Curieux Attends Oz Comic-Con Homegrown Canberra
By Morgan Kenyon
Oz Comic-Con is a nationwide series of events held each year at major cities along the east coast of Australia that celebrates the best of pop culture: speculative fiction, fandom, comics, movies and television, animation and anime, gaming, costuming, and more… There is something for everyone!
Canberra’s Oz Comic-Con Homegrown event was held this year over the 27th and 28th of August. Featured over the two-day event were some of Australia’s best artists, including comic writers and illustrators, cosplayers, mixed-genre authors, LARPing groups, gamers, and actors. Headlining the weekend were three fantastic homegrown celebrities: Daniel Gillies (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Coming Home in the Dark), Bernard Curry (Wentworth, Neighbours, Big Brother), and Chai Hansen (The 100, Shadow hunters, The New Legends of Monkey).
We were lucky enough to sit in on each of their panels, and even scored an exclusive interview with Chai Hansen! Here are some of the highlights from this year’s Canberra Oz Comic-Con:
Panel: Aussies in International Comics
With Andrew Constant and Jon Sommariva
Q: How did you enter the industry? Who helped you along the way?
Andrew: Professional mentors can be tricky to find in Australia. Our industry is fairly new here, so lots of the veterans are overseas. A lot of my early inspiration came from international writers.
Jon: I took my first portfolio to a convention at sixteen years old, where I met Jozef Szekerez. He gave me my first real critique, which was obviously hard to hear, but his mentorship was really what got me started. I’m keen to pass on my own knowledge to the next generation in my own way.
Q: What are you most proud of?
Andrew: I would say all of my work. It’s great to see my growth over the year. I’m particularly fond of my first graphic novel work, Torn.
Jon: I’m super proud of my latest work, which is in collaboration with Tom Taylor. It’s due for local release on September 20th.
Q: How do you think comics will evolve in the coming years? Will the common medium change?
Andrew: Technology will continue to compliment comics and make them more accessible to everyone.
Jon: People will always want to collect things. Hardcopies and merchandise will always be in demand, and they’re only becoming more and more coveted, so while comics may be more common in digital form, I don’t think physical copies will ever be phased out completely.
Q: How do you stay motivated and keep your ideas fresh?
Andrew: The moment you want to give up is the moment you realise you’re almost there. As for fresh ideas, I just do what excites me, and hope it excites the reader. I generally write for an audience of one; if you only write for others, it tends to muddy the work.
Jon: I’m honestly living my childhood dream. It’s a boost each time I see my work out there, published. I like to look at what I’ve done well and start from there.
Daniel Gillies at Oz Comic-Con Homegrown
Panel: Daniel Gillies
Q: What got you into acting?
A: I started at around six or seven years old. I was a shy kid, and my school had a fantastic theatre program, which boosted my confidence and helped me make some really good friend. I was inspired by artists of all kinds; actors, writers, musicians… so from there, I was kind of hooked.
Q: Your most well-known character is Elijah (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals). What does he mean to you and how did his character evolve over time?
A: Elijah was my connection to fans all around the world, and they’ve stayed really loyal to him and the shows he was in. He grew up a lot from The Vampire Diaries to The Originals. Characters like Elijah and shows like these give you the agency to work on smaller, more personal projects, like Coming Home in the Dark.
Q: What has been your most demanding role?
A: Definitely Coming Home in the Dark. It was tricky to find my natural accent again after working overseas for so long- but I’m a Kiwi at heart, so it was really fun to be able to show that on screen. I spent a lot of time in the gym to get into shape for my character, and we shot mostly at night, so I was kind of uncomfortable or on edge a lot of the time if I’m honest, but I think that really lent itself to the tension on screen. Sometimes discomfort is a good thing!
Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring actors?
A: Show up. If you are lucky enough to be able to say the things only you can say, that’s the most important thing.
Panel: Chai Hansen
Q: What do your fans mean to you?
A: Absolutely everything! They’re the reason I get to do what I love. They’re why I get up in the morning.
Q: You started out as a dancer. How did you transition into acting?
