Interview: John Jarratt Talks Returning to Wolf Creek for the Small Screen
Howard Gorman
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Based on real-life events, Greg McLean’s original Wolf Creek introduced us to the churlish, wise-cracking, murderous psychopath, Mick Taylor, as he wreaked havoc on “woeful bloody tourists” in the Australian Outback. The movie went on to achieve global box office success and garnered a cult film status resulting in a much-anticipated sequel in 2013.
Well fans are now in for an even bigger slice of their antagonist of choice in the form of a six-part series based on the original movies, except this time, the tables have been turned on Mick.
Turning the slasher genre (and the Wolf Creek franchise as we know it) completely on its head, the new show comes brimming with gritty characters and an immersive story of revenge and good versus evil. An American family on holiday in Northern Australia soon find themselves the unsuspecting prey of Mick Taylor, but much to Mick’s chagrin, the daughter, Eve Thorogood (Lucy Fry), a young and athletic college student, survives the vicious slaughtering. Once discharged from hospital, she has only one thing on her mind: To bring her assailant to justice, no matter at what price that might come.
Ahead of the show’s impending airing on POP in the US and on DVD, Blu-ray & Digital HD in the UK, Dread caught up with John Jarratt to find out how the series expands on the Wolf Creek universe and why, after initial reticence, the script had him signing up to reprise his role as Mick in the swing of a Bowie knife…
Dread Central: On researching for the interview, I read that you were kind of reticent about the idea of a “Wolf Creek” TV show as you thought it might be milking the Mick Taylor cow a bit much.
John Jarratt: When Greg rang me to tell me he was thinking about putting it out as a six-part TV series, I just couldn’t see how it could work. I thought, “That’s getting a bit gratuitous now, isn’t it? That’s getting a bit Freddy Krueger.” But then Greg said that he had a great idea for it and sent me the script. I had to eat my words in the end as it was a really good script. It worked a treat, actually.
DC: What was it in the script that made you realize that a series wasn’t such a bad idea after all?
JJ: It was basically Lucy Fry’s story. It’s a revenge story. It’s like a female version of Unforgiven and she’s out to get the bad guy; and that’s why it worked so well. And then I turn up at regular intervals throughout the whole thing so the horror fans, whenever they see me, they get their little horror fix. And then it was so brilliantly put together by serving the horror up straight away to quieten up all the horror fans who we knew would be sitting there saying, “This is gonna be a piece of shit.” So we showed them that it wasn’t and that we were right up there. And then it was time to roll the titles, and on with this thriller and every time Mick turns up, we’re back into the horror show.
DC: You mentioned Freddy Krueger there and how you didn’t want Mick to turn into that type of character. Most horror icons that do have these speaky roles end up getting cheesier with each sequel. Mick has a fair amount of dialogue so I’m guessing you were very conscious about not letting his character go down the same kind of path as Freddy and company?
JJ: That’s what I was worried about, mate. That’s why I initially didn’t want to put him out for the sake of putting him out and picking up a check. Obviously, that’s always very tempting and I come from Australia where we haven’t got a massive population. And rich comes with population and even dickheads like Trump can get rich in a country with 200 million people in it. So I was reticent but the trick is to find something different within the very strict realms of who Mick Taylor is. He’s just this very one-dimensional person who does the same kind of thing all the time. So the trick is to find a groovy and unique way of doing that.
DC: Was this “groovy” way of doing things down in the script when you read it or were they very open to you bringing your own ideas to Mick’s persona? I read that they asked you to do one particular scene where you were just growling and screaming but you refused to do that as you didn’t feel Mick would do that kind of thing.
JJ: The growling bit wasn’t actually in the script. That was just an idea that, because there’s six hours of the series, they would just occasionally flip to me growling or screaming like a wounded wolf or some bloody thing; I don’t know. And they had this creepy red light thing set up. So I said, “What’s going on here, dudes?” and they said they were just going to do a montage of me growling and yelling and swearing. So I said, “He never yells. He never runs.” I actually picked the yelling in the movies. In the first one, I yell when I head butt a girl for smashing up my truck. That’s the only thing that upsets him to the point where he yells. And the other time I yelled was in Wolf Creek 2 when the pommie calls me a faggot. He doesn’t like that! But Mick doesn’t lose it very often so I said, “He’s not like that so that would be lying to the character.” I suggested he might get drunk and do a crazy dance and so that’s what I did.
DC: So they were pretty open to what you thought would work best for Mick or did they try and keep you as close to the script as possible?
JJ: I couldn’t care less whether they were open to it or not. (laughs) If they wanted to make me do it, I’d tell them to fuck off. If I didn’t want to do anything, I’d say, “Well fine. Next scene.”
DC: Apart from your very clear ideas on how you wanted to portray Mick in the show, how instrumental was Greg McLean in the whole series as he only actually directed the final episode?
JJ: Yeah. That was another thing that I was a bit freaked out about. We are a bit like Simon and Garfunkel, you know? I thought, “I can’t do this without Greg there.” He plays lead guitar while I sing, you know? So I felt a bit strange about that but then I met this amazing dude that I got along with really well. He’s a very different kind of human being to Greg but a fun loving and enthusiastic guy called Tony Tilse.
