatre compare with film and TV for McInnes?
“You’ve got nowhere to hide in theatre. You can’t run away and fudge things,” he says. “It’s the difference between climbing a mountain and taking the chairlift.”

Equus
Sept 12-26.
His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth.
Tickets $55-$80, conc. $45-65, from BOCS.

Article: WA Today: Wednesday June 10th, 2009

2009-06-11T20:50:00.000+10:00

William McInnes jumps back into the saddle for Equus

Daile Pepper
June 10, 2009

Author William McInnes will star in Equus. Photo: Lorrie Graham

He's jokey, he's Aussie blokey and about to step back onto the stage to play one of the most challenging parts in modern theatre.

William McInnes, Australian Film Institute award winning actor, loves to share a laugh and tell a tale.

Like the time he needed to ride a horse for a job and flailed about atop the animal brandishing a stockman's whip after the horse's backside was pinched and it raced off. There was no useable footage captured.

Or when he took part in a dodgy Perth play back in the day and a peacock "went off its trolley" after a coffin was dropped on its babies.

Or being scoffed at by a "wanker" bartender at The Queens years ago when he asked for a Stella Artois but failed to pronounce the second word in a suitably stuffy manner.

The actor was trained at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and has fond memories of the State.

"One of the funniest nights I've had in Perth, was when I lived in Bennett Street and there was a little Macedonian club in North Perth," he said.

"There was a Swiss night and they were all dressed up in lederhosen and yelling Woo Hoo! They did something with milk barrels. It was surreal, I had a great night."

Mc Innes will return to Perth this September to play the lead in one of the most well-known provocative plays of modern times, Equus.

The contemporary classic by Sir Peter Shaffer will be brought to town by the Perth Theatre Company and His Majesty's Theatre - the first time the work has been performed outside Broadway and London's West End for about 30 years.

The story, recently performed to critical acclaim by Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway, is a provocative and challenging piece of drama.

McInnes will play psychiatrist Martin Dyrst, who works with a younger man who has an unhealthy fixation with horses following a horrific attack by the boy on a number of the animals.

"It's always good to test yourself out with a role this size, give yourself a bit of fright and get back in the saddle," McInnes said during a short trip to Perth.

"Not that I want to use the horse metaphor too much."

McInnes will star with young Austalian actor Khan Chittenden, who has most recently been seen in Packed to the Rafters, Dangerous and Clubland.

He said it was exciting to get back on stage after spending more of his time writing books and doing less challenging jobs in film and television.

"This is a play that puts big ideas out there for people to think about," he said.

"It's about what life is and how you live it, how you should live a life. What is important. It's a really fascinating play, some of it's pretty macabre and out there.

Equus will be the first time he has stepped onto the stage since performing in My Fair Lady a few years back. He makes no apologies for the confrontational themes, saying theatre was not all about songs, smiles and fart jokes. Though it was important to not get caught up in believing the work was so important it wasn't necessary to be entertaining.

"It's a big play, and it deals with big themes. It's a really good workout for an actor. A real wrestle," he said.

"It's an entertaining play but it's a drama. And it's not happening anywhere else in Australia."

Equus comes to His Majesty's Theatre on September 12. Tickets are available through BOCS.

Afternoon Tea with William McInnes

2009-06-10T20:04:00.002+10:00

A cute article from ABC Perth with photographs, of afternoon tea with William McInnes.

Click here to go to article.

There is also a podcast at the bottom of the page. Or click here.

Article: WA Today, Friday May 15th, 2009

2009-05-16T13:25:00.002+10:00

Equus coup brings provocative play to Perth

Daile Pepper

The Perth Theatre Company has won exclusive rights to bringEquus - the controversial play in which Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe appeared naked on stage - to Australia.

The company scored exclusive southern hemisphere rights to the play. The September season of Sir Peter Shaffer's work will be the first time Equus has been professionally performed outside of Broadway and London's West End for nearly 30 years.

Actor William McInnes, who won the best actor Australian Film Institute award last year, will star as psychiatrist Martin Dysart in the confronting play about the professional's treatment of a stable boy who commits a horrific act of violence against some horses.

Equus is the story of the 17-year-old boy, to be played by Khan Chittenden from Packed to the Rafters, and the sexual and religious mystery behind his actions. It delves deep into the psyche of the young man.

During its recent Broadway season the show received rave reviews, with Radcliffe starring alongside fellow Harry Potteractor Richard Griffiths. The part of the psychiatrist has also been played over the years by actors including Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton.

The initiative to bring the play to Perth was a joint one by the PTC and His Majesty's Theatre.

His Majesty's Theatre general manager Rodney Phillips said their collaboration on Shaffer's Amadeus in 2006 had led to the two organisations working together again on Equus.

The Perth Theatre Company's general manager, Tony Bonney, said Equus was one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century.

"Equus will be the most notable event in the Australian theatre calendar this year," he said.

"The fact that we have this opportunity over far larger companies across the country is testament to the company's commitment to text-based theatre."

Article by William: Brisbane Times, Monday May 11th, 2009

2009-05-12T20:09:00.002+10:00

Democracy has its faults, but it does offer hope

Walking around through the new Museum of Australian Democracy in Old Parliament House makes me think that democracy can be hard work. It makes me remember standing outside an election booth on a hot day trying to hand out how-to-vote cards, when nobody was interested in taking them and the candidate had a snowflake's chance in hell of winning.

They were standard issue: party name and a bad photo of an uncomfortable candidate, an awkwardly smiling plumber friend of my father's. He wore his suit and good shirt and tie for the photo, and kept his Stubbies and work boots on. The photo had been taken during his lunch break in the billiards room of the RSL.

His motto was emblazoned across his humble face: "Put me to the test and I will do my best." Not much of a battle cry, we thought.

We had looked at his photo, my friend and I, for most of the morning and a good part of the afternoon. After a while we got bored, and started handing out handfuls to unsuspecting voters. We would stuff wads into handbags and shopping baskets. Fold them and roll them and tear them. Poke out the humble plumber's eyes. Flick them at each other like ninja stars we had seen in the lame martial arts movies at the old Bay Cinema in Scarborough.

We would treat the exercise with the lack of interest we thought the whole thing deserved. My father turned up. He'd been doing the rounds of the booths. He must have been watching us for a bit and seen what we had been up to.

"Give me those," he said when he appeared. He spoke without rancour or anger, he just said it. "Go on, bugger off to the beach, I'll hand them out."

I tried to protest. "There's no point, he won't win. Nobody wants them." My father just looked at me. "That's not the point, you droob. People have died so we could vote today you know, and this fella has put his hand up. They deserve better than a pair of gooses like you. Go on bugger off, I'll hand them out."

So we buggered off to the beach and he stood handing out cards for a man few would vote for. We laughed at the beach, for we couldn't really see the point.

Sometimes, it is hard to get anywhere near seeing it.

There are bound to be times in this country when a community is saddled with a dud government. At any level, federal, state or local, when the group of people elected to govern is simply not up to the task.

Sometimes they are hopeless, sometimes they get swallowed by events beyond their control, sometimes they are riddled with corruption, and most of the time it's because they are at the fag end of long incumbency and are tired and spin passes for policy and self-preservation passes for service.

That's when people tend to fall back on old cliches and pretend cynicism.

All politicians are self-serving and self-important. All major political parties are moribund and the system by which we Australians allow ourselves to be governed - or misgoverned - is flawed and favours a few.

It's easy to pretend to be cynical. It's also easy to believe that calamity is around every corner: if our economy is tanking one week, a pandemic is spreading the next.

Yet it is this feigned cynicism - shrugging the shoulders, saying believing in something is too hard and so nothing matters - that is the great pandemic.

The Museum of Australian Democracy shows us democracy isn't just about politics and that politics isn't just about politicians. Amazingly, it shows the visitor that politicians are, above all, people.

It shows people struggling to build a better life. It shows hopes and dreams. It shows centuries of revolutions and compassion and courage. Democracy is the most human of all forms of governance. Sometimes, it's too weak, too open to manipulation, and too likely to lose its way. But the democratic bottom line is simple and the most generous of things, it's hope.

Modern Australia is a young nation. Along the way we have acquired some baggage and some great achievements that we should take pride in, both of which tell us what has made this country, us, and our brand of democracy what we are.

When I walk around the halls of Old Parliament House, I begin to see my father's point. Not that he would always win, not that his party would win, but that he and people like him would have a go.

It was being put to the test and giving your best, even if that meant wearing Stubbies and work boots below your suit, good shirt and tie.

William McInnes is the chairman of the advisory council of the Museum of Australian Democracy, which opened on Saturday.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Article: PS News, Tuesday May 12th, 2009

2009-05-12T19:46:00.001+10:00

House goes MoAD over museum of democracy

The new Museum of Australian Democracy has been officially opened in Canberra at the Old Parliament House.

Billed as the first and only museum in Australia dedicated to telling the story of Australia’s democracy the MoAD was opened by the only Prime Minister to serve in both the old House and the new, Bob Hawke.

Mr Hawke was joined for the ceremony by the Chairman of the MoAD Advisory Council, William McInnes and Special Minister of State, Senator John Faulkner.

According to organisers, a network of dynamic exhibitions in the new Museum will connect Australians with more than 2000 years of history and heritage.

It will trace democracy from its earliest origins.

Among the attractions at the museum are the writing set and inkstand of founding US President George Washington, the first edition of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man which was published in 1791 to support the French Revolution, and a mosaic of film footage showing how Australians see democracy playing a role in their life.

Another attraction is the Cabinet-in-Confidence display which offers an insight into some of the dilemmas to have faced Australian Cabinets, such as attempts to ban the Communist Party and the 1976 refugee crisis.

Director of the Museum, Jenny Anderson said it had been designed to appeal to visitors of all ages.

“It will present a balanced view on our democracy,” Ms Anderson said.

“People will be able to decide what we have done well, what we could have done better and the challenges that lie ahead of us as a democratic society.”

She said the museum would be constantly evolving to remain fresh and new.

Mr McInnes described it as more of an adventure than a ‘finger-wagging’ exercise in democracy.

“It will be a place where Australians can come and renew their knowledge of our history and be inspired and indeed challenged,” he said.

“There is a need for everybody, whatever age, whatever part of life they are from, to re-acquaint themselves with the history of Australia’s democracy to understand where we have come from and where we might be headed.”

More information on the new Museum of Australian Democracy is available from the Old Parliament House websitewww.oph.gov.au

Source

Article: The West Australian, Tuesday May 2nd, 2009

2009-05-12T19:44:00.001+10:00

McInnes Rides into Town for Equus

Australian actor William McInnes will play the lead role in the first Perth production of Peter Shaffer’s provocative play Equus in more than 30 years.

The WAAPA-trained McInnes will play psychiatrist Martin Dysart, whose sessions with a disturbed stable boy takes the form of a detective thriller as he explores various sexual, religious and social taboos.

Rising Australian star Khan Chittenden (Packed to the Rafters) will play the youth Alan Strang, a role for which Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe recently dropped his pants on Broadway.

The Perth Theatre Company has billed the September 12-26 season at Majesty’s Theatre a “southern hemisphere” exclusive because the rights to Equus are tightly guarded and it has not been professionally produced outside London or New York for three decades. The play was last seen in Perth in 1975.

McInnes, who filmed The Shark Net in Perth in 2002, said he was thrilled to be coming back to take on one of the most significant roles in contemporary theatre.

“His Majesty’s is a wonderful venue and I’m really looking forward to working with all the mob at the Perth Theatre Company to bring this great piece of theatre to as many people of Perth as possible.”

STEPHEN BEVIS

William In Drag

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06
Originally uploaded by footprintfilmsaustralia

What a find this is! While searching for pictures of William in Flickr, I came across this one of him in drag!!! That's his wife, Sarah Watt, beside him. OMG!

Click on the image for a larger version. If you dare.

Nice legs Will.

Another Flickr Photo

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bob hawke - museum of australian democracy
Originally uploaded by Wimmera

Another photo from the opening of the Museum of Australian Democracy, 9th May, 2009.

Click on the images to see the larger versions.

Photo From Flickr

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william mcinnes - museum of australian democracy
Originally uploaded by Wimmera

Found this photo on Flickr of William speaking at the opening of the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra, Saturday 9th May, 2009.

Interview: ABC Melbourne, Friday 8th May, 2009

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Click here for an interview from ABC Melbourne radio with Red Symonds, William talks about the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra.

Article: The Australian, Friday May 8th, 2009

2009-05-09T13:03:00.001+10:00

Democracy museum breathes new life into the Old House

Rosemary Sorensen | May 08, 2009

Old Parliament House has undergone major refurbishments in preparation for its rebirth as the Museum of Australian Democracy.

Granted $31.5million over four years in the 2006 federal budget, Old Parliament House has now been given a "new lease of life", according to actor William McInnes, who has accepted the position of chairman of the museum's advisory council.

"So often, we disparage the things that have happened here in Canberra, but we should be proud of our democratic history, not in a chest-beating way, but in a way that invites us in and engages us," McInnes said.

"You go past the partisan politics and get a great handle on what happened in our past, as well as challenging people to think about what democracy means in their everyday lives."

McInnes takes over as chairman from former Country Party leader Doug Anthony, who oversaw the building's metamorphosis into the new MoAD. McInnes said he was surprised to be asked to take on the role, but saw it as a "real treat".

"I'm not Mother Teresa, but I am trying to give something back," McInnes said. "I'm aware that I've been in an industry well supported by the public purse, and I'm very happy to be associated with such an inspiring museum. This will be another jewel in the crown of Canberra."

Part of the makeover was made possible by the relocation of the National Portrait Gallery from its temporary home in Old Parliament House to a purpose-built venue nearby.

The original parliamentary library at the rear of the building, which housed the national portrait collection from 1994 until last year, will reopen tomorrow with a permanent exhibition called Australian Democracy -- more than 2000 years in the making. The exhibition will include objects on long-term loan by the Daughters of the American Revolution, including a writing set used by George Washington, the first US president, and a first edition of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, published in 1791 in support of the French Revolution.

McInnes, who played Australia's wartime prime minister John Curtin in a 2007 telemovie, said election nights in his family were second only in importance to Christmas and New Year.

The museum will be officially opened tomorrow by Bob Hawke, who was the last prime minister to preside over parliament in the 82-year-old heritage-listed building.

Photographs: My Fair Lady

2009-04-07T18:16:00.003+10:00

I was emailed these pictures today from the New Zealand production of My Fair Lady:

Article: New Zealand Herald, Sunday 22nd March, 2009

2009-03-27T21:53:00.002+10:00

Enter a fair dinkum gent

4:00AM Sunday Mar 22, 2009
Sarah Lang

My Fair Lady. Photo / Supplied

For the third time this morning, William McInnes' laugh has metamorphosed into a snort. "I always do that when I giggle too much, it's terrible." He grins.

The salt-of-the-earth Aussie actor is in the thick of Sydneyside rehearsals for the Auckland season of My Fair Lady, which opens at The Civic on Wednesday.

My Fair Lady - the adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's epic play Pygmalion - has been one of the world's favourite musicals for more than 50 years, since its first Broadway season in 1956 broke all box-office records.

Transporting audiences to the heart of Edwardian London, it follows the fortunes of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, who takes speech lessons from phonetics professor Henry Higgins so she can pass as a refined lady. Transforming the feisty street urchin to honour a bet, pompous Henry takes credit for Eliza's makeover. But does she need him, or does he need her?

My Fair Lady is a satirical, urbane comedy with plenty of verbal jousting and some thought-provoking themes: about belief in yourself, how (not) to judge people, and friction between the sexes. The wealth of witticisms lend it the air of a theatrepiece and the show-stopping songs (Wouldn't It Be Loverly, With a Little Bit of Luck, The Rain in Spain, I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live, Get Me To The Church on Time and I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face) blend in seamlessly, enriching rather than jarring the story.

Although this incarnation ofMy Fair Lady brings lavish sets and a fashion parade of costumes from last year's sell-out Australian tour, there's been no resting on laurels here. Opera Australia star soprano Taryn Fiebig stays on as Eliza, but there's new blood in the form of New Zealand's grande dame of acting, Ilona Rodgers (as Henry's acerbic mother Mrs Higgins), globe-touring actor/singer/cabaret artist Hayden Tee (as impoverished aristocrat Freddy), and McInnes as the irascible professor Henry Higgins. It's the accomplished actor's first musical after many roles in theatre, film and TV (Blue Heelers, Seachange).

A new protagonist keeps the production interesting for Stuart Maunder, a veteran director of opera, musicals and concerts. Henry's are hard boots to fill, Maunder says, given the self-absorbed misogynist has been played by some of the world's acting greats; most recently in Sydney by Richard E. Grant. "William brings a very different feel. I think he's a bit more of a mimic than the other boys were. There's a wickedness about him, a delight in playing with Eliza. Which, in turn, makes her more feisty."

Maunder is speaking from the bowels of historic Australia Hall, with its faded grandeur of embellished ceilings and friezes. Giant black drapes block all natural light, props are minimal, and lines drawn on the floor mark the boundaries of The Civic's space, so the actors will know if they "fall" off the stage into the orchestra pit.

When I'm there, "onstage" rehearsals are restricted to just the two protagonists and assistant director/choreographer Elizabeth Hill, who is reading lines for the other parts and prompting or correcting McInnes. Once McInnes is sure enough of his footing and his lines, other cast members will be added, building up to full-cast rehearsals. "I'm the slow new boy," McInnes says after fluffing a line. It's a little startling to hear the highfalutin Btritish toff accent suddenly revert to an Australian drawl.

Yet the quintessential laidback Aussie bloke looks anything but stressed. When he slips up, he more often than not cracks a joke or tells a "there-was-this-one-time" story. The laughter breaks the creative tension.

But the jokes don't mean he's slacking. "You can take your work seriously but you can't take yourself seriously, otherwise you disappear up your own arse," he says.

Whenever there's a short pause, McInnes bends over his script: making notes in the margins; reading his lines; practising different facial expressions, stances, tones of voice, movements and speeds. He's in his own little bubble until it's time to go again. Yes, the same scene. "That's it," comes a voice booming from the director's chair.

As Maunder looks on, his internal monologue sometimes spills over into speech, with asides such as "Oh, the grandeur of human language" tossed over his shoulder.

Although McInnes has done plenty of theatre, he says his first musical is a real challenge, especially since it is "a classic piece of musical theatre. It certainly clears out some cobwebs, that's for sure. "But I reckon you've just got to jump in and have a crack. It's good to give yourself a bit of a fright."

Although the waltz moves are fresh fodder ("I dance like an oil rig in heavy seas"), it's the singing, particularly the solos, which are the most daunting. "But you can't think too much about it or you trip over yourself."

Practising his solo I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face, McInnes shows off a strong voice, even if he seems slightly uncomfortable on the high notes. Still, when Fiebig breaks into song, it's obvious who is the singer who acts and who is the actor who sings. Had he sung before?

"Oh yeah, I've sung in the shower and in bars. I sang at my mother's birthday the other day with my sister and I sounded like a dying mule," he says. Maunder differs, saying McInnes' hitherto underused singing voice is very strong in its quality, range and pitch. "He can scream certain notes so they're very poignant. I wouldn't mind betting it won't be too long before this one ends up doing a real (more musical) musical."

So how did McInnes end up so far from his usual stamping ground?

It's all down to Maunder reading a magazine article mentioning that McInnes had always wanted to do a musical but couldn't sing.

"I'd liked him as an actor, but the feel of him has always been so Australian," says Maunder, who decided to ring McInnes anyway to see if he was at all interested in playing Henry for the Auckland season.

"He just said 'Yeah, all right mate', and I thought:' Oh my God, we're talking about the part of the quintessential English gent here."

But his nerves were soothed after a one-on-one fortnight in McInnes' hometown of Melbourne. "He is a chameleon and a master of acting," Maunder says.

Despite the patent pressure on him, McInnes who jokes he wants to "Australianise" the musical into My Fair Matey, isn't worried. "Yeah, she'll be right".

* My Fair Lady opens at Auckland's Civic Theatre, The Edge, on Wednesday for a limited season only.

Article: New Zealand Herald, Saturday 14th March, 2009

2009-03-14T21:18:00.004+10:00

Fair Dinkum He's a Right Henry

by Linda Herrick

Professor Henry Higgins is on the line from Melbourne. In his lifelong dedication to the study of correct phonetics, he has never been more offended than by the strident screech of Cockney flowergirl Eliza Doolittle. In the words of the song Why Can't the English Learn to Speak? he thinks Eliza is "a prisoner of the gutter ... she should be taken out and hung, for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue".

Then the good prof starts gargling to the tune of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face ...

It's a little known fact that Australian actor William McInnes, who heads the cast of the musical My Fair Lady at the Civic from March 25, is a seasoned gargler. He may have won multiple Logie Awards for most outstanding actor in TV series such as SeaChange andBlue Heelers and best actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards for moviesLook Both Ways and Unfinished Sky, but he also has what he thought (until now) was a secret skill. At university, many years ago, he was in a group called the Musical Garglers.

"Oh man, where did you get that from?" he groans. "Unfortunately, that's true. You can see how I spent my university years - we spent too much time in the students' bar. We played anything you could gargle to. We actually got asked to perform at a wedding. We gargled with beer and stuff like that. I am a class act. I am going to be Henry Higgins in stubbies and thongs. Don't put that in!"

This is not McInnes' first musical. In Year 10 of school, he claims, he was in the chorus of The Pirates of Penzance, but got kicked out with "all the rugby boys because we were too rowdy". Surely he's had more adult musical experience since then? "Yeah, I think so," he drawls, "but I can't remember what it was called. But My Fair Ladyis a terrific piece," attending briefly to his publicity duties. "Anyone who knows it thinks fondly of it. There's every tune you can hum or gargle to. What do you want to hear?"