A: I worked with a breakdancing crew in Sydney and was lucky enough to jump into an entertainment group that busked professionally throughout Darling Harbour for two years. Eventually we ended up dancing in some music videos, which was my segway into acting.
Q: Did you have any mentors help you along the way?
A: Not really mentors, but for sure there were people that I’ve looked up to. Joel Edgington is one of them. I love his ability to really bring out the minute details of his characters. I would actually say he’s one of the best Aussie actors out there. Australian artists are a really close-knit group. We all sort of know and look out for each other. A lot of us are even friends.
Q: Do you have a preparation process for getting into character?
A: Every character is different. I’m pretty lucky to have worked in heaps of diverse stories, but I probably enjoy sci-fi characters the most. There’s more freedom to play, and more of a fantastical nature to them and their worlds.
The Newsreader, which I’m currently filming season two for in Melbourne, was a real curveball for me. There’s so much to capture- we are dealing with real life events, so there’s a certain sense of responsibility. For The New Legends of Monkey, I actually flew to Thailand to study monkeys. I lived there for a while among them. I actually got bitten and had to get rabies injections! Comes with the gig, I guess!
Q: What would your dream role be?
A: I recently watched Dune, which was phenomenal. I would love to be a part of that universe. I’m generally interested in any franchise within the fantasy/sci-fi genre; Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alien VS Predator… Any of those would be a dream.
Q: Do you see yourself in your characters?
A: I try to place myself in their shoes and think about how I would feel or react to the situations they’re placed in. It brings a sense of realism, but of course sometimes you have to improvise in order to do it justice.
Q: Why did you first audition for The New Legends of Monkey?
A: I grew up in Thailand, and every Asian culture knows the story of the Monkey King very well. When I heard they were doing a remake of Monkey Magic, I knew I had to give it a shot. It was no secret how much I desperately wanted that role, but I think being open and vulnerable for characters that mean a lot to you is what creates great work.
Panel: Bernard Curry
Q: What has it been like, to have such a long and successful career in the industry, and such a loyal following?
A: Everybody can connect on some level by being a fan of something- that’s the best way I can describe the opportunity for real connection that our work provides. There will always be likeminded people to speak with, to, and about all sorts of stories, art forms, skills… Events like Comic-Con bring everyone together in one place, and I’ve had an awesome time seeing that in action this weekend. I believe that as actors, part of our job is to reciprocate the love, passion, and affection of our fans. Without them, our stories aren’t told.
Q: What was your first professional gig?
A: My very first venture was a short film called Get Real. It was a shaky start, but it was a start, and it led to a thirty-two-year long career which is still going strong! I feel very fortunate and proud to be able to support my family and fans through a job that I absolutely love.
Q: Career highlights?
A: I like to keep my talents diverse. I sing, play guitar, present and MC, voice act… I even toured Melbourne pubs in a band in my 20s. So there are a lot of moments where I’ve felt seen and heard, but if I had to pick, I would say my character Jake Stewart in Wentworth is a definite highlight. Villains are a lot of fun to play, and he has some awesome character development throughout the seasons, so I got the best of both worlds there. I also got to work with Tom Berrington in the 90s on a film called The Junction Boys, which was filmed outside of Sydney but set in Texas. That was heaps of fun. We even had an ‘animal wrangler’ on set, whose job it was to literally chase kangaroos out of our shots. Because obviously, there are no kangaroos in Texas!
Q: (Curieux’s Question) Are you a diehard fan of any TV shows?
A: I love Breaking Bad. Brian Cranston’s character is just so well done- he’s believable, despite the crazy, out there things that he does.
Q: (Curieux’s Question) You mentioned you like to keep your talents diverse. How does that come into play when embodying characters across genres, for example Wentworth VS Neighbours?
A: My approach to getting into characters and actually playing them is largely the same, but the operations process of shooting is very, very different. As a drama, Wentworth would take about two weeks of shooting to produce two episodes. For Neighbours¸ we had a super high-volume output. I would liken working on Neighbours to jumping onto a moving train. You have to know your stuff and be prepared, or you’ll fall off. I once shot fourteen scenes in one day.