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Bana and the Beast
The leading man steps behind the camera for his directorial debut, a doc about loving your car.
I’ve seen “Mad Max” credited as one of the things that got you interested in acting, and it seems to be equally instrumental to your love of racing. How influential was that film exactly as a boy growing up in Australia?
Well, first, it was just a great film. As a kid it was one of the first that I saw that I thought was just a great movie. Secondly, there was this unbelievably strong connection to the theme — as a guy growing up in the suburbs in a semi-rural area, I had an instant identification with the landscape [of] the film. It was made very close to where I lived. And this car that I was already in love with was the kind of co-lead, so it had a huge impact.
On top of that you had this actor who was Australian, speaking with an Australian accent, as the star of the movie. When you’re growing up and all the movies that you see are American movies, to suddenly have this film that was better than anything I’d ever seen, AND it had an Australian actor AND he drove a coupe — that was just too much for my mind.
Do you ever see yourself acting in a car-centric action film some day?
Probably not. It’s not something I have a huge desire to do. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that interested me in the slightest, and most films that are perceived as car films just leave me disappointed — I’d rather go out and do it for real. A car film would probably be excruciating boring for me to make. You’re hopping in a car, “Could you just drive it 100 feet down the road? But be careful, and then come to a stop and get out and we’ll break for three hours.”
So what is it about those films that you find so lacking, and that led you to make “Love the Beast”?
They feel to me to be made by people who aren’t car people. They usually lack any kind of emotional idea. I don’t think you need to be a car person to make a car film but I think you needed to be a car person to make my film. There was real frustration for me as a car lover, that I felt like I didn’t receive that emotional beat from a film — except maybe “Vanishing Point.” “Vanishing Point” is different.
In the film, you talk to Jay Leno, who’s also known for his love of cars, and Jeremy Clarkson, who’s famous for his work in automotive journalism. And then you have Dr. Phil. What lead you to bring him in?
Initially the Dr. Phil idea was slightly tongue in cheek, this idea of being counseled for your obsession. It evolved into being what, to me, was a lot more interesting, because we ended up delving into areas that men don’t talk about. There’s a lot of things in this film that essentially go to the heart of what grown men do not discuss. I didn’t want to shy away from that when I was cutting the thing together.
Despite that reflective side, the film is fairly lighthearted — a self-described love story about a car. Do you find that people are surprised by that side of you? You started in comedy, but the bulk of your roles in the U.S. have been serious.
It’s like having two sides of your career. When I started out working outside of Australia, a lot of international audiences weren’t familiar with my comedy work and seemed more fascinated by the fact that I didn’t have this hankering to of prove to them that I was funny. And I didn’t. I’d been doing it forever back home and was completely burnt out from it.
And there’d never been anything up until [the upcoming] “Funny People,” with Judd Apatow. That was the first time I read something and went, “Okay, this suits the kind of comedy world that I can live in. I can see myself in this role.” Prior to that I never watched a single comedy and went, “Oh, I could add something to this.”
Does it feel good to finally have a comedy that you find yourself interested in, and to be playing an Australian to boot?
It was a helluva lot of fun. The character was originally American. I read it and felt like I had way more ideas [for him] as an Australian. It was born out of a desire for the character to be more interesting.
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Tags: cars, Dr. Phil, Eric Bana, Jay Leno, Jeremy Clarkson, Love the Beast, Tribeca 2009, Vanishing Point