DC: That’s right. He’s done some great work and recently directed some “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”
JJ: Yeah. He’s also done “Underbelly” here which is another six-part TV show. He’s done a ton of TV – top end TV; not soapies. But he’d really done his homework and he wanted to be true to the legend of the Wolf Creek films and he was fantastic. And Geoff Hall, the cinematographer, my God! He’s tremendous. So we were in very good hands.
At the same time, it was good that Greg had the final episode because that one sort of sits on its own whereas the first five is the journey. It worked really well.
DC: Most people who take on sinister roles often come out of a production saying that they discovered a side to them they never realized they had. Have you experienced that from playing Mick?
JJ: Well I was brought up in the bush in Central Queensland so I know those people. Mick Taylor is an impersonation of my dad with a serial killer and psychopath thrown in so I understand those big, bawdy Outback guys. My dad was 5 foot 8 and 95 kilos of blood and muscle. He was a chunk and a tough guy. But no, I don’t go into these dark areas. Maybe if I was playing a much darker role then I would but Mick doesn’t see himself as evil, he just sees these woeful bloody tourists as not being much better than introduced species like pigs so he doesn’t care too much for them. And it’s not hard to look back into history where people can wipe out other people and not blink and then go home and have dinner with their kids. You can go to the Holocaust or as far back as you want to go and the horrific ways that African-Americans were treated. It is part of the dark end of the human psyche, you know? So I didn’t tend to go to a dark place. I just played this character that I didn’t understand but that I found some way of justifying.
DC: When it did come to the darker moments of the show, how did you actually prepare with the rest of the cast? I hear you even sang creepy songs to the cast and crew before shooting some of those scenes.
JJ: Yeah. I’m pretty fit. I’m 64 and come from a tough family and I used to do three three-minute rounds and my brother was runner-up in Golden Gloves and I’ve choreographed a lot of fight scenes in my time. Thankfully, with all the actors I’ve worked with, I can smack ’em about. I’m still pretty quick and I can outspar them and give them a good slapping (laughs) and then have a go at them for being thirty or forty or something and getting beaten up by an old guy like me. No, I mistreat them basically (laughs). And Mick just has fun basically; he’s having the time of his life. It’s the people that I’m torturing, the actors, that go into dark places and scream and yell for most of the film. They’re the ones that go through hell.
DC: Lucy goes to some VERY dark places. You were initially concerned that the role was going to be too tough for someone so young to pull off.
JJ: Well I met Lucy, this tall, skinny, blonde girl and she said (John puts on his Lucy Fry voice), “Oh, how are you John? Oh, I’m so excited!!!” And I said, “Who is this flowery little rainbow who’s gonna take me on?” But then, as soon as the clapperboard goes in and she goes into character, she’s as tough as! She’s a wonderful actor and she went there and she’s a really tough girl.
DC: The show starts off with some visceral gore, then focuses more on being a thriller before coming full circle to finish with plenty more off the charts gore. Was there ever a problem getting away with the violence for it to air on Stan in Australia?
JJ: Oh, we had to make it violent otherwise they’d turn off in droves. And they’d be pissed off and people like you would be saying, “What a pussy of a TV show. Why did they even bother?” It had to be full on. I mean, it would have been like saying, “Let’s do a remake of Fawlty Towers but without making it funny.” It’s ridiculous to be honest. (Laughs) We’re doing “Wolf Creek” here.
DC: Just to wrap up, John, I know you’ll be in Chris Sun’s Boar soon. Can you tell us a little bit about how you’re involved in that one?
JJ: Yeah. I’ve got this big hairy beard because we’ve got two days of bloody pick-ups so I’ve had to grow this beard while I’m speaking to you. I’ve got this big face of fungus. It’s all shot apart from that and I think it’s going to be a really great film. It’s a really good script. Usually those kinds of scripts are poor and pasty with the gratuitous dialog and ending on the big pig. But this one is very well put together and I’m hoping for big things. That should come out early 2017 I believe. And then I’m in another film called Red Dog: True Blue which is a follow up to Red Dog and that’s coming out on Boxing Day and I play Lang Hancock who’s a very well known iron magnate who’s not with us anymore but he was one of Australia’s richest guys.
DC: And then as far Wolf Creek‘s concerned, there have been constant rumors of a third feature and now talks of a second season of the show. What can you see coming first?
JJ: I think they’re looking seriously at another TV series so we’ll have to see how that pans out. If that comes on, we’ll have to do that first. I don’t think they’d take too kindly to us rocking up a movie to go up against the TV show.
DC: And do you think toing and froing between feature films and the TV show will work in your favor?
JJ: Yeah, I don’t see why not. As long as I don’t have to do it in a walking frame. I’m getting old. You know those little trolleys that people drive around in? We could have me drive around in one of those with a little bullbar and spotlights on it and I can go down the path and turn left into the Outback Old Persons Home. Now there’s an idea!
“Wolf Creek” will premiere exclusively in the US on Pop on Friday, October 14, at 10:00 PM ET/PT and releases on DVD, Blu-ray & Digital HD from 10th October, 2016 in the UK.
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