Thus I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face comes gurgling down the phone, McInnes style. The point of Henry Higgins, though, is that he speaks in a frightfully posh upper-class English accent. McInnes, who was born and bred in the coastal town of Redcliffe, east of Brisbane, does not.

"I'm doing it as a Queenslander and I'm gonna wear my old mouth guard, come on stage in an old rugby uniform and electrical tape around my ears and be the broken-down old fullback. They're gonna kill me if you put this in. Don't put it in!"

McInnes, 44, first saw the film of My Fair Lady when he was 10 at the local drive-in with his mother. It was a double bill, with The Sound of Music, "and so long we had to pitch up a tent and camp overnight", he quips. "My Fair Ladywas a cracking piece back then and Audrey Hepburn was a cracker."

The Redcliffe drive-in was important to young William. He has written about it in his best-selling childhood memoir A Man's Got to Have a Hobby. "I went there with a friend who had a golden Torana to see Alien," he recalls. "Everyone was engrossed in Alien but he just wanted to listen on the radio to the last couple of overs of this one-day international of Australia playing the West Indies so we watched the last minutes of Alien with the Australian cricket

commentators going crazy. At the end, he turned round and said, 'That was a bloody good movie. Whoi can't they make more loike it?' It was ridiculous."

McInnes laughs and adds: "I've got an American friend who says, 'You Queenslanders, you speak like a ventriloquist, you don't move your lips when you speak'."

So he does take an interest in phonetics, like Higgins? "That's one of the great things about Australians, you know? 'Why can't the New Zealanders speak clearly?' And you go, 'Yeah, well, have you just looked in the mirror?' It's a very funny thing, the Australian accent. You get two speeds - you either speak v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y or," sounding like a cartoon chipmunk, "like you're a helium race caller."

I think it's safe to say McInnes is not going to model himself on the Henry Higgins archetype established by Rex Harrison. "I guess everyone relates him to Henry but it doesn't mean you turn into a Rex Harrison tribute artist," he says. "It's not like an Elvis tribute artist. Now there's a thought! Elvis as Henry Higgins. 'Thank you very much' and have him come out in a jump suit."

Let's get a bit more serious here. Has he learned the lyrics yet to MFL's classic songs like You Did It, I'm an Ordinary Man, The Rain in Spain? "Glarg glarg glarg," is the response.

He adds, slightly more soberly, "I am going around the house singing and my kids are over it. I dropped my son off at the station - not too many 15-year-olds have to deal with walking over to a crowded rail station in their school blazer while their father is yelling out to them Why Can't the English Learn to Speak?"

McInnes says he thinks Higgins is "a weird character. It's almost like he's one of those people who become so attuned to some particular part of human existence that the rest of it falls away. I know he's such a misogynist, misanthropic sort of character but the warmth of the musical is how that gets stripped away and he realises he's quite a lonely man, which is moving."

McInnes has to finish now and go to rehearsals. "Look, if I could just seriously leave you with one thought though on our two nations' relationship, best described in these words." He gargles away. "You see - I'm a serious artist. Luckily there are professionals in the rest of the cast."

He signs off with a word I haven't heard since the last time I was in Oz. "Hooray!" Indeed. Hooray for Henry "Gargler" Higgins.

LOWDOWN

What: My Fair Lady
History: Based on the 1913 play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; music by Frederick Loewe. The plot involves Cockney flowergirl Eliza Doolittle who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins so she can pass herself off in London high society as a "lady". The pair reluctantly fall in love. First staged on Broadway in 1956, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, followed by a hit London season, and a film in 1964 starring Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, whose singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon. A remake starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Keira Knightley is scheduled to be made this year.
The new show: The stage version opens at the Civic on March 25 and runs until April 12. It stars William McInnes as Henry Higgins, Taryn Fiebig as Eliza, Ilona Rodgers as Henry's mother, and Rhys McConnochie as Colonel Pickering accompanied by a large ensemble cast and 33 members of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Bookings: Through the-edge.co.nz; tickets from $74.90

Auckland Readers: Win Tickets to see William in My Fair Lady

2009-03-12T11:54:00.002+10:00

For our Kiwi friends only, you can win tickets to see William play Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, through www.eventfinder.co.nz

Click here for information.

Article: TV Tonight, Thursday March 12th, 2009

2009-03-12T11:37:00.002+10:00

Stories wanted to build Modern Australia

By David Knox on March 12

ABC is calling for people to share their personal stories online, with the possibility of incorporating the materil into a four-part documentary series The Making of Modern Australia (MOMA.

As both a broadband project and TV series, ABC is inviting individuals and families to log stories of life in Australia since 1945.

“The Making of Modern Australia allows everyone to be a part of history,” says series producer Ian Collie.

“They might be sad or funny stories, memories of big events, or just the quiet details of everyday life. We’re making a history of Australia told by the people who lived it,” Mr Collie said.

“The Making of Modern Australia provides a wonderful opportunity for families to get together and talk about their past and their family history. We’re hoping younger family members will record parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents, and then upload their films or audio files, as well as photos or written material,” he said.

People can upload their stories through photos, home movies, live webcams, sound recordings and text atwww.makingaustralia.com.au. William McInnes gives virtual guidance on the site.

Personal stories are being sought primarily in four broad categories:

* faith and religion
* parenting and childhood
* romance and relationships
* the Australian home/a sense of place

Stories will be showcased on the website as a lasting record for others to read and comment on. All material posted to the website will be considered for inclusion in the four-part landmark documentary series on ABC TV.

Article: The Australian, Wednesday 11th March, 2009

2009-03-12T11:33:00.001+10:00

Your Story is History

AUSTRALIAN history has never been so popular. On Sunday night the ABC will screen part one of Rogue Nation, the colourful story of our early Colonial past.

But now the national broadcaster wants to tell a more recent story, the story of your lives.

A unique online and television project will see people posting their personal history through photos, home movies, live webcams, sound recordings and text to a dedicated website http://www.makingaustralia.com.au for possible inclusion in a television series.

Popular Australian actor William McInnes has written two memoirs about his life experiences and he has been recruited to walk the public through the process of story telling.

The ABC says The Making of Modern Australia (MOMA) will be an unofficial people’s history, with individuals and families sharing their stories of life in Australia since 1945.

“The Making of Modern Australia allows everyone to be a part of history,” says series producer Ian Collie.

“They might be sad or funny stories, memories of big events, or just the quiet details of everyday life. We’re making a history of Australia told by the people who lived it,” Collie says.

“The Making of Modern Australia provides a wonderful opportunity for families to get together and talk about their past and their family history. We’re hoping younger family members will record parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents, and then upload their films or audio files, as well as photos or written material,” he said.

People are being asked to frame their memories around four broad categories:
faith and religion
parenting and childhood
romance and relationships
the Australian home/a sense of place

William In Drag

2009-02-21T11:52:00.004+10:00

From an article in yesterday's AdelaideNow:

William McInnes makes a surprise appearance in My Year Without Sex as a transvestite. "It was just a regular night out at the footy club," McInnes jokingly said at the opening.

To read the full article, click here.

Article: Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 19th February, 2009

2009-02-20T19:41:00.003+10:00

Hawkie's desk...William McInnes, chairman of the Old Parliament House Advisory Council, at the prime minister's desk last occupied by Bob Hawke. Photo: Andrew Meares

Democracy enshrined in the first House

Yuko Narushima

WHAT was intended as an alabaster halfway house for parliament is set to become a permanent shrine to Australian democracy when Old Parliament House is reborn as a museum.

The Museum of Australian Democracy will open at the heritage-listed building in May.

Yesterday the actor William McInnes was appointed the board's chairman.

"It's going to give Old Parliament House a reboot," the star ofLook Both Ways and SeaChange said. "I'm enthusiastic about a place that takes a historical building and broadens its appeal."

Old Parliament House opened as a provisional home to parliament in 1927. Its myriad passageways and rooms housed 3000 cramped workers by the time the new Parliament House replaced it in 1988.

The museum is designed to make politics accessible to and to encourage people to take an active role in its running.

McInnes, who recently played the former prime minister John Curtin in an ABC telemovie, joked about reprising the role for matinee sessions in the reinvigorated house.

The building had changed from his first memory of it, he said. As a Queensland schoolboy he travelled 48 hours by bus to see the place, only to have his recollections obliterated by the sight of his school crush vomiting beef sandwiches on the lawn where Gough Whitlam spoke before his dismissal.

Yesterday McInnes reflected on the building's elegance and accessibility.

"It isn't as grand as what I thought it. In many ways that reflects the Australian idea of politics - the idea of getting above yourself, or building a magic castle for yourself in the clouds, isn't here."

A senior historian at the museum, Joy McCann, said visitors would encounter the same ambience that filled the building when it was alive with debate on conscription, land rights and anti-discrimination.

"They'll see the facade as it always has been. The chambers were where it all happened. It's where the first two women walked into parliament in 1942," she said.

More than that, the museum will chronicle the history of democracy across the world. It will acknowledge challenges to the system and exhibit a first edition of Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 tome A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman, highlighting the difference between the ideals and the reality.

A hunk of the Berlin Wall will be on display as well as a yellow collection bucket used for the Farmers Fighting Fund, when 45,000 farmers protested on the lawns of parliament in 1985 while the Hawke government deliberated tax reform within.

Media Statement - 19th February 2009

2009-02-20T19:29:00.001+10:00

Special Minister of State, Senator John Faulkner, today announced that celebrated actor and writer William McInnes has been appointed as the Chair of the Old Parliament House Advisory Council for a three year term.

Mr McInnes received AFI and Logie Awards for his work as a film and television actor, and was named Australian Newcomer of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards in 2006. Also a noted speaker, Mr McInnes delivered the John Batman Oration on “What it means to be Australian” in 2007. His knowledge and experience will be of considerable value to the work of the Council.

Senator Faulkner said “I am delighted that William McInnes has agreed to take up the role of Chair at such an exciting time in the development of Old Parliament House. I know he brings a passion for our democratic tradition, as well as a love of one of its great symbols, Old Parliament House.”

Senator Faulkner paid tribute to retiring Chair, the Right Honourable Doug Anthony AC CH, who has played a key role in developing Old Parliament House’s new role. “I thank Doug Anthony for steering Old Parliament House through this time of great development.”

The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House will be the only museum in Australia dedicated to telling the story of Australian democracy. Throughout the building visitors will be able to celebrate and consider the history and distinctive character of Australian democracy while continuing to enjoy the history and heritage of the building.

Mr McInnes said “I am delighted to be given the opportunity to be involved in helping other Australians and myself to better understand the Australia we live in.”

Throughout the final stages of the development visitors can continue to enjoy the rich history of Australia’s political past at Old Parliament House through tours, events and exhibitions.

Article: NineMSN News, Thursday 19th February, 2009

2009-02-20T19:15:00.004+10:00

McInnes Thrilled With Democracy Museum

by Melissa Jenkins

All rugged up to brave the bitter Canberra winter as a boy, William McInnes' first brush with democracy didn't follow the script.

He had arrived at Old Parliament House - then Australia's functioning federal parliament - after a 48-hour bus trip from Queensland on a school excursion to the nation's capital.

The plan was to meet with his local member but unfortunately he was off doing "politician's business".

"But in his place was a large tray of sandwiches and to me, that has always been a fond memory of mine," McInnes told reporters in Canberra.

The actor, who has raised the pulses of many women across the nation, is best known for his turns as Sergeant Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers and Max Connors in Sea Change.

Now he can add another string to his bow - chair of the Old Parliament House Advisory Council, replacing former deputy prime minister, Doug Anthony.

McInnes was centre stage at Wednesday's announcement of a new Museum of Australian Democracy, to open at Old Parliament House on May 9.

The museum, to include objects such as George Washington's writing set and lamp, will have a multi-media focus and document how democracy evolved both internationally and in Australia.

"It will be a place, I think, where Australians can come and renew their knowledge of our history and be inspired and indeed challenged," McInnes said.

"It's a museum which won't lecture people, it won't talk down to people ... it's not a finger wagging exercise."

Australians should not take democracy for granted, the father of two said.

"You've got to look after it, like a garden, you've got to cherish it. Because if you don't look after it weeds will grow and it won't be able to function."

"It's just a moment, a chance, that some people struggle all their lives for, to say this is something we should cherish."

The museum will include exhibitions `Australian Democracy-more than 2000 years in the making' and `Living Democracy: the power of the people'.

One of the objects to feature will be a cast of a Bust of Pericles, from the 2nd century AD. Pericles introduced many political reforms, including payment for political and jury service and the participation by the Athenian people in the governance of their city.

A piece of the Berlin Wall and a GetUp Climate Torch from 2008 will also be on display.

William McInnes Interviews on ForaTV

2009-01-04T10:05:00.005+10:00

To watch the two videos, click on the links below:

On Hate Towards Politicians

Reads from his Novel "That'd Be Right"

Article - Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday December 23rd 2008

2008-12-26T17:39:00.003+10:00

Bring on the mad charge of the credit card brigade
William McInnes

In search of a Christmas present I found myself standing in a line.

Noise. Children screaming. Piped music. Voices over speaker systems. And a voice close to me.

"You weren't in Underbelly," said the large woman in front of me at the checkout. A couple of bored shoppers turned to look. A price check was in progress so we had time to kill.

I smiled.

"You weren't in Underbelly," she repeated, pointing in a slightly accusing manner with a George Foreman Fat Beating Grill. "No, I wasn't was I?"

I clutched a collection of underpants and socks, the all-purpose stocking fillers. Dean Martin crooned Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer from the store's sound system, this year's Yuletide shopping anthem that haunts you from shop to shop.

Nobody said much as we listened to a long-dead singer from an age of full employment and post-World War II certainties. Then her partner spoke. "I saw Australia … you weren't in that either."

He was even larger than she was. He wore a baseball cap with BAD emblazoned on the brim.

"No," I admitted, as Dean warbled away. "I wasn't in Australia."

Bad Hat nodded. "Yeah, you weren't in that one," he said sagely.

"Bloody long," said Grill Purchaser, shaking her head. "You buying some undies?" she asked. "I am."

"Well, you always need undies," said Bad Hat. The price-check cleared and we all moved on.

"You getting much work? Play acting?" asked the Griller.

And she sounded a little concerned, as if I hadn't been in enough she had seen. "Well, enough to keep me in undies," I reassured her.

They laughed. "Finished your shopping?" I asked. They laughed a bit louder.

It sounded like a scene from Robin Hood. Everyone was laughing. Maybe it was just Christmas.

"No, way to go yet. Got his," and the George Foreman Fat Beating Grill was proffered in the direction of Bad Hat.

"But we've got to spend the rest of Kev's cheque," said Bad Hat.

"Well, good luck," I said.

"Yeah mate, you too," said the Griller, and they disappeared off in the throng to spend the rest of Kev's cheque. Spend to keep the economy ticking over.

Maybe I should be buying a little more than undies and socks. Perhaps I shouldn't wait for Kev's cheque. I should charge into the shops with my credit card flying like the flag of the 7th Cavalry, here to save the day. To buy up big, to save the economy. My daughter had an idea. She came up with a copy of That'd Be Right by William McInnes. "Maybe you should buy it, Dad," she said helpfully.

Perhaps instead of the Seventh it was more the Credit Charge of the Light Brigade, just some mad sod's shot at glory. Well, in any case, at least the Light Brigade got a poem out of it.

Maybe a latterday Tennyson will write an epic ode to the Christmas shoppers of 2008 who tried to buy up big in the face of the GFC. The Global Financial Crisis.

When something is serious, letters describe it, but only by the people who never saw it coming, the brokers, the commentators and bankers and all their fellow travellers who got things so wrong. I bet they aren't buying up big this Christmas.

And then I think to myself, it doesn't matter. People don't buy things at Christmas just for the sake of it. They do it because they want Christmas to be fun. To be good, to be happy.

Maybe somebody somewhere cottoned on to the idea that this spirit of generosity was an opportunity to make a dollar. But all in all, I like it.

Not standing in checkout lines and shopping and the whole commercialisation, but I don't care how daggy it is - I like Christmas. I like people giving stuff to others and I like people thinking outside themselves.

After another hour of shuffling through the mall and being chased by Deano's Red-Nosed Reindeer, I stumble through the car park back to my car. Big four-wheel-drives cruise past like sharks, looking for a park.

I turn down a line of bays to see a jam of cars. A group of trolleys and bags are strewn about. At first I think somebody might be hurt, there's been some sort of accident.

I get closer and see I see Bad Hat, a bloke in a suit, a tradie in King Gees and the George Foremen Griller. They're all pushing a car.

It's driven by a harried looking woman wearing a burqa with a load of kids. "She left the lights on," explains the tradie.

I put down my items and join in. We push, the car chugs into life and the woman smiles and waves her thanks.

"Merry Christmas," she calls out.

"Merry Christmas," says the man in the suit. And he smiles to himself.

"Yeah," puffs Bad Hat. And he turns to me, shaking his head: "You weren't in Underbelly."

Merry Christmas to you Bad Hat, and Merry Christmas to all of you.

Article: Scoop, Saturday 20th December, 2008

2008-12-21T16:43:00.003+10:00

William McInnes Stars In My Fair Lady

Two-time Logie Award and 2008 AFI Award winner announced to star in NZ season of My Fair Lady

Star of Australian stage-and-screen, William McInnes (Blue Heelers, SeaChange, A Country Practice) will make his New Zealand stage debut as the world’s most-loved curmudgeonly misogynist, Henry Higgins, in the Broadway musical, My Fair Lady.

This spectacular production will play a strictly limited season at Auckland’s The Civic, THE EDGE® from 25 March 2009.

McInnes will star alongside Taryn Fiebig, who has been critically acclaimed around Australia for her performance in one of the most coveted roles in musical theatre history, Eliza Doolittle.
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s musical, My Fair Lady, is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.

Featuring some of the most memorable Broadway hits of all time, the magic of My Fair Lady continues to endure. Few can forget ‘The Rain in Spain’, or be able to resist singing along to ‘I Could Have Danced all Night’, ‘Get Me to the Church on Time’, and ‘Wouldn’t it be Loverly’.
Transporting audiences to the lively heart of London, My Fair Lady features a delightful mix of comedy and romance. This international production comes to New Zealand after return seasons in Sydney and Melbourne and rave reviews across Australia.

With a stellar cast, extravagant sets, outstanding performances, a virtuosic chorus and a veritable fashion parade of stunning costumes – My Fair Lady is a guaranteed night of pure theatre magic.

William McInnes – Professor Henry Higgins

William McInnes is one of the most accomplished and popular actors on the Australian landscape today. In 2006 William was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald, Sun Herald and the Age Australian Star of The Year Award. Equally at home in theatre, film and television, comedy and drama, he has played countless lead and supporting roles in some of the most successful and memorable productions Australia has had to offer and has multiple AFI and Logie nominations for this extensive body of work, this year picking up the AFI Award for Best Actor in a Feature Film – Unfinished Sky.

In television, William has shone in dramatic lead roles in The Shark Net, My Brother Jack, Blue Heelers, Stepfather of the Bride, Seachange and more recently in the critically acclaimed and ratings success ABC telemovie Curtin, about Australia’s wartime prime minister and in the hard hitting SBS television series East West 1-0-1

William’s work in Australian Cinema is also widely acknowledged, by both industry peers and audience alike. The feature film, Look Both Ways, saw William achieve a nomination for best lead actor by the Australian Film Institute and receive the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor. He can be seen currently in the film Unfinished Sky and has just completed filming on Prime Mover.

His many lead roles on the stage only further highlight William’s remarkable career. His performances include Don Juan for Sydney Theatre Company, Macbeth and Ray’s Tempest for Melbourne Theatre Company and Darcy for both company’s landmark productions of Pride and Prejudice.

William is also the author of two best selling books. A Man’s Gotta Have a Hobby, winner of a 2006 Australian Book industry award and Cricket Kings, which is a 2007 Australian book industry award nominee. His third book That’d Be Right has just been published.

Taryn Fiebig – Eliza Doolittle

Taryn Fiebig graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1993 with a Bachelor of Music in Cello performance after which she commenced vocal training with Molly McGurk and later with Megan Sutton.

It was her particular interest in early music repertoire which won her two scholarships to the Dartington International Summer School in 1995 and 1996, studying with Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb and Anthony Rooley continuing her studies with Evelyn Tubb in 1999 on an Arts WA Scholarship. Further study with Jane Manning was made possible by a Churchill Fellowship in 2000. She completed the Emerging Performers Programme at the Australian Opera Studio in 2003, having studied with Gregory Yurisich and Patricia Price.

As a soloist, she has performed the 15th Century Masterpiece El Cant de la Sibil-la with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra for their popular Noël Noël Christmas concerts.

Internationally, Taryn has performed in Los Angeles with the contemporary music ensemble L.A. EAR unit, in England with the English Chamber Orchestra in St. John’s Smith Square, London and on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 in the radio dramas Southland and Pembroke, Arcadia.

Her operatic work includes several leading roles for the Australian Opera Studio, Marie in Lindsay Vickery’s opera-noir Rendez-vous (Tura Events 2001), Mary Magdalen in Les Saintes Femmes au Tombeau (1999 York Early Music Festival, UK) and Angel in Plainsong (2000 Perth International Arts Festival/Black Swan Theatre Co.)

