It is a cold and wet Melbourne morning when I catch up with Joel and Nash Edgerton. When I enter the room Joel is by himself, he seems completely relaxed, strange considering that their new film ‘The Square’ is premiering that night and he has done back to back interview for the last three days.
‘Nash has stepped out of the room for the moment,’ he smiles. ‘Feel free to start asking questions and I’ll just tell lies about him.’ I ask him if he’s tired of interviews yet. ‘On any other film I’ve worked on I get tired of the press junkets so quickly. Perhaps it’s because I have more invested in The Square, but I’m sick today but I’m still feeling okay about it.’
‘More Invested in The Square’ is an understatement. This is the feature directional debut for Nash, and a screenwriting debut for Joel who is better known to us as an actor.
Despite his relaxed demeanor it’s easy to see a wave of relief sweep over him when I tell him that all the reviewers that saw the film with me loved it as well. ‘Of course you want it to do well… not because of the time and effort you’ve put into it, but because really the film is your ‘baby’. It’s like showing your baby to someone and having them say ‘that’s an ugly baby’. People can say that don’t listen to reviewers but it’s a lie… it can cut really deep.’
When Nash returns to the room it easy to see the healthy-relationship between the two. Knowing some brothers don’t work well together I ask them if it is harder or easier to criticize each other if they need to. ‘It’s probably a bit of both,’ says Nash. ‘Of course you don’t want to offend anyone, but at the same time you know there won’t be grudges held onto it.’ At this moment Joel can’t help but add, ‘Having said that, Nash is probably more blunt with me than he is with most other people.’ Nash agrees and adds, ‘When it comes to criticism you can be honest without having to spend five minutes stroking each others massive ego first.’
One of ‘The Square’s’ strong points is its script and I just had to ask Joel where the story came from. ‘I love crime stories and crime films’, he says. ‘I enjoy reading about real crime and after reading a few newspaper articles I really wanted to write a film about ordinary people doing despicable things.’ Nash interrupts by saying ‘That’s bullshit… tell the truth. You murdered a good writer and stole his script.’ Joel laughs for a second but then goes on. ‘I was really inspired by Hitchcock, the vulnerability he would show in his films, it’s possibly I got some inspiration from ‘The Player’ as well, I wanted this film to be a real spirally web.’
So how hard was it to hand the script to Nash, a proven filmmaker? ‘To be honest I’d never handed by writing to anyone before. I just hoped he saw the value in it. I hoped the read would be good so he’d find it enjoyable. My biggest fear was that he wouldn’t see the value in it and that’s why I held onto it for so long.
Luckily Nash saw the script the same way the audience finds the film… something that keeps you continuously guessing. ‘I literally found it to be a page turner’, says Nash. ‘I just kept reading and reading because to be honest I couldn’t pick where it was going. I’m pretty sure the audience will be the same when they are watching it. At least I hope they are because I’m very much into the fact that I want an audience to experience my films not just watch them.’ Joel adds, ‘Anyone who has seen ‘Spider’ (one of Nash’s short films) will know that Nash likes to fuck with the audience.’
Many critics are now saying that ‘The Square’ could well be the film that could save the Australian Film Industry so it comes as a surprise that Nash chose two virtually unknown actors for the lead roles in the film, I just had to ask whether David Roberts and Claire Van Der Boom where the first choices for the roles or if he had some famous names in mind? ‘Once he auditioned we knew we wanted David Roberts to play Ray, the same with Claire (Van Der Boom) as Carla,’ says Joel. ‘We didn’t want someone famous because if you go with someone famous the audience can always work out who the hero is going to be and who the villain is going to be. They’ll like ‘oh he always plays a hero’ or ‘oh he always plays a villain’. With David he could be Ray and you simply don’t know which way he would go.’
So did Joel have to audition to play the arsonist, Billy? ‘No I didn’t audition, but at the same time I never intended to write a film with me in it. I never actually had anyone in mind for any of the roles when I wrote the script. Afterwards, I did think Billy was a role I could pull off.’ Nash again interrupts. ‘You thought of playing Smithy for a while, didn’t you?’ Joel nods. ‘For a little bit, but once I saw Anthony Hayes I knew he was right for that part. He really nails it… he’s brilliant.’
So how do you research how to play an arsonist? ‘I spoke to a couple of people who had interesting parts,’ explains Joel. ‘I don’t normally do much research into the parts that I play, but I did this time. When you are pulling out guns you have to make it fell real.’
If, as most people are saying, that the hopes of the Australian film industry rests on the success of ‘The Square’ at the box office, I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief as it is an absolute gem.