Article: Jetstar Magazine, November 2008

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: The Courier Mail, September 20th, 2008

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.