In 2005, Taryn Fiebig joined Opera Australia's as a principal soprano. Her roles with this company have included Zerlina in Don Giovanni, The Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, Papagena in The Magic Flute, Rose in Lakmé, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, Karolka in Jenufa, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and Gianetta in The Gondoliers. In 2008, she sang Clorinda in Cenerentola, Musetta in La bohème and the leading role of Eliza Doolittle in the national tour of My Fair Lady.
In 2009, Taryn will perform Musetta, Galatea in Acis and Galatea, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, Anne in A Little Night Music and Yum-Yum in The Mikado for Opera Australia. She will also appear for Pinchgut Opera and in concert with the Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras; she will also take the soprano solos in Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Mozart Requiem.

Taryn Fiebig’s discography includes French Baroque Cantatas, The Concert Français and Old American Songs for ABC Classics.

Further details of the star-studded cast of My Fair Lady to be announced soon.

Tickets on sale now from THE EDGE®Phone 0800 BUYTICKETS or www.buytickets.co.nz

Excerpt from SBS Article

2008-12-11T18:57:00.002+10:00

Read whole article here.

Peter Duncan's Unfinished Sky is a remake of the Dutch film The Polish Bride (Karim Traidia, 1998), which also starred Monic Hendrickx in the lead role. For her reprisal, Duncan translated the script into Dari Persian for the actress. Duncan said: “we translated the script and sent it to Monic in South Africa. She’d listen to it in the car and learn it word for word. She certainly wasn’t up for improvisation on the day!"

"It was different for me,” Duncan said. “My other films [A Little Bit of Soul (1998) and Children of the Revolution (1996)] have been very wordy. In Unfinished Sky, I cut dialogue and I found that the script got better, particularly the first half. I had to find a language other than the verbal to get them to communicate, other than with words.

“We only had two days for rehearsal. On the first day, William (McInnes) was in a foul mood – something terrible had happened to his computer and Monic’s plane had been diverted – they were both totally discombobulated. She didn’t know where she was or what was going on and William was not giving her any breaks. Knowing she had never been to Australia, he asked her “So, you going to be starkers?” [For the shower scene.] William has two modes – one with stubble and one without. We shot the first half with stubble and then moved into post-stubble. It was only in the second half that Monic started to understand William and then they were laughing on set.

"Their own relationship really reflected their characters.”

Photos of William with his AFI Award

2008-12-09T20:27:00.002+10:00

William wins AFI Award

2008-12-07T09:46:00.001+10:00

Last night William won the AFI award for Best Lead Actor, for his role as John Woldring in Unfinished Sky.

Articles:

Courier Mail

ABC

More to follow.

Article - Herald Sun, Tuesday November 25th, 2008

2008-11-26T18:26:00.001+10:00

Deborra-Lee Furness, Miranda Otto, Tasma Walton film in secret

THE most secretive film production in Melbourne has wrapped up shooting in rainy Coburg, with a host of well-known Aussie actors taking part in an emotional drama.

A rollcall of well-known Australian actors including Deborra-lee Furness, Miranda Otto, Tasma Walton, Frances O'Connor and William McInnes, have been put through their paces by the film's emotive and demanding storyline.

The movie, directed by Ana Kokkinos, interweaves four stories that follow the adventures of seven children and five mothers during a day and night in Melbourne.

The production company had issued a ban on any press during the shoot, because they said the topic was dark and sombre.

The 35-day shoot wrapped on Friday.

Producer Al Clark, who also produced Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Chopper, said the shoot had gone exceptionally well, despite being shot at 47 different locations within Melbourne.

"The characters all live very different lives, which is why we had to use so many locations, including Coburg, Yarraville, Ivanhoe, Richmond and Seddon," he said.

Clark said all the actors put in stellar performances, even when conditions were less than ideal.

"I wouldn't recommend anyone spend their time late at night outside in Coburg in the rain," he said.

Clark said he hoped the film would be ready to premiere at the Melbourne Film Festival in July.

Article: The Courier Mail, Tuesday 11th of November, 2008

2008-11-12T18:01:00.001+10:00

William McInnes leads double life in The Informant
Erin McWhirter and Siobhan Duck

TO HIS children, Richard Button is just a daggy dad, trying to navigate his way through family life and financial worries the best he can.

He has an outspoken wife, two teenagers facing the usual coming-of-age torments but, generally speaking, Button's life appears as normal as those of the friends and family he mixes with at backyard barbecues.

But digging deeper we find someone much more enigmatic; a man whose life is under the microscope every second of every day as a secret informant for the Australian Serious Crime Agency (ASCA).

Button is living a double life – family man one minute, crime-stopper the next.

Logie winner William McInnes portrays Button in Channel 10 telemovie The Informant.

With a top-notch cast including the exceptionally gifted and witty Stephen Curry as "grumpy copper" Simon Ford, Anita Hegh as Button's wife, Christine, Colin Friels as a "strong, direct, cop" and Leeanna Walsman as surveillance agent Heidi Oliver, McInnes is in good company.

With intriguing twists, the fact is no one, not even his wife, knows the mystery behind Button.

"For all intents and purposes Richard Button and his wife, Christine, have got all the hassles of trying to pay off credit cards and make ends meet . . . as well as trying to solve major corporate crime and murders," says McInnes, 44, whose showbiz career began with a recurring part on A Country Practice in 1990 and later led to roles in SeaChange, Kath & Kim and Crashburn.

"As a piece of entertainment, I think it's a terrific concept."

Hegh, 36, says it's interesting to watch the secret life of her character's husband unravel but still remain so guarded to the point where Christine is shut out.

"She knows not to ask too much about what he does," the 1994 NIDA graduate says.
Inspired by true events

Written by Greg Haddrick, one of the masterminds behind critically acclaimed telemovie The Society Murders, The Informant is inspired by true events.

It was during Haddrick's digging for other crime television series over the years that he uncovered many international agencies have used civilians to infiltrate organised crime networks.

Legally and morally there are some things undercover police can't do that a member of the general public can.

From there The Informant was born.

Fans of Bryce Courtenay novel Jessica, which Ten adapted into a mini-series for the network in 2004, will remember Walsman in the title role.

Now, she's back on the box attempting to tackle crime and convincing her ASCA colleague Jim Sivilich (played by newcomer Don Christopher) that Button is a white hat.

Perhaps this has something to do with professional admiration for the agent bordering on a crush.

"I think Heidi thinks Richard is really good at what he does and ultimately her gut instinct is that he is one of the good guys – that maybe he has worked overseas as a special agent," Walsman explains. "There are conflicting views that maybe he is part of major crime.

"What was interesting about The Informant is that Heidi is the only female but also that idea of listening in to someone's life and being part of it and not being part of it – being a bit removed."

The Informant, Ten, November 14, 8.30pm

Article: Jetstar Magazine, November 2008

2008-11-09T19:39:00.002+10:00

10 mins with… William McInnes

He’s just authored That’d Be Right, and stars in Channel Ten’s telemovie The Informant, and feature films Prime Mover and Blessed. Meet Renaissance Man William McInnes

WORDS KYLIE MILLER

People know you as an actor, yet you’ve written three books in three years. How do you see yourself?
I guess writing is up there with acting now, it’s not my sideline anymore. With acting, I’m lucky in that I can be more selective. The last four or five jobs I’ve done have been really good.

What is That’d Be Right about?
It’s sort of a memoir but it’s not a straight memoir – it ties in major sporting events and political events like elections, because I think that sport and politics have become intertwined. It’s what was actually happening in my life when some major events were happening. It’s a very Australian story. It’s a fairly true history of modern Australia, which is the subtitle. It’s a bit like The Life and Times of a Boofhead. That’s what it should be called!

How do you choose your projects?
I like movies or stories with a point to them. I loved working on Sarah’s film Look Both Ways, I liked ABC telemovie Curtin. I liked Unfinished Sky where we had enough time to make it and it’s saying something about Australia.

Who do you play in The Informant?
It’s about this guy who works for this crime authority because he’s very skilled. He finds himself involved in high-end crime from a low-level existence. I learned how to say a line in Russian but it sounded like Martian, and I got a lot of spray tans!

Is this the life you had imagined for yourself when you were younger?
I don’t know what I expected to be doing but I didn’t think I’d be here talking about my third book! Before the first book came out I was invited to sit on a panel at the writers’ festival in Brisbane with people like the Go- Betweens singer and songwriter Grant McLennan and author John Birmingham – the cultural milieu of Brisbane. In my youth I was probably the antithesis of those sorts of people. I was part rugger and moron. It’s amusing to think where you end up.

What will you do next?
I’ll write another book. Writing is a nice adjunct to acting. As the writer you’re the architect and as the actor, you’re the builder. I tend to write about things in my life because you write about what you know. I haven’t ruled out working overseas but you’ve got to stay there and I’m not interested in that. But it’s only a plane ride away, as they say in the classics.

Article: TV.com, Wednesday 5th November, 2008

2008-11-09T19:22:00.002+10:00

Spy in Our Midst
David Knox

A new Channel TEN telemovie stars William McInnes as a man of mystery.

It's been a while since we've seen any locally-produced telemovies. This year just Emerald Falls (TEN), Scorched (Nine), Valentine's Day (ABC) and Make or Break (UK TV) hit our screens.
TEN has one more for us before the year is out, The Informant, starring William McInnes.

Written by Greg Haddrick (Underbelly, The Society Murders, My Husband My Killer), the mystery drama is inspired by true events.

It features McInnes as "Richard Button", a civilian who provides information for the Australian Serious Crimes Agency. Button seeks out leads on murder, fraud, terrorism, money-laundering, illegal gambling, arms dealing and more. Quite a job description.

He doubles in a "normal" suburban life as a family man and a struggling importer of outdoor furniture. That's slightly more covert than Maxwell Smart's "greeting card salesman" cover!
But the government agency suspects he is hiding a past, especially with the Russian tones in his accent.

Also featuring in the telemovie are Colin Friels, Stephen Curry, Anita Hegh, Leeanna Walsman and Matt Day. Directing is Peter Andrikidis (East West 101, The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant, Jessica, BlackJack).

The FOX Network has also picked up the rights for an American adaptation.

Given the interest, it's somewhat surprising TEN has slated the telemovie for a Friday night.

Still, McInnes is always worth watching. You can check it out at 8:30pm, November 14.

William Nominated for AFI Awards

2008-10-29T19:19:00.004+10:00

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.

Photos and Video of William at QPLA Conference

2008-10-26T18:24:00.001+10:00

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:

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

2008-10-26T17:46:00.004+10:00

Actor Impresses
Nick Berrett

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.

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

2008-10-26T17:39:00.002+10:00

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.

Article: The Australian, September 29th, 2008

2008-10-26T17:31:00.003+10:00

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

2008-10-26T17:11:00.004+10:00

William McInnes Admits His Preference for Nudism

Margaret Wenham

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.

Podcast Interview - ABC.net.au

2008-10-26T17:09:00.002+10:00

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

Article - The West, September 1st, 2008

2008-09-21T21:19:00.001+10:00

Leading ladies team up for new film

Some of Australia's leading ladies, including Frances O'Connor, Miranda Otto and Deborra-lee Furness, are teaming up for a new film about the depth of love between mothers and children.

Based on the award-winning play Who's Afraid of the Working Class?, Blessed interweaves four moving stories which follow the misadventures of six children as they wander the city streets through a day and a night.

Otto, O'Connor and Furness, who are all real-life mothers, star in the movie about “the depth of love between mothers and their young, and the life force that ultimately connects us all”.

The film, which also stars Victoria Haralabidou, William McInnes, Monica Maughan and Tasma Walton, will be shot on location in Melbourne from October 6 until November 21.

Blessed marks the third collaboration between director Ana Kokkinos and writer Andrew Bovell (Head On, The Book of Revelation), and has been adapted for the screen by Bovell, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius and Christos Tsiolkas.

The foursome wrote the four stories in the play first performed at the Victorian Trades Hall Council in 1998.

Who's Afraid of the Working Class was the winner of a Melbourne Green Room Award for Best New Play the same year, and a gold Awgie Award in 1999.

Book Review - That'd Be Right - SMH - August 25, 2008

2008-09-21T21:04:00.002+10:00

That'd Be Right: A Fairly True History Of Modern Australia

Reviewed by Gary Maddox

William McInnes celebrates his home, warts and all.

WITH the memoir A Man's Got To Have A Hobby, William McInnes emerged as a talented writer of comic and touching stories about suburban Australian life.

He sketched his Brisbane childhood, dominated by an eccentric father, with the same kind of laconic decency he often brings to his other job - acting in Blue Heelers, SeaChange and Curtin on television, Look Both Ways and Kokoda on film and as himself on Australian Story.

After the novel Cricket Kings, McInnes has turned to more comic and touching suburban stories pegged to landmark moments in recent Australian history in That'd Be Right, which opens on the morning of the 1975 federal election that pitched Gough Whitlam against Malcolm Fraser.

With one eye on Ian Chappell's buccaneer batting against the West Indies quicks in Perth, the country is ready to vote. Posters of local candidates with mutton-chop sideburns and walrus moustaches adorn front yards, shop windows and telegraph poles.

The young McInnes is already politically aware enough to be suspicious of a friend's father who considers Whitlam a communist and Chappell crude.

"The government, which was the caretaker one headed by square-jawed Mal, was expected to romp it in against the government that had been headed by smirking Gough until he'd been sacked by the Governor-General Sir John Kerr, a silly man who drank too much," he writes.
As that suggests, any thoughts from the book's subtitle that McInnes is taking history too seriously are quickly dispelled.

Reading That'd Be Right to understand the country's past is like dipping into Manning Clark for the jokes.

Still, there are reflections - mostly irreverent - on the political careers of Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Hewson, John Howard, Mark Latham and Kevin Rudd.

The country might have fallen for Hawke in early 1983 but to McInnes's dad, who features prominently again, he is Old Runty. On the soon-to-be PM's alleged sexiness, his mum declares: "Oh good God, him and his cackle … it'd be like a bit of slap and tickle with a rooster."

Aunty Rita is more dismissive: "No, thank you. He's too much like an old kelpie, all dick and bone."

McInnes sketches famous moments in Australian sport, including Stephen Holland swimming at the Montreal Olympics as the country's last hope for a gold medal, Rick McCosker batting heroically with a broken jaw at the Centenary Test, Australia II's victory in the America's Cup and Pat Rafter's first US Open win.

Along the way some good old-fashioned values are endorsed. Taking yourself too seriously, showboating, triumphalism, the lionising of Don Bradman, sport being turned into a spectator event, zealous entrepreneurs and Peroni activists get a pasting. A country is celebrated for all its flaws.

"Australia isn't perfect, it doesn't have to be for it is the sum total of its people," McInnes concludes. "We are all good and bad, eager and indifferent. Some of us don't care, some care too much, most of us go about our lives. That's it."

Big events weave in and out of the comic anecdotes and observations about how the country has changed. But the best parts of That'd Be Right are the small events, such as when the young McInnes pretends to mow the lawn of shortsighted Mrs Glazier, parties with a Georgian theatre company while an acting student in Perth, fills in as Santa Claus one Christmas and shares a communal moment in traffic while trying to coax the Australian tail-enders to an unlikely Test victory.

If you want stories about the author's career in film and TV, you'll have to wait. They must be destined for another memoir.

This one is a bit haphazard but, if you can forgive the shocking bias towards Queenslanders, it is another entertaining read.

William McInnes on Enough Rope - Link to Excerpt

2008-09-20T18:23:00.002+10:00

William was a featured guest on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope on August 11th, 2008. To read the transcript of the interview, and see video excerpts, go to:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s2331592.htm

Article - Adelaide Now, August 11th 2008

2008-09-20T18:20:00.001+10:00

William McInnes Wows Adelaide
Samela Harris

WILLIAM McInnes dismisses his massive popularity among women with a grin, a sigh, a laugh.

"It's all just fun," he says.

After all, much of the content of his three books has been about sport, a subject McInnes loves to write about. Then again, he writes a lot about politics.

He has written about both in his latest book That'd Be Right.

In Adelaide on a national author's tour, he ponders the new collection of memories, observations and anecdotes in the book, subtitled "a fairly true history of modern Australia".

McInnes wants to make it clear that history is an important aspect of life and culture.

"Ask people who was Prime Minister before John Howard and most of them don't know," he says.

"When I played Curtin in a movie, I was talking to someone about Curtin and the war and they said `the Iraq War?'

"You don't have to be swallowed by the past but it is good if you know about it, if you know where you've come from."

McInnes, well known on screen in films such as Look Both Ways – directed by wife Sarah Watt – and on television in series such as Sea Change and Blue Heelers, writes tales of characters and events in his life and the things he was doing during significant moments in Australian history – the election of Malcolm Fraser, Gough Whitlam, John Howard among others.

At the age of 44, the author finds himself growing less judgmental – a good thing, he says.

"It's time everyone was more tolerant. They need to give others a bit of slack – like John Howard. It's not his fault he won all those elections. Now people want a bob each way on him. A lot of people did well out of him." He quickly adds: "I'll be voting Labor until I'm carried out in a box."

The new book, however, hints at his evolving philosophy. He likes people of moderate views.

He dislikes jingoistic flag wavers. He hates "tub thumpers". He loathes winners who pump the air with their fists.

"If the world had more Australian people, people like Australians, it might be a better place," he says.

Then again, there are a lot of "boofheads" in Australia and McInnes wonders if he is one.

He suggests that men should be more sensitive, less blokey, "do more listening".

"This comes from a man who is about as sensitive as a house brick."

William on That'd Be Right

2008-09-09T14:51:00.000+10:00

Article - The Melbourne Age, August 6th, 2008

2008-09-07T14:29:00.002+10:00

Boofhead with Brains
Michael Lallo
August 6, 2008

He takes politics and culture seriously, but with his own life, actor-turned-author William McInnes finds laughter is the best tonic.

IN HIS favourite Footscray cafe, just around the corner from his house, William McInnes is drinking tea and talking politics. It's a subject he's passionate about, yet he's surprisingly frugal with his opinions, lest he be seen as "having tickets" on himself. And if the conversation gets too heavy, he simply stops mid-sentence and cracks a joke.

"So far, I reckon Rudd is …" he starts, before trailing off and staring into his cup. After a couple of moments, he throws his head back and howls.

The other patrons turn and stare, but the waiters barely raise their eyebrows.

"Stephen Smith looks like a wolf," he continues. "It's like having a really polite wolfman as your foreign minister. He needs to get rid of that Eddie Munster haircut. I was watching Lateline last night and thinking, 'So that's what happened to Eddie Munster! He settled in Perth and became an MP.' "

McInnes is here to promote his third book, That'd Be Right, a part-memoir, part-modern Australian history that combines the milestones of local politics and sport with his own experiences. It sounds like a recipe for self-indulgence, but McInnes has managed to craft a personal, funny history without the egocentricity.

"It's basically just the history of a boofhead arsing around," he says. "It should be called The Life and Times of a Boofhead from Queensland."

McInnes is best known for playing larrikin cop Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers and the hunky Max Connors in SeaChange. He's unpretentious and proud of his working-class roots, and it's hard to think of a more quintessentially Aussie bloke.

But McInnes' brand of patriotism is more cerebral than most. He loves sport, for example, but abhors the idea that "real Australians" must share his obsession. And he's disappointed that feminism has fallen off the radar. Indeed, he sees a relationship between the two.

"We're increasingly relying on sport to define ourselves," he says. "And I think that rise of blokehood is in direct contrast to women being empowered. There seemed to be only a brief flutter of real feminism in the '70s, then it died out as quickly as it started. I still react to women who call themselves chicks and things like that bloody Nando's ad with the stripper. I won't go to Nando's because of that."

Even more infuriating was an incident involving an inflatable sex doll at the cricket, which McInnes recounts in his book. "The doll was bounced from group to group," he writes. "I looked at the doll. At how the crowd were 'giving her some'. Young men, quite a few of them as full as ticks, were thumping and kicking and pounding 'her' into the air … I felt uncomfortable, even ashamed. Of blokes. It was if every woman and little girl had been pushed aside and told, 'You don't belong.'

"This idea of 'being a bloke' — what does it mean?" McInnes continues. "Is it just about being some moron who eats pies and drinks beer?"

Clearly, it's a rhetorical question: McInnes is not about to tell other Aussie blokes what to do. Still, he wonders if he should be more like his late father, who "never hesitated to stand up and say, 'F--k, this isn't right.' "

Col McInnes, who made several unsuccessful runs as the Labor candidate for the federal Queensland seat of Redcliffe, features prominently in the book. His son obviously inherited his political sensibilities — "I'll vote Labor until they put me in the box," he says — but took longer to outgrow the knee-jerk aggressiveness his father despised. McInnes recalls boasting to him about telling Malcolm Fraser, whom he spotted in a local mall, that he wanted to cut his throat; his father, in response, was livid.

" 'What a bastard of a thing to do'," he said. " 'He at least stands up to get his head kicked in. But you, you pie-can, don't even know why you yell out, save for the fact you think it's funny.' "

McInnes learned his lesson. "I couldn't stand how people attacked John Howard personally and said that they hated him. How can you hate someone?"

Worried that the conversation is getting too serious, McInnes changes tack. Soon, we're discussing the time he published his own death notice in the local paper for a laugh; the absurdly sycophantic fake fan letters he wrote to his castmates, some of whom were vain enough to believe them; and how he would sneak up behind John Wood on a packed train and yell, "Look, everybody! It's John Wood from Blue Heelers!"

"You can't take yourself too seriously in this business," he says. "In fact, you can't take yourself too seriously in life. Because once you do, you're in trouble."

Article - The Australian, August 2nd, 2008

2008-09-07T14:21:00.002+10:00

The Face: William McInnes
Rosalie Higson August 02, 2008

WILLIAM McInnes insists we top and tail our conversation with highlights from his circa 1980s KennyG tape, especially the track called GForce, which sets him cackling like mad.

"What a bizarre fellow he was ... the hair! Every 10 years or so we get one of those Euro people. Remember Yanni?" Sometimes McInnes laughs so much at the world, at himself, that he snorts. His conversation fires off in all directions, and he talks to himself, too. Some people might need medication for that, but with McInnes you know he's just thinking aloud.

At the moment, McInnes is all over the shop. He's the lead in the successful Australian feature Unfinished Sky, the story of a lonely farmer who takes in a beautiful illegal Afghan refugee. And his latest memoir cum history is just out: That'd Be Right is a rambling yarn about the link between sport and politics, a trend that, he points out, began long before former PM John Winston Howard put on his Wallabies tracksuit. It's his third book, after the well-received A Man's Got to Have a Hobby and the novel Cricket Kings.

I didn't want to write a memoir: my life in art, I just don't like that sort of thing, it's a wank, and I haven't done anything worth writing about," he says. "What I was trying to do in a boof-headed male way was show how a political or social break occurred in a person."

The story begins with his childhood in then almost bucolic Redcliffe, near Brisbane, when his parents examined politics and politicians with an acerbic eye, and their youngest child did everything to avoid handing out how-to-vote cards on election day. "The first chapter is when I was a kid, involved or not in world events, my failings as much as anything else.

"It's pretty broad brush strokes. I'm not a historian, but memory is so finite. Politicians always harp on about the previous governments, Howard was always banging on about the Depression ... this guff just falls over you, and so I thought I'd try to write about Australian life, from the times when sportsmen and prime ministers were the biggest names in the news."

McInnes may be prolific, but he's a reluctant sort of artist. Is he busy? "Naow," he says, drawing three notes out of one syllable in the best Aussie tradition. "Most of the time I'm sitting on my great barge-arse," he laughs. "Writing's hard, you just have to do it. Acting I'm enjoying more than writing."

Not surprising that such a sociable bloke prefers being on set to sitting in front of a computer all day. His television roles include Max Connors in SeaChange, for which he won his first silver Logie as the shirtless hunk who got very personal with Sigrid Thornton.

He's particularly good as the tight-jawed, angry, emotionally stunted Anglo-Australian father in miniseries My Brother Jack (silver Logie No2), and in The Shark Net.

He was the eponymous prime minister in the miniseries Curtin, and vulnerable as a man just diagnosed with cancer in the feature film Look Both Ways, directed by his wife Sarah Watt (whom he describes as "one of those people who are generous and open about what they do and their appreciation, just good people to have in the world").

Marriage, family life, maturity have changed the way the 47-year-old approaches acting, which he's been doing since he left the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1989: "If you're going to work, you don't want bloody arguments every 10 minutes," he says.

"When you're a young actor, or writer, or just young and vaguely creative, there's that idea of being the angry artist, the fierce defender of the vision. And actors are great at bullshitting, they're great at spinning stories. They say they've done all this work, and half the time they've rocked up, vaguely learned the role, then come out with one of the great lines actors say -- and I've been guilty of it -- "My character wouldn't say this, I can do it with a look".

Ego and insecurity go together, because "in eight out of 10 films you see, the performances are created by the director and the editor in the edit booth. I can be like a plank sometimes and then see (the film) and think, well, that looks all right, they must have done a lot of surgery in the edit suite," he says.

"But it's one thing to recognise that and another to accept it. The best thing I ever heard about actors was said by (Marlon) Brando: 'An actor's a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, he ain't listening.'

"And writers festivals! Huge egos. Writers have probably got bigger and more fragile egos than actors."

So that's a double whammy for McInnes, whose ego should be swollen like a ripe Bowen mango. Luckily he has his mother (and, one suspects, wife and children) to keep him in line should he be tempted to engage in wankerism. Iris McInnes takes a central role in That'd Be Right as a sort of chorus, critic and fervent booster for everything Queensland.

"I got really slagged in a review for Unfinished Sky (I looked it up: the words 'stilted' and 'pompous' were utilised). Everyone else liked it, and it's done all right. So I told my mum, and she was laughing. She said, 'Oh, you should take it on the chin.'

"I said, 'Why do you always say that to me, Mum?' And she said: 'You're a 15-stone, six-foot-four, middle-class white male, vaguely smug and self-satisfied: you should accept a bit of humbling now and then because your type of person has a lot to answer for. You've owned the world for a couple of hundred years and might have another hundred yet, but you just wait, your type will get its comeuppance."

Before that happens, McInnes hopes to write a few more stories, bag a few more decent roles.

"The Australian film industry needs to make more films, on more realistic budgets, and without the box office being the sole judge of success," he says. "But it's important to tell Australian stories. Don't write about assassins and ex-SAS men. Have a crack at writing about where you come from, that reflects a part of your society. I think that's valuable.

"I feel like I'm bagging everyone, but if you give someone a story to hook on to, then that's a good thing. I'm happy with That'd Be Right, it's good that it's out there, failings and all."
So, does McInnes have an ideal role in mind?

"I'd like to initiate and make an Australian character resonate within the community. It would be fun to be a character that people latch on to: not violent, not a serial killer."

But right now he's gone blank. He promises to be in touch and cues up G Force again.

The next day, his publicist rings with a couple of names: The first is Cliff Hardy. Yes, McInnes would be note perfect as Peter Corris's working-class detective, with all his frailties and morals.

The other? Margot Fonteyn. Somehow, the dancing plank rings true.

That'd Be Right: A Fairly True History of Modern Australia by William McInnes (Hachette Australia, $35) is out now.

Article - The Daily Advertiser, August 4, 2008

2008-09-07T13:37:00.001+10:00

Reignite the love of reading
REBEKAH HOLLIDAY
4/08/2008 10:47:00 AM

WAGGA and universities go together like peas and carrots in the mind of Melbourne-based author-actor William McInnes.

Best known as the character Max Connors from the ABC acclaimed series SeaChange, McInnes was in Wagga on Saturday for his first visit in almost two decades.

McInnes also starred in the 7 Network’s Blue Heelers, playing Sergeant Nick Schultz.

He joined fellow author Michael Robotham, originally from Gundagai, as a guest speaker at the Books Alive 2008 lunch at the Wagga Country Golf Club.

“Wagga’s changed a lot. I think the last time I was here was about 15 years ago. I often get invited but usually can’t make it,” McInnes told The Daily Advertiser.

“It’s a lot bigger these days and Charles Sturt University has gone from strength to strength. It’s definitely known as a uni town which can only be a good thing for the city.”

More than 180 people attended the lunch with all money raised going to charity.

The event, Books Alive, is a Federal Government initiative to encourage or reignite a love for reading in adults.

McInnes promoted his new book That’d Be Right while Robotham, the national ambassador for Books Alive 2008, showed off his literary work, Shatter.

“To anyone who says they don’t like books or reading, it’s like saying you don’t like sex – you’re just not doing it right,” Robotham said.

“There’s a book to suit everyone.”

All money raised will go to Northcott Riverina.

Article - RealFooty.com.au - Wednesday 30th of July, 2008

2008-07-30T14:05:00.002+10:00

As I was saying to my friend William in the pub over a glass of cane-cutters' cordial …
John Harms

I DON'T watch much television these days — except for sport. Not since they took F-Troop off, and The Sullivans went from historical drama to soap. And I went away to uni. So, until recently, I didn't know who William McInnes was.

Then the Handicapper and I saw him in Look Both Ways, a movie we both found thoughtful and sensitive.

Then I discovered his book, A Man's Got To Have A Hobby, about growing up in Redcliffe, on the edge of Brisbane. I loved it. I started giving it to friends as a birthday and Christmas present. I could relate to it very strongly.

William had captured my Queensland: Queensland when it was happy to be what it was; Queensland before it became self-conscious and put itself on a path to blandness.

I loved the references to 1970s rugby league, when Brisbane had a wonderful competition, every bit as tribal as the VFL, with quirky grounds such as Bishop Park, where ancient blokes sold first-scorers' doubles near the gates and classic club songs. In those days, people all over Queensland had their team.

William wrote about Bevan Bleakley and Merv Cook, the very thought of whom would warm your heart; the same heart ripped out when the Broncos were formed and corporate football replaced community football.

Then I actually met William. The first time was over a few beers in Adelaide. He was just as his book suggested.

I liked how you could mention any name and he could go to the manila folder of stories filed is his mind under that name, pick one out and the conversation would be away.

It was rugby league players who really got him going. "What about Tony Obst?" I'd say. "Tony Obst," he'd say. "Nev Hornery," I'd say. He'd throw his head back, "Nev Hornery," and laugh.

Like he was being reminded of an old friend.

A few weeks later, he sent me a photocopy of a 1976 Brisbane Rugby League program. All those names. All those memories. He must keep that sort of stuff.

These days not only is William an award-winning actor, he has built a reputation as a cricket writer. I recently read his novel Cricket Kings and I can safely say he is the Neville Cardus of Australian actor-turned-cricket writers since the turn of the century.

We were both invited to appear at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival, which finished on Sunday.

We actually started the whole thing on Thursday at the Bangalow Pub with what was grandly promoted as a sports literary lunch entitled "Cricket: invented by India and stolen by England."

The panel included noted over-achievers Shashi Tharoor, United Nations dignitary, writer and commentator, and the prolific G.C.J.D. Haigh, who discussed the proposition with the earnest solemnity of Walls and Sheahan discussing the interchange rule on On The Couch.At one point, I caught the eye of McInnes, who had that I'd-rather-be-talking-about-Lucky-Grills look. Or Larry Storch.

On Friday night, we went to Strop's pub to watch Hawthorn and Geelong. About a dozen of us from the festival and Micky Crawshay up from Melbourne for someone's wedding. William likes his footy. He has followed the Doggies since moving to Melbourne many years ago. He was keen.
The Cats start solidly, building momentum throughout the first quarter. The game looks theirs. Alastair Clarkson wrings his hands. "Coaches," says McInnes. "They're like bad actors."

He runs an analysis of the action. As a warning to excited middle-aged Geelong fans, he quotes Clint Eastwood: "We've all got it comin'."

When the world turns against Brad Ottens and the Cats ruckman looks broken, McInnes breaks into, "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I." I'm not sure whether he's ever played Hamlet or just owns a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. When Chappy's hamstring isn't as bad as expected, it's: "Strained, not torn."

As things hot up, McInnes removes his jacket to reveal he is wearing an old Brisbane Past Brothers rugby jumper — blue and white hoops, or butcher's stripes as they are called up there.

Now I really am laughing.

It prompts a discussion of Brisbane and Darling Downs TV ads during the coverage of 1970s rugby league.

The Errol Stewart electrical appliance ad gets a run at three-quarter-time, just after everyone has been sent into a Soweto dance by Junior Rioli's mark. Then the O'Shea's Electrical ad from Dalby ("See me, Ba-a-rry O'Shea" done by Barry himself).

The last quarter is tense and McInnes has the you-blokes-could-lose-this look. He's almost right. But the Hawks can't take their chances and the Cats hang on.

The Geelong song sets us off. We sing the Wynnum song (to the tune of Men of Harlech) and the Brothers song ("The team in the blue and the white, it's the Brothers. The team that's superior to all the others"). Which leads to some old-fashioned rugby league tackling in the bar and a tap on the shoulder from one of the security zombies.

"Mate," someone says to the bouncer, "they've got a combined age of over 90."

We survive. The night finishes with a round of Bundy, a discussion of Norman Yemm and his performances in the middle-distance events at the Stawell Gift, and Geelong on top of the ladder.

That'd Be Right - William's New Book

2008-07-27T19:07:00.002+10:00

Hachette Livre, the publisher of William's books A Man's Got to Have a Hobby and Cricket Kings have updated their website ready for the launch next week of William's new book, That'd Be Right.

Click here to see the updated profile page for William.

And to read an except from the new book, click here.

Article - The North Shore Times, Wednesday 16th July, 2008

2008-07-18T20:25:00.001+10:00

Underbelly man tells of new crime series
Ben Falkenmire
Wednesday 16 July, 2008 12:01am

WRITER Greg Haddrick's mantelpiece is starting to get a little crowded.

The former Home and Away writer has three Australian Writers' Guild awards, as well as two Australian Film Institute awards.

After this year's guild awards on August 15, Haddrick, of Gordon, could be adding two more.
As co-producer of the Underbelly miniseries that screened on Channel 9, Haddrick is hoping the show might win an open category, where the sole nominee is a surprise on the night.

"It's been quite phenomenal, the success of Underbelly," he said.

He is certainly in with a chance for his telemovie, The Informant, which stars William McInnes and will screen later this year on Channel 10.

The screenplay-length movie conceived solely for TV is about a man with extensive knowledge on international crime networks and money laundering who works with a government crime agency unsure about his background.

"You never really know if he is a goodie or a baddie or if he is going to turn on them," said Haddrick, 47. "It's good fun."

Haddrick has just started work on the production of the second series of Underbelly, and was hesitant about giving too much away.

"There's no great secret the second series will go backwards in time, as a sort of prequel," he said.

"We're hoping the second series will be just as big as the first."

In that case, Haddrick might want to look at buying a new mantelpiece.

Interview - ScreenWise.com

2008-07-13T20:17:00.000+10:00

Willam McInnes reckons that the best performance in his latest film Unfinished Sky comes from Milo, a blue-heeler. “I was watching the rushes and I realised that Milo was just being,” says McInnes in his distinctive Aussie drawl. “The hardest thing to do as an actor is just to be, just to exist. There’s a saying – it’s a bit clichéd, but it’s right - about being in the moment, and that’s where you have to be as an actor. Seeing Milo just being a dog was fantastic and really helped me take something away from the process – something that could help me grasp what I needed to do.”

Milo plays a cattle dog called Elvis, and McInnes is his owner John Woldring. In the quiet and moody opening few minutes to Unfinished Sky, it’s only these two characters that we see, and it becomes clear that Woldring is a reclusive farmer who has opted out of life. Milo is the only company on the farm, and man and dog round up sheep together, eat dinner at the same time, and sleep in the same bed. The next morning it’s Milo who wakes Woldring with an incessant bark. Woldring’s solitary existence is interrupted dramatically as a traumatised Afghani woman (Monic Hendrickx) staggers into view and collapses. Battered, bleeding and unable to speak English, Woldring has no choice but to take her in and then help her out. The film then peels back the layers of both their lives, mixing mystery and drama with romance and a touch of comedy. It’s a high quality Australian film that premiered in the ACT at last year’s Canberra International Film Festival, and is now in general release across Australia.

McInnes – who has been acting since leaving drama school in 1989 – is best known for his work in television, playing roles like John Freeman in A Country Practice, Max Connor in Sea Change and most famously Sergeant Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers. He’s also starred in a number of feature films – Kokoda, Irresistible and Look Both Ways which was written and directed by his wife, Sarah Watt. Although he’s never been out of work as an actor, McInnes isn’t the kind of man to sit still for too long. He’s has written and published two best selling books and a third is about to be released. His first novel – a memoir called A Man’s Got to Have a Hobby - cemented his reputation as a storyteller with an irreverent - and very Australian - sense of humour.

The sharp Aussie wit that characterises his writing is never far away in the conversation. I asked what attracted him to Unfinished Sky. “The catering,” he quips, quick as a flash. “Let me give you some advice,” he continues without pause for breath, “if you’re miles away from the sea, don’t ever get curried prawns for lunch. They tend to hurry things along.”Unfinished Sky was shot in Queensland, not far from where McInnes lived as a child. “I grew up near the Sunshine coast, about an hour and a half away from the location for the film. It was a semi–rural area in my day, and I’d walk to school and see cows in people’s yards. We had dogs - like Milo - and as kids, we’d go and stay at an Auntie’s place nearby – a real farm. But it was a dying age, and the place is part of Brisbane now.”

A significant element to the film is the grand rural homestead where John Woldring lives alone, and where he can hide his mysterious visitor. It’s a cavernous house, and whilst Woldring eats out of a can and watches bad television, the house is full of books and an important past. McInnes sees the house as a reflection of Woldring’s character. “It alludes to grander times and suggests that John was part of an older family that had enjoyed a certain prestige in the community,” he says. “The house was once great and has now fallen, but there’s a mystery about it. It’s quite Gothic in a way. The bloke I play is a man who is - in a sense - at the end of the line. He functions to keep the farm ticking over, but you have to look at how he keeps this marvellous home he had – it is not so much a home now, it is almost a mausoleum of past glories and his own emotional life.”

Bringing a character like Woldring to life on the screen required McInnes to find a very quiet and subtle approach to his performance. “When you’re an actor, you always want to act – that’s your instinct. Most people are not content to just stand there and watch. You feel like you have to clench your jaw or tilt your head or do something silly, as if to prove to people that you are acting. I wasn’t supposed to do that in this role and I was worried that I would just look like a plank. But I really enjoyed what the director - Peter Duncan - wanted me to do: to be a bit subtle and layer the performance. Usually I am about as subtle as a runaway bull.”

As we talk more about approaches to acting, it becomes clear that McInnes is old school Australian, exuding the values of quietly getting on with things without having to resort to spin or self-promotion. “My approach to any role is to do enough research to not look like a dill,” he explains. “The best thing you can do is rock up on time, fit the costume and be honest.” It’s a line not unlike the one attributed to Spency Tracey about learning your lines and not bumping into the furniture. But McInnes has deeper thoughts he wants to explore. “Actors draw from the same well , which is basically themselves. You can research and you can study and you can try and inhabit another body, but in the end - because you’re who you are,- you bring mostly yourself to the role. The best way to make people believe that you are another character is to try and be truthful and honest in your interpretation.” As if the words he has just said have hit some personal nerve, McInnes laughs. “Actually, it doesn’t mean you just rock up and do it – which is what I usually say because I don’t want to sound like a twerp - it’s a strategic way of doing the job, a mixture of different methodologies. Obviously you have to know the lines, but you also have to know what you don’t want to say. You have to be on top of the character enough to ask questions and debate with the director what you’re doing in the scene.”

Once again the conversation comes back around to Milo. “He knew what he was doing in every scene,” says McInnes. One day we had a scene where I had to kick a football around with him, and I was wondering what he’d do. Guess what? He chased it.” McInnes pauses briefly and laughs again. “Of course he bloody did, he’s a flippin’ dog. What else would he do.”

Review - Unfinished Sky - Sydney Morning Herald - Thursday 19th of June, 2008

2008-07-13T20:12:00.001+10:00

WILLIAM McINNES does sadness very well. He uses subtraction, draining his face of any suggestion that life could have anything at all to recommend it.

Needless to say, it is a skill to be employed sparingly. Cross that fine line between true sorrow and raging self-pity and there is no going back - a fact that occurred to me during Unfinished Sky's opening scene. It treats us to the full impact of McInnes's brand of despair, with close-ups of his bloodshot left eye, downturned mouth and stubbly cheek, and it is not the most enticing way of ushering you into a film.

Fortunately, McInnes's John Woldring, a reclusive Queensland farmer, has a good excuse for surrendering to such abject misery, but it takes a while before you learn what it is. He has lightened up by then and Peter Duncan's film - a reinvention of a Dutch hit, The Polish Bride - has negotiated so many deft plot twists and smooth changes in tone that you are ready to go wherever it, and McInnes, want to lead you.

Woldring is jolted out of his self-absorbed state one morning when he spies a young woman staggering across the paddocks towards his homestead. She is bruised, bleeding, terrified and exhausted, and speaks no English. He grudgingly takes her in and during the next few days, having survived the awfulness of his cooking, she gradually makes up her mind to trust him. One reason is the gentle persistence he shows in trying to breach the language barrier between them.
Another is his dog, a blue heeler called Elvis. Memories of Heartbreak Hotel make her laugh and it's a crucial turning point. Not only does her laughter warm the room, it opens up the film's potential as an unlikely love story of charm and tenderness.

But it is delicate stuff. Clearly, it won't be a romance born of cosy, confessional conversations by the fire. These are both prickly characters and every confidence is hard-won. It also has to be conveyed through fractured sentences rife with the risk of misinterpretation. Woldring finally works out that Tahmeena (Monic Hendrickx) is an Afghan refugee, and as he worries away at the rest of her story, he reveals bits of his own. For years he has restricted himself to cramped quarters at the back of the handsome old house which has been his home since childhood. Now he and Tahmeena begin gradually to enjoy the homestead together. The film's title refers to the expanse of sky in an unfinished jigsaw puzzle spread out on a table. Seeing it there soon after she arrives, Tahmeena adds a piece to it, only to be bawled out for daring to touch it. But eventually, the puzzle becomes a metaphor for their part-told stories as she and Woldring work on it together.

Hendrickx, who starred in the original film, is a grave, dark-haired beauty with an engaging sense of mischief, which makes a nice foil for the McInnes gruffness. Both know how to light the film's silences with flashes of humour. You like them together, and as Tahmeena's turbulent past begins to impinge on their cocooned state, you find you very much want them to stay together.

This is Duncan's first feature since Passion, his 1999 biopic about the composer Percy Grainger and it is a lot tighter than anything he has done before.

I could have done without the score's nagging. You don't need it drumming out warnings of trouble in store. More potent threats are supplied by Bille Brown and Christopher Sommers as a couple of locals who clearly know quite a bit about the events leading up to Tahmeena's appearance on Woldring's doorstep.

The ensuing action is adroitly handled. So is the ending, which has Woldring stepping back into the wider world as he and Tahmeena face their inevitable showdown with the implacable paradoxes of the immigration system. It may be a small film, but it has a big story to tell.

Interviews with Cast, Director and Producers of Unfinished Sky

2008-07-04T20:26:00.001+10:00

To see video interviews with the cast, director and producers of Unfinished Sky, click here.

Article - Melbourne Age, Friday 20th of June, 2008

2008-07-04T20:18:00.001+10:00

Monic Hendrickx adds a presence to Unfinished Sky, says Philippa Hawker.

THE Australian film Unfinished Sky has a simple premise. John, a solitary man living in isolation on a Queensland rural property that has seen better days, comes across a stranger, a woman who stumbles onto his land, distressed, bruised, exhausted.

He takes her into the house, helps her recover, and chooses to keep her presence a secret. There are unexplained reasons behind her arrival and his decision to conceal it. And the situation is complicated by their inability to communicate: the woman, Tahmeena, speaks barely a word of English.

Unfinished Sky, says William McInnes, who plays John, is "a film with a brain". It wasn't hard, he says, to take the role. It is also, as it happens, a film with a previous life: it is based on a Dutch movie called The Polish Bride, released in 1998, which made a star of its female lead, Dutch actress Monic Hendrickx.

There are many differences between the two films, in tone and narrative: Unfinished Sky's director, Peter Duncan (Children of the Revolution, Passion) who adapted the script, prefers not to describe it as a remake. But Hendrickx once again takes the lead role. In the Dutch film, she played a Polish woman; in Unfinished Sky, she is an Afghan refugee.

The idea of casting the same actress sounds, at first, like an awkward, even prescriptive link. It wasn't part of the package to begin with, but Duncan says "once the story had been settled" it was suggested by the Dutch and Australian producers that he might like to meet Hendrickx, a well-known actress in Europe. It might help with funding.

"No pressure," he was told, but he went to the meeting in what calls an "appropriately cynical" frame of mind, only to be immediately impressed by her presence � "this dark, Amazonian figure" who walked into the restaurant � but also by the insights that she brought to the notion of a new film. His cynicism evaporated. And, he adds, Hendrickx had just as many doubts: her initial response had been to ask why on earth she would take a role that she had already played.

In fact, says McInnes, Hendrickx made it clear to him that she was struck by the contrast rather than the similarity between the two projects. It was, she told him, a different part and a different film.

Duncan was aware that before the shoot members of his Gold Coast-based crew had reservations about the prospect of a Dutch actress playing an Afghan woman in an Australian film. "They can be very jaded," he says, "but on the very first day of the shoot, they saw what she brought to the role, and they realised, OK, this is serious, this can be good."

The title of the film is a reference to an object, a giant jigsaw puzzle that John is working on, a photograph of a vast expanse of blue sky with wisps of clouds. And the film itself is a puzzle of fragments: there are mysteries about both characters that the audience figures out gradually.

We have fleeting glimpses of Tahmeena's memories and experiences of violence. And, bit by bit, we discover things about John's past, the reasons for his seclusion and his reluctance to engage with the world. These fragments don't tell us the whole story. There are shifts in perspective, small revelations or discoveries that change the direction of the film and our understanding of where it is going.

At the same time, there are things the audience simply doesn't need to know. The political context has been pared away, Duncan says � people don't need to have it spelled out in unnecessary or over-determining dialogue. Early in the film, John gets out a map and asks Tahmeena to show him the country she comes from. When she points to Afghanistan, viewers can already begin to form their own sense of what she has gone through.

And when Tahmeena speaks � Hendrickx learnt to say her lines in the Dari language � there are no subtitles. Audiences should not have too much information, Duncan says: they are in John's position, trying to get to know a character without the assistance of a common language.
McInnes is very positive about the challenges and rewards of "taking a story from overseas and putting it into your own culture".

He's also upbeat about one particular aspect of his performance: a scene in which he boots a footy high over the roof of his house. When his mother saw the film in Brisbane last year, she told him, he says, that he might not be a better actor than Geoffrey Rush, but he's definitely a better kick.

William McInnes Targets Australian Story

2008-07-04T20:11:00.001+10:00

Now this sounds like fun.

Actor William McInnes next week turns the Australian Story cameras on....Australian Story.

With his tongue firmly in cheek, McInnes gives a behind-the-scenes look at what is involved in behind a subject on the ABC series.

McInnes was pursued by Australian Story for four years before he finally succumbed to participating in 2005. In fact, he'd often ring the office with obscure ideas, leaving ABC researchers unsure whether he was being serious, or just mucking around. From a comfy armchair in his wildly eccentric Melbourne warehouse, McInnes provides his unique brand of commentary on what it’s like to be the subject of the program.

‘Well, once he got started, there was simply no stopping him. Nothing was off limits…and no-one either….well, we did ask for it,’ says Caroline Jones.

Press Release:Popular actor and author William McInnes turns the tables on Australian Story in this irreverent, behind-the-scenes take on the filming process.

Before Australian Story airs each week, subjects often don’t know who will introduce them, who else has been interviewed - and most importantly, what they might have said.

From a comfy armchair in his wildly eccentric Melbourne warehouse, McInnes provides his unique brand of commentary on what it’s like to be the subject of the program.

‘Well, once he got started, there was simply no stopping him. Nothing was off limits…and no-one either….well, we did ask for it,’ says Caroline Jones.

Along the way, he fills viewers in on what's been happening in his life and crucially reveals ‘how to not look like a plank’ on a busy commuter train with a TV camera crew in tow.

McInnes spent four years on the Australian Story 'hit-list' before he finally succumbed in 2005.

Being a fan of the show, he'd often ring the office with obscure ideas, leaving our researcher unsure whether he was being serious, or just mucking around.

When filming commenced, it coincided with an intense time of his life — his first book was about to be published; his wife and muse, Sarah Watt was finishing her first feature film and was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Since then, William has written two books; Sarah is in remission and has achieved international critical and popular acclaim for Look Both Ways.

The family home and rambling garden are still there, although the chooks and the old dog Dougie have died and the shed has bitten the dust in a flurry of renovations.

WARNING: Watching William Tells may induce snort-chuckling.

Article - Queensland Times, Thursday 19th of June, 2008

2008-07-01T19:42:00.000+10:00

Movie star gives Boonah rap
June 19, 2008
By Anna Caldwell

Boonah, get ready for the big screen.

The small town, south of Ipswich, will today be up in lights, nationwide.

Boonah's IGA supermarket, its main street and even one of its pubs have received the golden touch of Aussie cinema in feature film Unfinished Sky.

County-charm spunk William McInnes stars in the Australian feature film that has been described as a love story with a thriller twist.

According to the Aussie actor, Boonah's countryside brought something special to the film.

"It is different to the stereotypical Aussie country," McInnes said.

"It is pretty with its rolling hills and charm - most people would expect those living there to have not a care in the world. The movie shows a depth to that; in a way it lifts the lid on what an isolated life can be like."

McInnes said filming in Boonah was a delight.

"The people were fantastic and the country was just beautiful," he said.

"I got to know the bloke who ran the Australian Hotel there and he was tops. The locals all wanted to have chats about the movie."

It was October 2006 when sleepy Boonah was overrun by bright lights, scaffolding, gaffer tape and clip-board carrying organisers.

Boonah Arts Council co-ordinator Julie Jackson remembered the excitement.

"Some of the Boonah locals even had the chance to be extras in the movie," Ms Jackson said.
"It was, of course, the talk of the town."

Ms Jackson said seeing the final film was very exciting for Boonah residents.

"No doubt many of us will be rushing out to see Unfinished Sky," she said.

The film tells the story of farmer John Woldring (McInnes) who discovers a troubled woman (Monic Hendrickx) miles from home, injured, traumatised and unable to speak English.

But McInnes said the film was much more than an ordinary love story.

"It is complex without being complicated," he said.

"The characters are layered; the movie works on many levels and makes you think.

"It doesn't treat people like idiots.

"Bring your brain and your heart and you'll really get something out of it.

"I think that's very exciting for Australian cinema."

And the message McInnes has for Boonah?

"You guys haven't seen the last of me," he said. Unfinished Sky opens today on limited release. Visit www.unfinishedsky.com.

Article - Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 20th of June, 2008

2008-07-01T19:29:00.001+10:00

Love Comes Knocking
Conrad Walters

A farmer offers shelter to a battered woman who turns up on his doorstep in Unfinished Sky, reports Conrad Walters.

Suspicious, gruff, morose. Battered, petrified, lost. They don't sound like ingredients for a love story but for director Peter Duncan, these were the traits he had to work with and he's not complaining.

After all, he created the characters.

Duncan, best known as the director of Children Of The Revolution, has made a subtle return to the screen with a challenging romance titled Unfinished Sky. The fictional story is that of John (William McInnes), a widowed farmer alone on an isolated Queensland property, and Tahmeena (Monic Hendrickx), an illegal refugee isolated by language and culture.

Without explanation, Tahmeena collapses outside John's home one morning, bloodied and hallucinating with images of abuse. John, who would rather wallow in misery, takes care of this uninvited survivor and protects her from forces he trusts even less than himself.

It makes for a story of forgiveness and acceptance, although McInnes conjures such a disagreeable John from the start that it seems the climb towards love may prove an impossible ascent.

The basis for Unfinished Sky is a Dutch film of a decade ago called The Polish Bride but Duncan took that as little more than a starting point to write and direct his own Australian take on redemption.

Asked about the difference between the films, Duncan says the earlier movie was far lighter in tone - the original farmer is instantly likeable - but he wanted his own work to avoid the first film's "periods of unalloyed happiness".

"Audiences only really like happiness for a moment. Then they want more trouble," he says. "I wanted there to be a darkness and some mystery about the character of John, so the audience wonders whether or not [Tahmeena] is in a better place than the place she escaped from."

The earlier film had the same Dutch actress, Hendrickx, as its female lead. She was understandably wary of stepping into the same creative stream, Duncan says.
He recalls her reaction: "Why would I want to do that? I've already done it."

Duncan, too, was doubtful. The suggestion came from Dutch backers who helped produce Unfinished Sky and he admits he was "cynical", though open-minded enough to go along with it.
"But she then read the script and what she said to me was, 'This is a different movie. It's a different character. It's a whole new world.'"

In retrospect, Duncan rejoices in her decision, which let him match the intimidating physical presence of McInnes with the powerful Amazon looks of Hendrickx. "It was one of those rare coincidences of commerce and art," he says.

McInnes apparently agrees. "I knew about Monic and her reputation as a really terrific actor," he says in press material for the film.

"She's the hamburger with the lot."

The two actors had little time beforehand to build the chemistry for a love story but, according to Duncan, this had its benefits, given that the film begins with two people incapable of communication.

In one of their first meetings, where Duncan explained an early scene in which John showers the blood and dirt from 0, McInnes turned to his co-star and blurted, "So, you're gonna be starkers?"

Hendrickx turned to Duncan, bewildered, but McInnes persisted. "You know, starkers. In the raw. Buff."

Eventually, the director translated.

As filming progressed, Duncan says, the actors built a trust that mirrored that developed by their characters. "She really got him. She really found him extremely funny. By the end of it, they were firm mates."

UNFINISHED SKY

Director Peter Duncan Stars William McInnes, Monic Hendrickx, David Field Rated M. Screening now.

Article - The Courier Mail, Thursday, 12th of June, 2008

2008-07-01T19:25:00.001+10:00

Peace shattered by unfinished business

WILLIAM McInnes might not yet be an international name of the ranking
of a Russell Crowe or Hugh Jackman but he does give this Brisbane-Dutch
co-production something that too many Australian movies
lack -- a known star.

McInnes (who became a national favourite when he joined SeaChange)
and his co-star, Dutch actress Monic Hendrickx (featured in the
original Dutch movie on which writer-director Peter Duncan (Passion)
based his screenplay) make a persuasive partnership in Duncan's
taut drama.

It's also a character study, although there's a jolt or two when loose
ends are tied together in a punchy finale.

While it's a small-scale drama, it unfolds more efficiently than many
recent Australian-made ``thrillers''.

Duncan's treatment, going behind the headlines to depict the abuse
of a female refugee as just one tense element of his story, marks
the debut of Brisbane-based New Holland Pictures (headed by husband
and wife Mark and Cathy Overett).

Tall and rangy McInnes represents perfect casting as farmer John Waldring.
The farmer has lived alone on his property southeast of Brisbane for
the past six years since the death of his wife, Kate, (in circumstances
still discussed in the local community).

The film was shot at Beaudesert and Boonah, but cinematographer Robert
Humphreys hasn't set out to provide tourist drawcard images
of this part of the world.

Waldring appears happy in his isolation from the wider community.
His peace is shattered when a wounded and bruised non-English-speaking
woman Tahmeena (Hendrickx) somehow finds her way to the farm.
Flashback sequences leave no doubt that Tahmeena has been assaulted,
but by whom and why?

She's unable to explain her circumstances to her baffled host, who
offers first-aid, a bed, lodging and some of his late wife's clothes.

Sensibly, Waldring denies any knowledge of the woman when police sergeant
Carl Allen (David Field) and then the local publican Bob
(Bille Brown) and his son (Christopher Sommers) inquire whether she's
turned up on the property.

As she communicates hesitantly in her broken English, Tahmeena's background
in Afghanistan comes into focus.

Waldring tries to help her locate Brisbane-based family (involving
scenes set in Red Hill), but on their way home from this trip, they
come upon a motorcyclist lying injured on the deserted road.

When the motorcyclist recalls being assisted by a kindly woman, his
parents (Roy Billing and Mercia Deane-Johns) visit the farm, trying
to identify this guardian angel.

Where can you run when you have nowhere to hide? Waldring and Tahmeena
-- now lovers -- will soon find the tranquillity of their remote
hideaway shattered. The finale is a sombre scene, nicely directed
by Duncan.

There might be a future for small Australian films as well crafted
as this one. (90 min)

Article - Sunday Herald Sun, June 15th, 2008

2008-06-30T21:01:00.001+10:00

Will power

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD on a bouncy castle wouldn't bounce off the walls as
much as William McInnes does. It's 3.30pm and the Aussie actor
is so full of energy and excitement it's hard to keep up with him
as he goes from talking about his new movie, Unfinished Sky, to
cracking jokes about dogs.

McInnes, who plays John, a farmer who lives on an isolated property
by himself after his wife dies in suspicious circumstances, would
have quite happily traded his lead role for that of the dog.

``He was an amazing hound. He could do things . . . that if I could
do I would be a rich man. I wouldn't be in the nicest roles or
showing in your nicest cinemas, but I would be a rich man,'' McInnes
says, laughing.

It didn't take McInnes much convincing to accept the role of John,
though.

``It was in Queensland so it was nice to be going back home, it's
a good story and it was a chance to do something a bit different,''
he says.

McInnes says his prerequisites for starring in movies are the simple
things in life.

``If I get the chance to kick a football over a house that's a good
start,'' McInnes says.

``The catering is also a major deal maker. A good story and good characters
also helps.''

While many actors go to extremes to prepare for roles, according to
McInnes you just need to have a go.

``You just have to have a crack. You need to think about your role
and share yourself with other people on screen and turn up on time,''
the actor says.

While McInnes admits acting can be hard, he wouldn't have it any other
way.

``Most jobs are hard, but in a good way -- not as in they're hard
and you agonise about it. I'm not one of those wanky people who will
tell you that I suffer for my art,'' he says.

Famous for his roles in Blue Heelers (as Sgt Nick Schultz) and SeaChange
(as Max), McInnes is more focused on film roles these days,
which he got a taste for while acting in Look Both Ways, a film
written and directed by his wife, Sarah Watt.

``I just ate dim sims . . . and then got yelled at by John Wood,''
says McInnes of his 10-year stint on Blue Heelers.

``TV is a bit of a grind after a while because it just goes on and
on and on. With feature films, though, it's finite. It finishes
and then you can go on to something else. In that case it's a plus,
but I'm certainly not bagging TV roles -- certainly not if you
like doing it,'' McInnes says.

He has a suggestion to help boost the Australian film industry, too.
``It's in crisis and I'm the man to solve it. If they put me in every
film there would be no crisis,'' McInnes says, laughing.

``Seriously though, they just need to make movies with more realistic
budgets. There are lots of stories to tell and there's no point
in blowing, say, a $96 million budget on just one film. I think
the budget for this one (Unfinished Sky) was $4 million, which
I think was a healthy budget.''

Article - Sunday Mail (South Australia), Sunday 15th June, 2008

2008-06-30T20:54:00.000+10:00

McInnes has great tail to tell

* WILLIAM McInnes is so full of energy and excitement, it's hard
to keep up with him as he goes from talking about his new movie Unfinished
Sky, which opens on Thursday, to cracking jokes about dogs.

McInnes - who plays the part of John, a farmer living alone on an
isolated property whose wife has died in suspicious circumstances
- is still in awe of a four-legged cast-mate.

``He was an amazing hound,'' McInnes, pictured, says. ``He could do
things that if I could do I would be a rich man.

``I wouldn't be in the nicest roles or showing in your nicest cinemas,
but I would be a rich man.''

He didn't need much convincing to join the project, which was shot
in Queensland - it was ``nice to be going back home'' - and gave
the accomplished character actor ``a chance to do something a bit
different''.

While many actors go to extremes to prepare themselves for roles,
McInnes - best known in rorles for TV's Blue Heelers and SeaChange
- emphatically doesn't.

``You just have to have a crack,'' he says. ``You need to think about
your role and share yourself with other people on screen and
turn up on time.''

Article - The Sunday Mail, Sunday 15th June, 2008

2008-06-30T20:48:00.001+10:00

Love is in the air

Compelling performances bythe two central characters outweigh a climactic
letdown, writes Chris Bartlett

A RECLUSIVE Australian farmer has his lonely existence interrupted
when a bloody and beaten Afghan woman staggers on to his property
and collapses in this slow-burning Queensland-filmed romance/thriller.

Essentially a two-hander with nicely tuned performances from William
McInnes and Dutch actor Monic Hendrickx, Unfinished Sky is let
down only by an implausible climax. Still, you can't help but be
drawn in by these two badly damaged characters as they each rediscover,
through each other, their faith in humanity.

As expected, despite the language and cultural barriers, a bond develops
between them until there's the unmistakable scent of love
in the air, though events threaten to overtake them.

Writer-director Peter Duncan (Children of the Revolution) has based
the story on a 1998 Dutch film, The Polish Bride, in which an eastern
European woman forced into prostitution escapes from her pimp
and is taken in by a farmer.

Hendrickx reprises that role here, rewritten as Afghan illegal immigrant
Tahmeena who, almost literally, falls at the feet of McInnes's
widowed farmer, John, who takes her in, cleans her up and then
hides her, lying to the sleazy pub owner (Bille Brown) and the
town cop (David Field) searching for her.

Through grainy black-and-white flashbacks it becomes clear Tahmeena
has escaped from a hellish life as a small-town sex slave. Her
plight as an illegal immigrant and prize booty for low-lifes gives
the film its underlying menace.

But at its heart is the rehabilitation of the two central characters.
McInnes is especially good as the guarded but vulnerable John,
a good-looking man who's let himself go since the traumatic death
of his wife. This performance is up there with his work in the
excellent Look Both Ways.

Hendrickx, who speaks (unsubtitled) Dari for most of the film, is
clearly at home in her role, and deserves some sort of prize for
being the quickest student of English ever.

Sun Herald (Sydney) - Sunday June 1st 2008

2008-06-28T14:54:00.002+10:00

'Our films have to stop trying to be something they're not'
Interview; Kristie Lau Sun Herald (Sydney)
06-01-2008

I mean, who wants to sit through a bunch of talking penguins again?' Actor William McInnes has strong views about Australia's movie industry ... and how he'd like the world to see him, writes KRISTIE LAU.

William McInnes is worried - but it has nothing to do with acting or the latest film in which he stars. "I'm no Brad Pitt these days, so I'm actually rather concerned at how tubby I look coming out of the tractor more than anything else," he says. "Do you think I looked tubby coming out of it?"

The former SeaChange heart-throb appears in cinemas next month as the star of locally made Unfinished Sky. McInnes plays John, a widowed farmer whose world is turned upside down when a beaten but beautiful stranger stumbles on to his property. As McInnes embarks on the film's promotional trail, preparing for another ride through the fickle world of fame, the 46-year-old appears to be more concerned with his interpreted masculinity than his skills as an actor (or whether or not we'll like the film).

"What did you think of my kick over the house?" he says about one scene in the film in which he shows off his footballing prowess. "It was a great kick, the footy went all the way over. Right?"

Shot in majestic outback Queensland, Unfinished Sky is a local interpretation of the Dutch film The Polish Bride. It's a confronting look at attitudes towards refugees and the threat of terrorism, among other political issues. Without giving too much away, John risks his life to save the beautiful stranger - an Afghanistan native working illegally in a nearby brothel.

McInnes says that although the film offers food for thought, audiences should not forget that it's a love story. "So many films bang on about serious issues for hours and this isn't what this story is about," he says. "It isn't trying to shove anything down your throat. It's a nice intimate story that prompts you to think about those issues but doesn't force an answer out of you. And I love that it takes you on a journey rather than forces you to sit through one. There's a great human dimension to the politics in Unfinished Sky without taking an easy route around the drama."

Grief-stricken John has been suffering for years since his wife died and McInnes says the character's inability to deal with trauma is important. "While John lets everyone down around him, he also lets himself down by not accepting the life he's been dealt with. In a sense, he has completely marooned himself, from the town and from the world, which you just can't do in reality. And this type of thing can happen to even the most intelligent people in the world." He says this behaviour is common among Australians facing heartache. "It's what a person can do to themselves when they don't move on ... they can bathe in grief and that immersion in grief and the darker thoughts that can occupy a human mind can really lead to a frightening place."

As an actor, McInnes says there were certain challenges in portraying this aspect of John's personality. "It is a detached, nihilistic view of the world which is very interesting to play because if you act like that you can look like Bela Lugosi [of late 1920s Count Dracula fame] who needs coffee. "It's a really bad thing to actively try and play so you've really got to sit on it a lot and invite the audience in. You can't comment on what you're doing. You just have to be, which is tricky because actors like to act."

McInnes compares acting to a game of Aussie rules football. "If you work with your team and use your team members effectively and everyone sticks to what they're supposed to be doing in the team, you're going to come out with a better result," he says. "But if you're too worried about what everyone is thinking of you and about your performance, you'll often let it get to you and it will get you down and you'll ruin the game for everyone."

When it comes to the state of the Australian film industry, McInnes says he isn't as concerned as others. He says people should "quit harping on about it", particularly without offering some practical solutions of their own. "Look, our film industry, no one has an answer for it, but everyone has an opinion about it, don't they? It's as simple as this - Australia just needs more great filmmakers making more great films. And they have to be genuine, real films with heart and guts. "Actors and filmmakers need to be honest about what they're doing. I mean, it's like people who think that farmers are conducting brain surgery. If we can tell a believable story about what people believe in, the success is half-way there already. In the end, you've got to deserve recognition to gain it."

He says the key to a great Australian film is keeping story content simple and accessible, rather than focusing on financial success or what international critics may say. "American films are just crap and so I hate it when people bang on about the financial element of Australian films. We don't have to create those big- scale dramas that they do over there that cost millions of dollars. Black Balloon [a movie starring Toni Collette that was released in March] is another good example of a film that does the same sort of thing as we've done. "Why do we have to measure a film's success by how much it earns? There are lots of good people making good films and you've just got to have perspective in the end and come to terms with the fact that we don't have the institutional support other industries do. The creative industry will never get the same amount of money that was thrown at our Olympic team in 2000, for example. No one gets rich making Aussie films."

McInnes says the local production of large-scale films, such as the 2006 Oscar-winning film Happy Feet, should be kept to a minimum. "Happy Feet is one of those big films that made a whole lot of money and it did a great job at entertaining but we can't have a whole host of these type of big-budget films coming out. I mean, who wants to sit through a bunch of talking penguins again? "Our films have to stop trying to be something they're not. There is a time and a place for big, obvious films but we need to tell more stories about what people want to see and when we're talking about Americans, they want to see more of Australia itself and the locals - plain and simple, stereotypical Australia."

Article, Daily Telegraph, Thursday June 19th, 2008

2008-06-28T14:52:00.000+10:00

Refugees from a painful past

UNFINISHED SKY (M)
* * *
Director: Peter Duncan
Starring: William McInnes, Monic Hendrickx, David Field and Bille
Brown
Screening: Selected cinemas

The emotional life of widower John Woldring (William McInnes) is about
as parched as the paddocks from which he ekes out a living.

After the premature death of his wife in an accident, the second-generation
farmer is simply going through the motions.

Unfinished Sky, writer-director Peter Duncan's first film since Passion
(1999), opens with a series of visual snapshots that establish
Woldring's fragile state of mind.

The fortysomething loner hauls himself out of bed, performs rudimentary
ablutions, slaps pet food into a bowl and absentmindedly spoons
cereal into his mouth.

The black dog of depression is only partly alleviated by a real canine
companion, the loyal farm dog who follows Woldring wherever
he goes.

Everything changes, however, when a traumatised Afghani refugee Tahmeena
(Monic Hendrickx) stumbles on to his isolated property and
collapses. Caught on the back foot by the wounded interloper, he
involuntarily rejoins the human race, carrying her limp body into
his house.

Aware that something is seriously amiss, he tends to her with little
emotion but all due care and attention until she finally regains
consciousness.

Slowly, carefully, these two damaged souls find common ground, even
without a common language, and eventually fully-fledged romance.

Unfinished Sky has a thriller element twisted through it, too, flashing
back to reveal how Tahmeena came to be in such a predicament.
And revealing a dark underside to rural camaraderie.

This loose remake of the 1998 Dutch hit The Polish Bride, which also
starred Hendrickx, is well-suited to the new landscape into which
it has been transplanted.

There's a timely aspect, too, in the film's oblique reference to Australia's
harsh treatment of illegal refugees.

And McInnes and Hendrickx have just the right balance of controlled
chemistry as the unlikely couple.

An intelligent romantic thriller.
VR

Unfinished Sky Hits Number 10 at the Box Office

2008-06-28T14:48:00.002+10:00

"The success of Unfinished Sky, ranked number 10 at the box office and the number 1 film at several cinema locations, demonstrates that Australian audiences will embrace quality Australian films," said Benjamin Zeccola, Executive Director of distributor Palace Films.

Unfinished Sky achieved a box office result of $265,573 in its first week on just 29 screens. The strong result will see the film’s release expanded to a number of regional cinemas across Australia over the coming weeks.

“I'm thrilled to cap off the financial year with another strong result for an Australian film. Unfinished Sky is quietly overachieving - even without a marquee cast or production budget. Like Razzle Dazzle’s $1.6m and Clubland’s $1.5m in 2007, Unfinished Sky shows that Australian films can attract crowds to the movies,” Benjamin Zeccola said.

“Palace Films was always confident that the affecting love story in Unfinished Sky, the brilliant performances by its lead actors William McInnes and Monic Hendrickx, and the film’s stunning rural locations would attract an audience interested in a quality cinema experience. Feedback from cinemas playing the film indicates a strong awareness of the film and terrific word-of-mouth.”

Unfinished Sky is currently playing all capital cities and opens today on the Gold Coast and in Wagga and Avoca Beach, with seasons in Darwin, Mackay, Toowoomba, Maroochydore, Cairns, Townsville , Newcastle nad Wollongong. Bowral, Nowra, Ettalong Beach, Sorrento, Castlemaine, Horsham, Laurieton and Orange scheduled to commence throughout July and August.

Article - Courier Mail, Thursday 19th June, 2008

2008-06-24T21:18:00.002+10:00

She's not finished with Oz

Feature film experience in Australia turned Monic Hendrickx into a
fan, reports Rodney Chester

'William McInnes has that kind of Australian humour that is a bit
grumpy and direct'

DUTCH actor Monic Hendrickx admits to having a moment of deja vu during
the filming of Unfinished Sky, as she sat on a tractor driving
up and down a field near Boonah, southwest of Brisbane.

That the feeling of having been there, done that was just limited
to a few moments of her six weeks of shooting in Queensland for the
Brisbane-Dutch co-production is surprising, given she was playing
a role that she had played before.

Or at least she was playing a role that she had played before -- sort
of. Ten years ago, the then 31-year-old actor got her breakthrough
with her first leading film role in the Dutch movie The Polish
Bride.

She played a Polish woman who sets out to create a better life in
Holland, and falls for a lonely farmer who had never known love before.
Hendrickx had to learn to speak Polish for some of her lines. The
bigger challenge was learning to speak her native tongue -- Dutch
-- with a Polish accent.

While she was pretending to be in love on screen, the reality was
she was also falling in love in real life -- with movie-making.

"I just fell in love with the way of life,'' she says. "It's like
working in a circus. Everybody has his job and knows what to do,
and when it comes together and it falls into one place, the moments
can be magical.''

Hendrickx is clearly enamoured of acting in general, and acting in
films in particular.

"You blink an eye and it means something,'' she says. When she was
approached by Queensland filmmakers to re-create her role for Unfinished
Sky, she jumped at the chance even if the two films are
very different.

Instead of being Polish, her character of Tahmeena is an Afghani woman
who is on the run for several reasons. For Hendrickx, that meant
forgetting the Polish and learning the Dari language instead.

"Tahmeena is not like the Polish bride, she's not only an economic
refugee,'' she says. "The threat from outside is stronger in Unfinished
Sky.''

When I speak to Hendrickx, she's at her house, which she chose for
its big garden, about 7km outside Amsterdam.

She has just dropped her six-year-old daughter at school and is juggling
her commitments, as she's currently working on two films at
once. That night she has a shoot for one film, and the next day
she'll be on set for the other production.

"I feel very lucky to be able to make a living from acting. There
are a lot of good actors who can't say that.

"I feel really lucky I don't have an office job from nine to five,''
she says.

"In Holland, we have quite a young film industry and as an actor
you're always in the middle of the stress and you're not protected
from it. Those parts like Tahmeena you can really sink your teeth
into, and dive into that world, those parts are not available
every year, so sometimes you have to play the mistress or the wife.''
Hendrickx describes shooting Unfinished Sky as like the relaxation
of taking a warm bath.

"Nobody knew me over there, so there were no expectations,'' she
says.

"It was 10 years after The Polish Bride and it felt like refinding
your motive behind why you want to make films, why you want to
act.''

Hendrickx hadn't met her Unfinished Sky co-star William McInnes until
she turned up on set.

"You don't know if you can get along, and he has that kind of Australian
humour that is a bit grumpy in the beginning and direct,''
she says.

"But at the end we really clicked and we could get along quite well.''

It was McInnes who suggested that Hendrickx take her daughter to Moreton
Island to feed the dolphins, a memory she treasures from her
time in southeast Queensland. While she made the most of her weekends
to explore the area, she didn't get to see as much of the
country as her husband and then five-year-old girl, who used the
opportunity to take a road trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs.

"They were together in the desert for a week,'' she says.
Hendrickx says she would love to work in Australia again, but it's
a matter of convincing people she could overcome the language barrier.
Her ability to disguise her own nationality has almost paid off since
she finished shooting Unfinished Sky.

She nearly snagged a role in an American film playing another Afghani
woman, but the Actors Guild regulations meant that an actor based
in the US had to be cast.

Regardless of whether her new understanding of the Afghani culture
will further pay off for her career, she says she has already been
rewarded for it personally. Before Unfinished Sky, she had never
met an Afghani person.

"Especially after 9/11, people are more careful,'' she says. "I
don't know if that's a good way of getting along with each other.
"We have to let go of the fear and be curious to get to know each
other, because then it's going to be a better world. Eventually.''

Article - Herald Sun - Thursday, 19th June 2008.

2008-06-24T21:04:00.002+10:00

Eye on the Sky

There's nothing unfinished about William McInnes, writes Claire Sutherland

PITY the poor schmuck on jigsaw duty on Unfinished Sky.

A recurring visual theme in the new Australian film is an enormous
2000-piece puzzle of the sky. As characters chip away at it, it's
impossible not to think of the department in charge of continuity.

"That guy is still in therapy. He shook a lot,'' star William McInnes
says with a laugh. "One quote I remember was `The bit that
looks like Tasmania'. It's all f---ing blue, man! What are you talking
about?''

Unfinished Sky is a remake of a Dutch film called The Polish Bride.
In the new version, an illegal Afghani refugee stumbles -- horribly
injured -- up the driveway of a remote Queensland farm, to be
found by reclusive farmer John Woldring (McInnes).

McInnes hasn't seen the original film, though not from any actor's
notion of not wanting to influence his on-screen decisions.

"It was pure inertia that stopped me from watching it,'' he says.
Dutch actor Monic Hendrickx, who played the titular Polish bride in
the original film, becomes the desperate Afghani in the new version.

"She thought this was a completely different film and that's why
she wanted to do it,'' McInnes says.

"This is an Australianisation of a film and that's the strongest
thing about it. It's just a solidly made film that has a really strong
narrative. It never loses sight of the fact it's an entertainment,
but it has a bit of a brain to it. Hopefully that will attract
an audience that likes that kind of stuff.''

The recent Lucky Miles, for example, took a firm stance on the politics
of immigration and refugees, but Unfinished Sky steers clear.

"That's not the point,'' McInnes says. "It doesn't lecture you in
any way, or tell you how you're meant to feel. It's not self-important.
It doesn't have tickets on itself. I think it's just a really
well-told story.''

Not having tickets is something important to McInnes. Whenever he
catches himself saying something that might be misconstrued as earnest
-- or worse, pretentious -- he immediately blows away the hot
air with a joke.

Take the matter of subtitling, for example. Hendrickx learned the
Central Asian language Dari to play Tahmeena, but the film's director,
Peter Duncan, chose not to subtitle it.

"I don't want to blow smoke up anyone's a---, but it's really confident
storytelling to say, `That works, we'll leave it there'. You're
not treating the audiences like dullards who need everything
pointed out.''

Or possibly there's another explanation.

"Probably couldn't afford it. She was making it up, I think. It was
all Dari to me,'' he adds.

McInnes has carved out a particular niche for himself in the Australian
entertainment industry. He's a regular in TV series and mini-series
-- from playing wartime PM John Curtin in Curtin to a corrupt
cop in SBS drama East West 101 to publishing a memoir (A Man's
Gotta Have a Hobby) and novel (Cricket Kings) and the forthcoming
mix of the two, That'd Be Right.

He was delighted to discover one of his books in the room where he
was staying while making Unfinished Sky.

"I tell you what, you know when you've made it as a writer. I've
been put in one of those Reader's Digest condensed books. I can haunt
holiday houses now.''

AND as any jobbing Australian actor, he's found himself in some mystifying
roles, including a made-in-Queensland US TV series about
dinosaurs, the title of which escapes him (The Lost World for those
playing at home).

"I played a German member of a squadron, with my fantastic German
accent that made me sound like Inspector Clouseau's younger brother,''
he recalls.

I had no idea what I was doing there, but I got to go to Wet and
Wild for a couple of weeks.''

Perhaps McInnes's most successful foray into film was in his animator
wife Sarah Watt's directorial debut Look Both Ways, a hit at
the Australian Film Institute awards and the box office.

Watt is now putting the finishing touches to her next film, My Year
Without Sex, in which McInnes has a tiny role.

"Blink and you'll miss me,'' he says.

The pair have decided to avoid working together as closely as they
did for Look Both Ways.

"It's not fair on the kids. We're pretty busy, both of us. She's
editing the film and also illustrating a children's book she's written
and I'm just finishing off my book. And we're renovating.''

Event - Brisbane's Better Bookshops

2008-06-21T12:48:00.001+10:00

WILLIAM MCINNES
That’d Be Right
Monday, 28th July,
6pm for 6:30pm start
Irish Club, 175 Elizabeth St, Brisbane

William McInnes is one of Australia’s most popular stage and screen actors, and with the publication of his memoir, A Man’s Gotta Have A Hobby, and his novel, Cricket Kings, he has become a much loved writer, too.

Join William as he discusses his up-coming book, That’d Be Right. The same mixture of humour and thoughtfulness that readers loved in A Man’s Gotta Have A Hobby is here in abundance, as William McInnes looks back over the last thirty years. Both funny and insightful, That’d Be Right is part memoir, part personal history of Australia over the last thirty years. It’s a biographical trip told through sport and families and William’s own experience.

Tickets: $15, concession $12, bulk purchase (6+) $10
American Bookstore: 3229 4677
Avid Reader: 38463331
Coaldrake’s Milton: 33670559,
Fortitude Valley: 38540188

William Appearing in Brisbane This Week

2008-06-15T19:57:00.002+10:00

William will be appearing at a screening of Unfinished Sky on Wednesday, 18th June, 6.30pm at Palace Centro Cinemas in Fortitude Valley.

For more information, click here.

Article and Competition

2008-06-12T16:12:00.002+10:00

There is an article in The Australian newspaper from yesterday, 11th June 2008. Click here to read it.

And for another chance to win tickets to see Unfinished Sky, click here.

Trailer for Unfinished Sky

2008-06-12T16:08:00.000+10:00

Promo Poster for Unfinished Sky

2008-06-12T15:58:00.001+10:00

Thanks to Palace Films, here is the promotional picture for Unfinished Sky, which is due to be released next week:

Exclusive Event - Unfinished Sky - William Appearing

2008-06-12T15:39:00.000+10:00

Exclusive Amnesty screening of the celebrated new film Unfinished Sky

To kick off Refugee week in 2008, Amnesty International Australia and Palace Films are pleased to present a special preview screening of Unfinished Sky (M), the highly acclaimed new film by Australian writer/director Peter Duncan and starring William McInnes. Unfinished Sky explores some of the complex dimensions of the experience of asylum seekers in Australia . Experience this terrific new film with director Peter Duncan and star William McInnes. AIA staff and volunteers will also be available to discuss the Amnesty International Refugee campaign.

Tickets for this event are now on sale at Palace Cinemas (http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/st.loader.asp?s=2&sid=48602&cinema=158) or contact nswaia@amnesty.org.au for more details.

When: Tuesday, 17th June
Time: 6:30pm to meet director Peter Duncan and star William McInnes at the Verona Bar. 7.15pm screening to commence
Where: Palace Verona Cinema, 17 Oxford St , Paddington
Cost: $8 concession, $10 Adult.
All proceeds to Amnesty International Australia

More on New Movie

2008-06-07T20:04:00.002+10:00

I found this article, on William's new movie, which is to be called Prime Mover.

It has an entry in IMDb here.

Unfinished Sky also has an IMDb entry here.

Article by William

2008-06-07T16:54:00.004+10:00

Crossing to the other side
Melbourne Age, Saturday June 7, 2008

William McInnes

Our tolerance, and sometimes lack of it, is explored in Unfinished Sky, reveals William McInnes.

MANY YEARS AGO I WAS invited to the family dinner of a girl with whom I was friendly.

They must have thought I was a lot more friendly than I was because the television was turned off for the meal - a sign of deep significance to me, for the television in our house was seldom off.

The father and I stood and shook hands as I was introduced to him. He had been watching a television show called Wild Kingdom with his two younger children, a girl and a little boy. He went to turn the TV off.

The little boy asked to watch a little bit more, just to see who won the fight. Wild Kingdom was always about animals fighting or eating each other - which was a handy coincidence because the program was shown about dinner time. It was hosted by a man called Marlin Perkins and he would whine on about wildebeests, warthogs, lions and the like, while families and the big cats would both tuck in.

That night it was baboons. Their behaviour in the Wild Kingdom struck the father of the household as odd. Some new baboon was being chased off by the others because he wasn't from their tribe or whatever you call a group of baboons.

"Stupid animals. They're completely the same, look at them. Can't tell the difference. No wonder they stayed in the trees." We watched them fight and then he turned the television off and we walked to the table.

"It's not like those monkeys are really different from each other. Not like us - we can tell who's different to us. Look at these Vietnamese people that are coming in here." And he raised his eyebrows.

Nothing more was said about new immigrants or dim-witted baboons - indeed he and many others thought this quiet intolerance and suspicion was completely normal. His raised eyebrows were an indication of how easy and proper it was to recognise and deliberate upon the difference, the otherness, of the Vietnamese and ourselves. Us being Australians who belonged. We settled down to a feast of rissoles, gravy and Rosella savoury rice.

We chewed like a collection of creatures from Wild Kingdom and he asked me, "What do you want to do with your life?"

My only thought was - I'm not that friendly with your daughter.

That was more than 25 years ago but the idea of the acceptance or non-acceptance of otherness is still with us; indeed, it is an underlying idea of the film Unfinished Sky.

In the Oxford dictionary, otherness is defined as the quality or the fact of being different. Otherness comes in many forms. My mother was full of advice about the dangers of otherness - never trust people who had no lobes to their ears or if they had webbing between their toes or if their eyes were too close together. My father never liked people with beards and was wary of left-handers.

There are more homespun ideas about otherness. But the most obvious idea of otherness was that which struck the father of the household all those years ago - that of religious or racial otherness.

In those terms then we and the baboons from Wild Kingdom have some common ground. If something is different, then more often that not it is regarded with fear and suspicion.

For difference means change and dealing with change reminds us of many things.

Mostly it reminds us that we are temporary, our lives are finite and so if together we can build community, culture, and a system of beliefs and values, then we have a sense of permanency.
Otherness makes us question our certainty. And I think there is a fundamental apprehension, and perhaps even fear, about things that are different.

That is the emotion felt by the characters in Unfinished Sky.

The appearance of a stranger makes other characters behave in certain ways, ostensibly to defend their positions. So at first the stranger, the vessel of otherness, is ignored, then engaged and, in turn, attacked and defended. This theme isn't overplayed - it's entertainment after all - but hopefully entertainment with a bit of brain.

If the film reflects one thing, it's the idea that nobody is hard and fast in their character make-up. We are layered. And even though otherness can be uncomfortable, it can also enrich. How we deal with otherness gives an example of a particular Australian characteristic.

We are very good at being world-beaters and even better at thinking we are the world's worst.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle. In the first decade of federation, Australia racked up a string of social changes that celebrated and included otherness: women were given the vote, a system of industrial arbitration was initiated, the idea that there should be opportunity for all abounded, and rugged individualism was held to be a national creed.

Yet hand in hand with this was a raging sectarianism and the implementation of the White Australia Policy.

To an extent these aspects of Australia still exist in varying forms. We remember the Australia Day riots on the beaches of Sydney and the institutional bewilderment at coming to terms with the intricacy of indigenous Australian issues. And yet the ledger is weighed heavily in favour of Australia. We have a society that is multi-racial and diverse in make-up, and a justice system and bureaucracy that seeks to protect and enhance the idea of Australia being a tolerant and accepting society.

Australia is an isolated country that still in many ways defines itself with homogeneous icons that belong to an earlier idea of itself. Sun-bronzed lifesavers and slouch-hatted diggers. We gradually change as otherness is assimilated into a dominant Australian culture. Australia may sometimes be tentative in taking steps, but nevertheless heads roughly in the right direction when the question of otherness is raised.

As in the film Unfinished Sky, there is a dividend when otherness is embraced, for it is a two-way interaction. It may take time but I think that is the key to living with otherness.

Not so long ago I trotted along the beach in the town where I grew up. My name was called out and I turned to see the woman I was once friendly with. I walked over to the barbecue area where she stood with her family. We chatted for a while and laughed about the rissoles, gravy and savoury rice. The smells of snags and onions mixed with those of rice paper rolls and coriander.

She called out to her father, who was playing with his grandchildren. One had fallen and he picked up a small child and cuddled her and made her laugh with funny faces. Another man of similar age stood close and waved at the little girl. "She'll be right, two granddads to spoil her," said the woman.

The men came over and said hello.

"Grandkids wearing you out?" I asked.

"No way. Love 'em. They're just too much fun. This is the latest edition. My son's girl."

I remembered the little boy who wanted to watch the baboons fight. His granddaughter smiled at her pop and pulled at his cap. Her other granddad waved a finger. He was Vietnamese, as was his wife.

The two old men laughed together. The boy who had wanted to watch the fight had grown up and married a first-generation Australian girl from Vietnamese parents.

Time goes by and things change and we choose, I suppose, to try and resist the change that otherness can bring. Or we can be like the old man embracing his grandchild, embrace it and grow. And, as for the baboons, well, I'll leave them to Marlin Perkins.

Unfinished Sky opens on June 19. William McInnes will answer questions after special screenings at 4 pm on June 15 at Nova and 6pm at Como.

New Film - Title Yet Unknown.

2008-06-06T20:19:00.002+10:00

According to this article in the Dubbo Daily Liberal newspaper, William is currently making a new film with Gyton Grantley (Underbelly), Michael Dorman (Suburban Mayhem, Secret Life of Us), Ben Mendelsohn, and Emily Barclay (Suburban Mayhem) which is a ‘diesel-charged love story’ about the love shared by a man, a woman and his truck.

I will share more information as it comes to light.

Win Tickets to Unfinished Sky

2008-06-06T20:17:00.001+10:00

In Film Australia is giving away tickets to Unfinished Sky

To enter, go to:

http://www.infilm.com.au/?p=344

Official Website: Unfinished Sky

2008-06-06T20:13:00.002+10:00

Palace Films have notified me of an official website for Unfinished Sky, William's latest movie which will be released on June 19th. Go to:

www.unfinishedsky.com

It has a trailer, gallery, reviews and a detailed synopsis.

And watch this space for more info from Palace Films about this wonderful new Australian movie.

Logies 2008

2008-05-26T19:25:00.002+10:00

Sadly William didn't take home a Logie this year, despite being nominated twice for the category of "Most Outstanding Actor". Once for East West 101 and the second time for Curtin.

But, Curtin did take out the "Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie" as you can see from the photograph below.

Darwin Writer's Festival - Photos

2008-05-26T19:16:00.002+10:00

Interesting hat there Will...

Article: The Courier Mail, Sunday 25th of May, 2008

2008-05-26T19:01:00.002+10:00

William McInnes a Bit Like Gordon Ramsay
Marie-Christine Sourris

BLAME it on the oversupply of Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen on our TV screens lately, but there might be a little bit of Gordon Ramsay in Australia's favourite son, William McInnes.
Maybe it's the gruff exterior that McInnes often portrays on screen.

This is, after all, the man who sticks in the mind as Southgate, that "nasty piece of work" (his words) who played opposite Claudia Karvan in 1993's The Heartbreak Kid.

And a few years ago he was channelling the obnoxious Mr Darcy in a Melbourne Theatre Company production of Pride and Prejudice.

But it's McInnes' latest film Unfinished Sky – in which he turns in a brilliant performance as the shaggy, craggy, cranky John Waldren – where the parallels with Ramsay will be noticed.

On the phone, McInnes's swearing isn't half as bad as Britain's most notorious chef.

When he's not doing hilariously random voice impersonations of a stuttering mentor from his early career as a shopping centre Santa, McInnes' sentences are peppered with the odd "bloody" or two.

Regardless, both Ramsay and McInnes share one thing for certain – both have become unlikely sex symbols.

Playing Sigrid Thornton's love interest in TV's SeaChange back in 1999 catapulted the self-deprecating McInnes to heart-throb status.

"I don't know about that," he shoots back.

"That was very brief. It was just the make-up and the hair. I almost gave myself bloody haemorrhoids from sucking my gut in so much on that show."

But what about before that, in the early 1990s, when he carved out a place in millions of hearts on A Country Practice?

"Huh," he snorts dismissively. "I played the worst paleontologist you've ever seen. I looked a bit like Barry Crocker on monkey hormones; my hair looked like it was a toupee. But then," he acknowledges, "half of that is my gene pool make-up."

In truth, the former Brisbane boy was thrilled to land the Country Practice gig. It was the big break that led him to a longstanding role on Blue Heelers – his ticket out of a full-time gig playing Santa Claus in shopping centres down south. Those North Pole days still resonate with the 47-year-old – who gained a degree in law and economics before studying acting in Perth – 20-something films later.

"I made Billy Bob Thornton look like the real thing," he says, referring to Thornton's Bad Santa.

Anecdotes of being busted for smoking in Santa's Cave, hiding until shifts were over and being hauled off by security for harassing a woman (now his wife) ensue; parts of them make their way into the part-time writer's third book, That'd Be Right, a semi-autobiographical tome that hits shelves in August.

"There were some Santy stories I couldn't put in," he adds wistfully.

McInnes isn't the only one who can write in the family. Older sister Laurie McInnes is a writer and film-maker, and his wife Sarah Watt wrote (and directed her husband) in the highly acclaimed 2005 film Look Both Ways, which he describes as "a great experience" while conceding it might never happen again.

"It's really disruptive and the kids suffer," admits the multiple silver Logie winner. "(But) it was amazing to actually work that close professionally with someone that's your life partner."

In Unfinished Sky, McInnes stars opposite Dutch icon Monic Hendrickx, who reprised her original role from De Poolse Bruid (the Australian film is a remake of the 1998 Dutch film The Polish Bride).

The twist? This time around, the highly emotive tale takes place in rural Queensland and Hendrickx's character is not from Poland, but Afghanistan.

The cinematography defies the Aussie red dust stereotype (think lush rolling landscapes instead).

A festival favourite at last year's Brisbane International Film Festival, Unfinished Sky has a superb cast (Bille Brown co-stars) and an intriguing soundtrack. It's a slick dramatic roller-coaster that's been produced in our own back yard.

"When people think of Queensland films, they think of Movie World and that's it," he says. "It's great that you can have a solid, entertaining film with a good story that almost anyone in the world can get into, without all the million-dollar special effects. Hopefully, lots of Queenslanders will be seeing it."

While most of the six-week shoot happened in Beaudesert, south of Brisbane, look out for scenes from the city's Story Bridge and QUT's Kelvin Grove campus.

Incredibly, McInnes' Netherlands-born co-star learnt the local dialect of Dari for the film.

"(Monic) was so dedicated, learning the language, and she's really lovely," says McInnes, before recounting his intense discussions with her about the dim sims available in Queensland.

"She couldn't believe it," he says. "I mean, have you seen them? They're fried and they look like that blistered metal. They can sink a ship!"

Tangents are a specialty for the man who doesn't like to take himself too seriously.

"It just seems so many people get ahead because they bang on obsessively about themselves," he reflects.

Perhaps it was his "eminently normal" and much-loved childhood in Redcliffe, with regular visits to the old drive-in on weekends, that left McInnes more down-to-earth than most.

"I lived there for 18 years. It was a place where you could just muck around and really enjoy yourself," says the actor, who is now based in Melbourne and returns to the Sunshine State about five times a year to visit family.

"Brisbane's a really changing city all right. I can see myself moving back up there."

For now, though, it's full steam ahead in Dubbo, where he has since started shooting a new movie opposite fellow Queenslander Gyton Grantley, of Underbelly fame.

"It's called Dim Sim Man," he jokes, before ringing off to go sort out the mate who has rocked up to his house mid-interview to help with renovations.

Truth be told, by the end of our chat I've started to find William McInnes' quirkiness unnervingly charming.

Gordon Ramsay, eat your heart out.

Unfinished Sky opens in cinemas on June 26.

Some New Photos

2008-04-07T22:08:00.001+10:00

I found some photos online, and some were sent to me. Here they are:

East West 101 - Website

2008-04-07T22:05:00.001+10:00

There is an official website for East West 101. It has videos, interviews and reviews. Go to:

http://programs.sbs.com.au/eastwest101/

Logie Nominations

2008-04-07T21:32:00.002+10:00

William has been nominated twice in the Most Outstanding Actor category for the TV Week Logie Awards. For Curtin (ABC) and East West 101 (SBS).

Both programmes have also been nominated for Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie.

For more information on the TV Week Logie Awards, Click Here.

Article: Sunday Age, November 11th, 2007

2008-01-30T20:55:00.000+10:00

In Movember, the mo maketh the man William McInnes
William McInnes

ONE Melbourne Cup some years ago I sat with my mother drinking too much champagne and backing not enough winners. It was fun. To a point. It was more like being at the football. My mother - like all of our family - loved yelling. Mostly she yelled at me.

I had for the sake of my acting career started to grow a moustache for a role as Robert Drewe's father in the miniseries of his memoir The Shark Net.

People would say hello and take in the sprinkling of hair on my upper lip. They were too polite to say anything but thankfully my mother took care of things.

"What does the boy look like?" She would boom. "It's like he's got an anchovy on his lip!"

She was matched by a man who owned the television network who sponsored the tent we sat yelling in.

"Jesus, Willy, don't tell me you've turned gay on us!"

"I'm growing it for a job I'm doing at the ABC," I said.

The magnate considered me.

"Things can't be that bad, mate."

"Do you mean the job at the ABC or the mo?"

The magnate blinked. "They're as bad as each other."

In the end my efforts came to no end. My head was shaved and so was my mo - it was deemed by the producer of The Shark Net as being characterless. Thanks very much.

I must admit that a part of me was let down. Perhaps it was growing up in the '70s , the decade when hairy was cool, when everyone who was cool had one, from opening bowlers and movie stars to the fellow down the road who could do trick dives off the end of the jetty. I even had a GI Joe doll who it was claimed had realistic face and chest hair, complete with kung fu hand grip.
Joe did look decidedly dodgy, and my mate Reg Worth and I would drape a fishing line down from my back veranda and place a wire coathanger on it so hairy Joe could be sent by flying fox down to the big gum tree in the backyard, providing a bearded target for Reg's air rifle.

Joe never flinched. My father though wasn't impressed. "Why do they have beards on this thing? It is a toy!"

He wasn't a fan of facial hair. "Never vote for fella with a beard or a mo. The bastard is either bald and making up for it or is hiding something!"

"Yes," echoed my mother.

What about Deakin? Or Lincoln?

"Just a fad!" Yelled my father, staring at GI Joe.

An old actor's trick is to grow a mo and beard when nothing else is happening in your career.

"Makes people think you're doing it for a job," a bearded acquaintance said to me with a wink at an awards ceremony. It was the year that the movie Ned Kelly was being shot, and every actor worth his salt was hairy.

I sadly was hairless on the melon. But now in November, , if you see a fella with a mo, give him a break, he hasn't got a stray anchovy on his lip. It's Movember, when men grow mos for charity.

So donate to the cause and remember the words of my father: "Never vote for a fella with a beard".

Article: Gold Coast Bulletin, November 24th, 2007

2008-01-30T20:47:00.000+10:00

Well-Informed

SEACHANGE actor William McInnes will star in a new series about an
Australian Serious Crime Agency informant.

Filming for the Network 10 drama, aptly titled The Informant, has begun
in Sydney.

The series also stars Anita Hegh (Stingers), Colin Friels (BlackJack),
Stephen Curry (Secret Life of Us), Leeanna Walsman (Looking
for Alibrandi) and recent NIDA graduate Don Christopher.

Ex-A Country Practice star Matt Day has also returned for the series
after years in London.

McInnes stars as Richard Button, who helps the agency thwart extortion,
murder, fraud, terrorism, illegal gambling and drug dealing.

The criminals have no idea who he is and his children don't know about
his job either.

"We have the chance to tell a story which has never been told before
about a man responsible for putting away some of Australia's
most dangerous criminals,'' says executive producer Des Monaghan.

Article: Sydney Morning Herald, December 22nd, 2007

2008-01-30T20:39:00.000+10:00

Beef sangers welcome where the people gather to give thanks
William McInnes

I spent an afternoon in Old Parliament House not so long ago and even though Canberra is one of those towns many love to roll their eyes at, I came away feeling vaguely uplifted.

The first time I visited Old Parliament House was after a week on a bus. It was during an educational school trip from Queensland to the Snowy Mountains.

We were supposed to meet our local member, a large, jolly chemist called Big John. My parents never voted for him as he was a Liberal, but they liked him all the same for he was large and jolly.

Big John the jolly chemist couldn't meet us for he had politician work to pursue. In his place was an immense tray of sandwiches. After a week on a bus we were slightly demented and to say that the tray was attacked was an understatement. A girl I was in love with went at it hardest.

She ate like a mad raptor. Seeing her at work on a rather angry-looking beef sandwich, I remembered how her mother's arms would wobble while on tuckshop duty. I put this out of my head and stole furtive looks as she burped her way around the Parliament on a guided tour.

At the end, as we stood by the doors, she staggered down the steps and across to the lawn and up-ended herself and the contents of her stomach across the grass. Democracy can be a heady thing.

On this recent trip I thought of that girl and wondered if she still liked beef sandwiches.

I drifted about looking at the portraits of the prime ministers and overheard some of the tour groups' efforts at understanding our history.

"Can you tell me who this might be?" asked a guide, pausing by a bust of Harold Holt.

"Sir Donald Bradman," came a voice from a little group of people old enough to have voted for Holt.

"No, not the Don," said the guide. "Although it might have been interesting on the Chinese sub if it had been him."

Billy McMahon looked almost sensible in his bronze form, so the sculptor had worked a minor miracle. Menzies looked suitably wise and owlish. Paul Keating was elegant in a grey suit, but his pale hands were clasped in a childlike way. He appeared surprisingly devoid of a chin and looking slightly embarrassed.

Mal Fraser's portrait showed him with his trousers hitched high - "a real choko Charlie", as my father would have said.

As high as they were hitched, they still ended up around his ankles in Memphis, and there has to be metaphor about a fall from power there that we can all appreciate.

I thought of my father as I walked about. He adored elections and politicians. He loved a fight and a debate. He would often say that Parliament was "the people's church" and "never take democracy for granted - never. Too many good people died giving it to you." Then he would invariably add: "And never vote for a bastard with a beard. They're hiding something." Well, obviously the founding fathers were up to something, for they nearly all had beards to a man, save for Edmund Barton.

I stood behind a couple who gazed up at Andrew Fisher in his morning coat. After a long while the woman said to her companion: "Another Queenslander."

"Hmm," the man intoned and then, "His hair is the same colour as Rudd's."

The woman nodded. "Queenslanders," she said.

Around the pillar was the man one of those Queenslanders had replaced. "Oh dear, look at him," said the woman as we all looked at John and Janette Howard. She said it with a tone one uses on seeing some poor half-silly cousin at a large family Christmas.

The Howards were dressed as if they were going to such a reunion and this provoked a shaking of the woman's head.

"Trust him. Everyone else is formal and he has to go 'neat casual'. It's like they're off at a buffet."

"Well, you voted for him."

"I don't care. Neat casual is inappropriate."

Eleven-and-a-half years as PM and your era is deemed Inappropriate Neat and Casual. And that's by people who voted for you.

I walked off and stood on the steps where Gough Whitlam spoke his famous words in 1975. Tea towels are sold with Whitlam and a bubble speaking those words. History on a tea towel. I looked down at the Aboriginal tent embassy and remembered seeing it the first time I came here, as the girl I loved hurled on the grass. A teacher told us why he thought indigenous people felt they must protest. Most of us pretended to listen and then the teacher said he wished they didn't have to protest, but at least it was sort of good that they could.

"Never take democracy for granted - too many good people died to give it to you," my father used to say.

Australia isn't perfect. It doesn't have to be, for it is the sum total of its people. We are all good and bad, eager and indifferent. Some of us don't care, some care too much, most of us go about our lives. Places such as Old Parliament House crystallise all of us as a nation. It is the people's church and I hope we long maintain the faith.

Article: Sydney Morning Herald, December 29th, 2007

2008-01-30T20:31:00.000+10:00

It's a fundamental truth: fame, like toilet paper, is fleeting
William McInnes

There are some people, not many, but some, who think I am famous. The security guard at the local supermarket who always asks me what it was like to be on Cop Shop is one. He is a very old security guard. But still he always says hello and points me out to befuddled people in the supermarket.

Once a man approached me uncertainly after encountering the nice security guard and muttered in stilted English: "You ... the man ... there say you ... where is toilet ... paper? You please." I nodded and took the man down the aisle to the toilet paper.

And it's here that the question of fame is interesting. If you were really famous, would you want people pointing you out in the supermarket aisles as you debate whether you are going to be environmentally sound and buy recycled and unbleached toilet paper, or just let yourself go and indulge in a minor pleasure of purchasing soft as velvet two-ply white-as-snow toilet tissue?

Hmmmm.

I guess if you are really famous then you get someone else to go and rage about which toilet paper should be gracing your arse. But perhaps it's nice to go out shopping and drift through the aisles looking at stuff, having a chat to people. Perhaps really famous people wouldn't be able to do that. And if that were the case then why would you want to be famous? What is it about fame that drives people to seek it?

I was on a television series once that was basically all about being famous. Well, not exactly, but that was the end result of being on it. We all got a buzz out of being recognised in the street.

The most important day of the week was the rehearsal day. You'd be given your week's mail, your fan mail. People would sit around the set and go through this stuff like researchers seeking the truth in ancient manuscripts.

I hardly used to get any; a couple of loopy people from the back of beyond would write and invite me to go shooting - but really that was about it. What I did like to do was to write fan mail to my co-actors. At first it was a mild joke, but so seriously were these forms of correspondence taken that they soon became my main form of entertainment. They became so outrageously fawning and sycophantic that I was sure my co-workers would twig. Indeed, the letters all had the same postcode. But no, they would read these things and believe that some fan had written singing their praises.

Being famous blinds you. You live in a bubble. It is a part of the job you have, and so you have to believe it, to a certain extent. But the fact that otherwise sensible people who happen to be on the telly believe that small shrines are being built for them in Longreach, and that people come and pray beside them for healing, or that sailors in the Royal Australian Navy write your name on ballistic missiles as a form of love and devotion is something I think a little sad.

It is also terribly human. So don't feel sorry for the famous.

All of us live and die. All of us are on this earth for a finite time. Some try to cheat that mortality by seeking fame. It is encouraged, for famous people take us outside ourselves. They allow us to dally in another world. Even talking about the famous passes the time. What has Nicole had done? What has Russell done now? And is Hugh really that nice?

Fame is ostensibly an indication of success, of worth and importance. Even powerful people seem to like being famous. This is where fame is a bit weird. Because you are famous it doesn't mean you are worth any more than any other member of society. But just try to tell that to people on awards nights. You have an award, and a television camera and a microphone and you will have a truly accurate example of the pure stupidity and human silliness of being famous.

People who are about as functional as a two-dollar watch stand before us and lecture on how what they have done is important and meaningful, how they thank us for our support. They tell us little morality stories about who they are and how their success can inspire us all.

Being famous lets you hide your failures - your broken promises, your cheapness and inability to cope with life - by glorying in them and celebrating them in public.

I have worked with some of these types of people. And they are not bad people. Talented people, far more talented than me. But still just people - and that's too easy to forget. Fame is fleeting.

It's a fashion and nothing changes quicker than fashion.

So next time I'm in the local supermarket debating which toilet paper to buy and the friendly old security guard waves and points me out to puzzled shoppers who have no idea who I am, I know what to do. Walk over and say: "It's all right. I'm really not famous, but what do you want, environmentally safe and unbleached or soft, thick and white?"

Article: Sydney Morning Herald, January 5th, 2008

2008-01-30T20:29:00.000+10:00

Beat the heat with Dustin, corn and a science experiment
William McInnes.

Dustin Hoffman didn't really seem to care, and who could blame him. It was hot outside and it was nice and cool inside the cinema. Still, the woman who I took to be the mother of the loud boy who threw popcorn at people in the cinema like confetti at a wedding thought that Dustin might.
"Stop it. Troy, STOP!"

The fact that she screamed it must have made some dent in Troy's desire to share his popcorn. "Yes ... he is mad ... now sit down, he's mad!" she pointed to Hoffman.

Troy looked up at Hoffman on the screen in a considered way, thought about life and then threw some popcorn up at him. "Troy!"

Nobody seemed to care really, least of all Hoffman, who hammed away merrily in a bizarre film about a toy shop. It was a family movie. That's why I, my daughter and two of her friends were here. Plus it was more than 40 degrees outside in Melbourne.

The film was secondary, everybody seemed to agree, even the actors. Led on by Troy's example, a couple of people started making plans for New Year's Eve.

"Well, why can't we just head off to the caravan park on New Year's Eve instead of Sunday?" asked a woman.

"Because Mum wants me to pick up Craig and the two cats," said the man.

Hoffman laughed in a supposedly endearing way as Natalie Portman and her eyeshadow stared back at a cute kid in the film. A pause, then the woman behind spoke. "Well, text her that Karen can pick up Craig and the cats ... "

"Karen?" said the man.

"Yeah, Karen is going down that way, get her to do it. That woman is a midget."

She was talking about Portman. She did look incredibly tiny. And the man agreed about Karen and Natalie.

"Karen. Good ... she is tiny. She's a bit odd ... like a science experiment."

There was silence and then Troy started running up and down the aisle two rows down. Nobody seemed to care. It was that floating period in all Australian cities between Christmas Day and New Year when time seems to expand and the temperature seems to soar.

Holiday time, it's 40 degrees and everybody is trying to get over Christmas gorging. It's cool and dark in the cinema, so nobody really cares. You can tell that by the films people make. Usually they are unremitting tripe with no point. Trying to find one that a "family" can enjoy is another thing. And what is a family movie? On a hot day you are governed by the nearest session time and the lowest movie rating. It was either this thing with Hoffman and Science Experiment Portman or Aliens Versus Predator: Requiem, which caught my eye because it was listed under the banner of "good-time, summertime movie fun!"

"What's it about?' said one of the kids in front of us to the teenage ticket collector.

In a breaking voice the teenager read out the synopsis. "Two of the greatest demons in movie history face off in a unique and originally exciting battle to the death." Summertime movie fun indeed. We ended up with Dustin.

But summertime movie fun isn't about original masterpieces. It's about making lots of money.

Maybe that's who decides what a family movie is - some person in an office who thinks more people will pay for more family combos.

A family movie seems to be a flick where only half the characters end up like chopped chicken livers and popcorn is shovelled down throats or thrown across the rows courtesy of Troy. In fact the movie trade seems to be a lot about making money from onselling and tie-ins.

The Sydney writer Ray Devitt told me once about going to a movie convention on the Gold Coast where a man stood at the podium and told the audience he had the cure for the ailing profits for the movies in Australia.

People leaned forward. What was the gleaming advice about the secret of filmmaking in Australia? The man declared that a new form of corn kernel had been developed that popped up into a fluffier more cost-effective product. "We use less but make more!" cried the Popcorn Movie Man. He received a standing ovation.

I thought of that man when I dropped my sunglasses and went down on my knees to find them. I peered under rows of comfy recliners. There was the trash and treasure of a day at the movies, all swept under the chairs. I groped and felt dropped drinks, melted choc tops and gooey crap I don't want to think about. I picked up my glasses and saw a lolly snake stuck on the lens.

I held the snake up to the flickering light. It seemed to look at me. The man behind got a text message. "Karen can do Craig."

Troy threw some more popcorn. "Troy!"

Nobody cared. Not the bloke who discovered the magic corn kernels and least of all me and Dustin and The Science Experiment. It was 40 degrees outside and it was cool in the cinema.

And my daughter and her friends were laughing. Life doesn't get much better.

Article: Herald Sun, January 9th, 2008

2008-01-30T20:25:00.000+10:00

Leading a force for change

DON Hany is Zane Malik, East West 101's young Major Crime Squad detective
who also happens to be Muslim, living in a post-9/11 world.

Not only does he feel the pressure to prove himself over and over,
Malik also has a hunger for justice stemming from a crime against
his family many years ago.

Then there's his colleague, Sen-Det Ray Crowley (William McInnes),
a bitter man, weathered by a life in the police force and at odds
with his surroundings.

So far as McInnes is concerned, Ray seems a straight-down-the-line
kind of character, but demons from his past and personal life reveal
much more.

He plays a character consumed by his work but slowly being eaten away
by his resentment towards the outside world and deep-seated hatred
towards change and difference.

"He lives in the brotherhood of the police force and it's the only
real thing propping him up,'' McInnes says. "He enjoys his work,
but his personal life hasn't gone that well.

"He was born into a family that was the fourth generation of police,
so he's an old-style police officer. He's like a lot of Australians;
he admits not all Australians look the same, but the idea
of Australia is very homogenous.''

The concept behind East West 101 and the plight of the lead characters
was thoroughly checked, the series sparked by one real-life
cop's fight for acceptance.

After meeting an Egyptian detective in Sydney's police force, the
creators got a closer look at the ethnic challenges faced by officers
from multicultural backgrounds.

McInnes is careful to point out his character isn't a bigot, but represents
a very real portion of people who resist -- even fear --
change. For McInnes, this representation accounts for a large part
of the program's appeal.

"Not all Australians are actively racist, but they have a set view
of what Australia is, which usually is white, middle class,'' he
says.

"What this show is good at, and why I hope it works, is that it has
a brain behind it.''

Article: Sunday Age, 13th January, 2008

2008-01-30T20:17:00.000+10:00

Dim sims, deep ends and Westie friends
Byline: William McInnes

THERE are many ways to spend Sunday morning in Melbourne. Sleep in. Go to the galleries. Read The Sunday Age. Sit in your favourite coffee shop doing whatever you do in your favourite coffee shop. Or you can spend it with the Footscray swimming club.

You walk past the woman with the water aerobics class who likes her music loud. Maybe the people in her class like it loud. Hopefully all the people in the pool complex like it loud because it's echoing around the Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre.

Across in the big spa and glass-walled steam room, people sit surrounded by bubbles and wispy jets of smoke. A kid told me once that these people looked like dim sims. Both steamed and fried. The image has never left me. The kid and I stared and burst out laughing. All those blank faces through the steam and bubbles. Then one winked and smiled. We laughed even more. Dim sims have not tasted the same since.

You walk on to the end of the pool to the big glass windows and a view stretching down the Maribyrnong River to the city of Melbourne. Here a group of families mill about on shallow concrete bleaches. Children giggle or sit with friends or cuddle under the wings of parents.

It's not a huge club and I suppose it's similar to many other swimming and sporting clubs across the city. But it represents something special. The western suburbs of Melbourne, and especially Footscray, come in for quite a bit of stick and sneer. It's as if the west is a lesser part of the city. You hear the jokes about moccy-wearing Westies and a host of other stereotypes that are tiresome, like most cliches.

The particular quality of the Footscray swimming club is the make- up of its members. Some seem to have been members since Adam was a lad. In tiny rooms there are club photos from years before. Black and white images of swimming galas in the 1930s and high divers arcing gracefully through the air above the waters of the Maribyrnong.

You can see Gordon, barrel-chested and smiling, with his arms folded and his hair Brylcreemed to within an inch of its life in a team photo from the 1950s, and then see him marching along the pool deck every Sunday. His hair is not as Brylcreemed these days, but he is still organising and smiling and encouraging. His encouragement is extended to kids who come from a rainbow of backgrounds. Some have been born in lands far across the seas, some are first-generation Australians, and some have ancestors who were on the First Fleet. Many follow different faiths but come together every Sunday at the club.

A little boy stands on the edge of the pool for his first swim, shaking with apprehension as he peers into the Deep End. But he needn't worry. Everybody shouts encouragement and as he splashes along two older kids keep watch and stroke with him. Amazingly, he beats them. A huge smile stretches across his face and he's cradled in the arms of a sporting club that can show the city a great deal about acceptance, tolerance and community friendship.

High on a hill above Melbourne is a jewel that shines as bright as that little boy's face. The Footscray swimming club.

Article, City Times, Dubai, Wednesday December 12, 2007

2007-12-13T10:45:00.000+10:00

Dark love
Zoe Sinclair

Australian director Peter Duncan is only too happy to screen his film Unfinished Sky at DIFF despite some reservations

DIRECTOR PETER Duncan is the first to admit he’s a little worried about Dubai audience’s reaction to his movie Unfinished Sky, which tells the story of an Afghani woman, the victim of human trafficking, who falls in love with an Australian farmer.

The movie is based on the screenplay of another film, the Polish Bride, in which Monic Hendrickx plays the lead role, returning again to play the role of Tahmeena in Unfinished Sky.
Tahmeena collapses on John's (William McInnes) driveway and he reluctantly takes her in and cares for her while slowing learning her story and experiences of the dark side of Australia.
Duncan said the concept for the adaptation came about at the end of 2002 with influences of a post 9/11 world.

“It’s about how we respond to things foreign and strange,” he said, saying he believed the themes were as relevant five years on as they were in providing inspiration for the film.
Heart of the matter

“It’s, broadly, a brilliant idea to have a festival about bridging cultures, themed around that. It’s a great thing for us to be a part of it because that’s at the heart of the movie. We’re really pleased to be here and be part of it.

“I’m slightly uneasy about our screenings because of Monic’s character being Afghani and because it does have certain circumstances in which she is abused and certain circumstances in which she is intimate with men.

“That can arouse some sensitivities in the Arab world. But it’s really important that you known a film like Unfinished Sky and that filmmakers like me are able to attend festivals particularly in places like this where the aspiration is to bridge cultures and build minds.”

But Duncan cautioned that the context of the underbelly of Australian society is mainly a setting in which the love story can take place rather than the essence of the film.

“It’s that backstory that progresses as the story goes along,” he said.
Doing the right thing

“The heart of the film is the same. It’s about two people from very different worlds coming together and that is a very important and strong theme for me.
But Hendrickx saw the role of Tahmeena, nine years on from the Polish Bride and with a different story, as quite different.

“I wanted to dive into the story and to dive into the world of that woman, to seek and find connections.”

With dedication to her role, Hendrickx learnt her dialogue in Dari with the help of a voice coach.
Duncan believed, particularly in the backdrop of a festival bridging cultures, that the characters would be understood.

“His character which starts off almost as dangerous.. she turns him around.

“He becomes someone who is prepared to put his life on the line for someone he’s grown to trust and love, irrespective of the fact that she’s illegal. That fact that he becomes that reflects well on Australians. He does the right thing in the end.”

The film has already been well received at premieres at film festivals in Toronto and Australia.

Photograph - East West 101 - Sydney Morning Herald

2007-12-11T10:05:00.000+10:00

Article, The Courier Mail, Sunday December 9th, 2007

2007-12-11T10:03:00.001+10:00

Redcliffe Boy a Hit in Dubai

IT'S a long way from Suttons Beach to the sandy Dubai seaside, but Redcliffe boy William McInnes is leaving his mark on the Arab emirate.

The former Blue Heelers star has scored some serious screen time with his recent flick Unfinished Sky screening today at the Dubai International Film Festival.

Unfinished Sky was voted No. 1 film by Brisbane International Film Festival punters in August and also had a guernsey at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

A love story/thriller with a dash of social commentary, the tale of an Afghani refugee who stumbles onto a farm owned by McInnes's character struck a chord with the festival's motto – Bridging Cultures, Meeting Minds.

Unfinished Sky is released here next year.

Article: Sydney Morning Herald, Monday December 3rd, 2007

2007-12-10T10:36:00.000+10:00

Walk on the Wild Side
Greg Hassell

It's been a long time between drinks for fans of edgy, complex local police drama. After the ABC's Wildside wrapped up in 1999, there's been . . . well, nothing really. That all changes this week as SBS launches East West 101, which reunites three of the key creative people from Wildside - director Peter Andrikidis, producer Steve Knapman and script producer Kris Wyld (Knapman and Wyld went on to create White Collar Blue for Ten in 2002).

Here, as in Wildside, there's a preference for gritty Sydney locations, multi-dimensional characters, naturalistic performances and a compassionate world view. But this is Wildside for a post-September 11 world. It centres on a Muslim detective, Zane Malik (Don Hany), haunted by a robbery 20 years earlier that left his father mildly brain damaged. At work Malik clashes with the bitter, racist Detective Sgt Ray Crowley (William McInnes) while their boss, DI Patricia Wright (Susie Porter), tries to maintain the peace. Each of the six episodes deals with a specific crime, set among a different ethnic sub-group, although there are several storylines that run through the series.

"It's not just a police show," Andrikidis says. "It's more about how you deal with being a Muslim in 2007 and how Australians react to that in the workplace." Knapman sees a broader message in the show - "the idea that what separates us as human beings is just ideology and it's a bit silly to go to war with each other because of that when we have so much in common."

Knapman doesn't reject comparisons with Wildside but prefers the new show. "I was never 100 per cent happy with Wildside," he says. "It was an incredibly ambitious show but it was probably a bit jagged, a bit confronting ... There are strong stylistic elements in [East West 101] that come from Wildside ... but then we have a lot of quiet, contemplative moments, a lot of psychological stuff. There's a greater and more sophisticated mix than Wildside achieved."

Andrikidis agrees: "It's a mixture of really hand-held berserk stuff to a really static, kind of commercial look. The police material has a really gritty look and the home material is almost traditional then the dream sequences are quiet surreal. It's not the in-your-face camera style of Wildside. We didn't want to repeat Wildside - it was 10 years ago."
The seed for East West 101 was planted several years ago when SBS's Glenys Rowe asked Knapman and Wyld to make a cop show for the network. She was a fan of Wildside and wanted something similarly gritty, but for an SBS audience.

"The original brief to make a crime show was good but we'd made two crime shows that were a bit different and knowing it was SBS we had to figure out how to deal with the whole multicultural aspect," Knapman says. Wary of contrivance, they approached police sources they had cultivated during Wildside. One of them suggested they talk to Hany Elbatoory, a Muslim detective of Egyptian descent who had led a group of detectives in the '90s affectionately known as the Wog Squad.
Elbatoory's stories provided the basis for East West 101. Malik is based directly on him and other characters are based on his fellow officers. For Knapman, it meant the show rang true. "It wasn't designed to suit SBS," he says. "It was just real and reflected totally the reality of policing in this state."

For SBS, the show ticks all the boxes. "What's interesting about East West 101 for SBS is that we're making a genre show but we're also meeting all their multicultural charter requirements," Knapman says. "The reality is you can make stuff that has something to say and make it entertaining and exciting."

For Hany, the issue was how closely to base his character on Elbatoory, with whom he became friends. "The dilemma is how much of the real person you bring into it - how much you end up mimicking or not. I think
I played it as close to him as possible."

The decision to make Malik Iraqi rather than Egyptian was a practical one, as Hany is part Iraqi. He could have played an Egyptian but the deciding factor was the casting of Malik's father, one of the hardest roles to fill. Finally, after the usual casting avenues had been exhausted, Hany suggested his father, Toffeek, who had never acted before.

"The guy had to speak Arabic fluently and had to speak English fluently and had to pray properly and be familiar with the Koran but also had to be free to bastardise it because the character is sick," Hany says. "For true Muslims to be on camera praying and stuff is not cool, so we had to find someone who knew all about it but was cool to do it. The clincher was he had to look like me."

It was an inspired choice. Not only was Hany snr perfect for the part, his violin playing and singing were incorporated into the show's score. "He just had the quality we were looking for," Knapman says. "He just relaxed into it and was unfazed by it - he was quite incredible."

Hany agrees his father was great but has a less reverent take on why he nailed the part. "I think because he was so confused about what was required most of the time he just appeared to be brain damaged," he says, laughing. "It just worked wonderfully."

Hany snr was not the only case of inspired amateur casting. In fact, a mix of professional and amateur actors is one of the show's distinctive features. It arose for practical reasons, as there are more than 150 speaking parts from a diverse range of backgrounds. "It was very difficult to cast," Hany says. "Often you live with blinkers on thinking that the stories we tell reflect the world that we live in but actually the industry is quite anglo-white, so when you're trying to cast ethnic roles you're dealing with a very small pool of actors. You end up finding people who can do it but they might not have done it before."

For Andrikidis, this was a blessing. "New actors listen to the other actor so they're in the scene," he says, "whereas trained actors are performing and you've got to get that out of them. It's actually a little bit easier if you get the right people who are not acting. That's why having a mix of non-actors and actors is actually a good thing."

Andrikidis's enthusiasm for the show is obvious. Asked what shows in his CV he is most proud of, he doesn't hesitate: "Wildside and this. I've kind of come full circle. Wildside was the real turning point for me. That style of performance was everything I'd tried to achieve."

He's happy to be taking risks and grateful to SBS for giving him the opportunity to create something unconventional, challenging and, hopefully, entertaining. "People are either going to love it or hate it; you can't sit in the middle," he says. "If you're in the middle you're making soap."

East West 101 begins on SBS on Thursday at 8.30pm.

The Australian, Saturday December 1st, 2007

2007-12-02T16:12:00.000+10:00

Internal division

A new series tweaks post-9/11 anxiety to create scarily realistic drama, writes Graeme Blundell.

"YOU'RE either an Arab or you are a cop," snarls Senior Detective Crowley (William McInnes), old-school policeman, at odds with everything, especially himself. Young Muslim detective Zane Malik (Don Hany) stares him down edgily, torn between his religion and his role in the major crime squad.

A battle for dominance between two strong men or a metaphor for the fear that exists between East and West, as two lost people search for forgiveness and authenticity?

This is how SBS's seductive, highly intelligent and often abrasive new six-part police procedural series begins. And good it is, more cinematic than any crime show we've produced so far, its clever use of conventions setting up a persistent play of meanings and ambivalences.

Malik was 12 years old when a masked gunman held up the family shop and shot his father, leaving him with brain damage. The Muslim detective has never stopped hunting the shadowy figure in the black balaclava. But what was Crowley's part in the original investigation?

Crowley's son was found dead of a drug overdose, the drugs sold to him by a Lebanese dealer who is eventually found murdered. Internal affairs starts an investigation and Crowley is suddenly at Malik's mercy. Or is he? Is Crowley's redemption interwoven with that of the cop he despises?

The series is constructed around these delicious circles within circles and the appearance of rational order is transformed into a labyrinth of deceit that entraps its victims.

East West 101 is a highly ingenious version of the traditional detective story. And it works a treat as producer Steve Knapman and co-creator Kris Wyld dramatise the ambiguity inherent in the search for truth, meaning and citizenship in the post-9/11 world.

"We are playing around with the notion of an audience empathising inside a genre piece with an Arab hero; this is the game we're playing," Knapman says. "The idea was to play with the audience's emotional investment in character in a climate where there is a degree of bigotry and even racism in the media against Islam."

Habit, conditioning and ignorance are the enemies when it comes to an audience accepting a Muslim hero, Knapman believes, especially if viewers happen to switch across from Channel9. (We are hardly likely to encounter confronting truths on the anodyne Sea Patrol.)

Commissioned by SBS to do a generic crime show, Knapman and Wyld were initially perplexed. "What did they want from us?" Knapman asks. "We didn't want to do a politically correct multicultural show."

A police contact eventually led them to former policeman Hany Elbatoory, a devout Muslim, and his one-time Samoan cop offsider, a Catholic. As serving officers they had been involved in many cases skirting the problems of civic and cultural integration. "We decided to drive the show from the ground up, using the research from their real world," Knapman says.

Another inspiration was the shooting on the London Underground of 27-year-old Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes.

The scripts also drew on extensive research and the expertise of other detectives and specialist advisers that Knapman and Wyld have developed during the past 10 years with shows such as Wildside and White Collar Blue. "It was painful to write," Knapman says. "I kept fighting to make Crowley likable and Kris was more sympathetic to the Muslim position. We weren't always slapping each other on the back."

Tough nut Crowley balances the show for Knapman. "If you feel it's rarefied, controversial, public broadcaster drama created by a bunch of Howard-hating lefties, there is always the unreconstructed renegade cop for reassurance."

Director of photography Joe Pickering says he and Knapman decided to go with a French Connection feel, influenced by the brutally realistic 1971 William Friedkin cop movie. "We used zoom lenses, seeking a gritty, cold, New York look," he says with his inimitable guffaw. "We turned Parramatta into Manhattan."

When he wasn't shooting in glassy offices, dank suburban streets or sordid railway sidings, Pickering sought a distinctly Islamic tinge for the mise en scene, using mosques, streets of veiled women, Muslim bookshops and prayer sessions.

"At times it felt like I was doing a documentary in Egypt somewhere."

Pickering covers the action scenes in a scarily realistic way, utilising his distinctive grainy, wild, cinema-verite style. Hand-held cameras run through the action, zooming and frantically swinging as if carried by the SWAT police or those trying to escape them.

McInnes as Crowley carries a grimacing wryness disguising hurt, a man who obviously hasn't faced the truth about himself, his perversity and egotism unconsciously making him project his own needs and obsessions on to the clues he examines.

McInnes is an actor with a powerful technique. He has that rare actorly ability to convey energy, composure, control and solicitude.

But it never looks studied: it appears all instinct, intuition. "He's not a great one for analysing the part too much," Knapman says. "William doesn't like spending the money too early when it comes to acting."

McInnes has his character work on vulnerability as if to cure himself of it, to heal weakness.

He also does mordant banter well, with a sneering mutter, a character wounded by pain and prejudice.

Anthony Hopkins once said that good actors are always trying to conquer their cowardice, and television, a frantic, messy medium, doesn't always encourage actors to give their best. But Hany (White Collar Blue), whose father was born in Iraq, looks as if he is testing himself with a relentless self-examination.

He's so strong as Malik it's hard to imagine anyone else playing him. His body a block, he shoulders through scenes, atavistic rage just under control.

His Malik is a hero who has to decide just what kind of justice can be accomplished in the ambiguous world of modern Australia.

Knapman says he wanted to escape the stereotypes: "That idea that Muslim culture consists only of a bunch of square-headed Lebanese delinquents in a car, shouting 'f..k you' a lot."

He hopes that East West will reach those viewers who rarely watch SBS. "In great crime shows, you empathise with your head detective. If he's Muslim, does that stop you?"

East West 101, Thursday, 8.30pm, SBS.

East West 101

2007-11-30T06:59:00.000+10:00

William's new series, East West 101, debuts on SBS on December 6th, 8.30pm. Here is a still shot from the series:

Romp with William - October 14th, 2007

2007-09-30T10:08:00.000+10:00

WANT to be active, have fun and be in the race for up to $100,000 in prizes?

Thousands of Melburnians are expected to turn out for the Melbourne City Romp, which aims to raise money for research into serious disease.

The October 14 race - described as a mixture of treasure hunt, mystery puzzle and amazing race - is expected to raise about $100,000.

Teams of up to six will hunt through Melbourne's streets and icons for checkpoint "challenge cards".

Actor William McInnes (Blue Heelers, Sea Change) believes the event is a great way to explore the city while raising money and having fun.

"The Melbourne City Romp provides a great opportunity to spend time with family and friends, and you also get a whirlwind tour of all of Melbourne's highlights," he said.

"We'll be romping in October, for sure."

Yarra Trams and the State Government have launched the initiative and will donate the proceeds to the Burnet Institute.

Source: Herald Sun, 19th August 2007