Brendan Cowell, Harry Greenwood, Tara Morice & Lech Mackiewicz Photo: Heidrun Lohr
In 2013, his first year out of NIDA, Harry Greenwood, 24, made his theatre debut as an angry teenager in the Sydney Theatre Company’s Fury and starred in the short film, The Gift, which premiered at the Palm Springs International ShortFest. His next performance is another new play, Once In Royal David’s City opening at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre, with Brendan Cowell.
Q: What are your memories of The Belvoir Theatre?
A: This theatre has supplied a lot of my founding memories. Dad (Hugo Weaving) was doing a show here – I think I was about six or seven years old – and he said I could come along backstage. The sense of family and friends Dad had, and being something bigger than myself stayed with me. It was a community full of fun, crazy people.
One night I was there, they were perhaps going to include me in the play and I remember the thrill of potentially going onstage. Whilst that didn’t happen, I remember I’d snuck a mouse in with me to the theatre. At the time I had quite an array of mice under my care – around 10 or 20, depending on the cats. Dad saw me holding it and he wasn’t angry. He said, “Harry, what do you have there?”
Q: Where did you train?
A: I went to NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) when I was 21. I’d floated in and out of Arts and Media Production degrees; they didn’t hold me. I knew if I wasn’t an actor I’d be involved in the arts, as a writer or director and when I went to NIDA, I thought, ‘this is what I want to do.’
Just like a doctor goes to medical school, I wanted training. I wanted to hone the technical side. It’s important to treat acting as a profession and work hard at it. Actors can give great performances without training, but can they over a career offer up themselves more than once in different facets? It [NIDA] pushes you to explore different parts of yourself.
Q: What attracted you to acting?
A: I think as actors we are storytellers of society. When people come to a theatre, they reflect on their own lives and society in general, otherwise we are accepting the status quo. We aren’t challenging ideas or politics. And I hope through a performance, you can reinvigorate the audience. Not all the time, but that’s exciting.
Q: What were your first theatre roles?
Harry Greenwood and Sarah Peirse in Fury. Photo: Lisa Tomasetti
A: My first play out of NIDA was Fury at the Sydney Theatre Company. I played a 16-year-old boy, so I had to go backwards. It was about moments in our youth; are those things that we can walk away from or will they always be with us? And when those are extreme events, do they shock you into realising the real world? How have your ideals changed and have you made a comfortable life for yourself? We [the cast] found that interesting to chart this in our own lives as well. I could understand my character’s plight and looking at his parents saying all these things regarding politics, art and ideas they held but didn’t fight for, and that was the frustration.
Q: Royal David, by Michael Gow, is a new play… What’s it like to be the first to play a role, with no other performances to study?
A: Yes, with Hamlet there are hundreds of years of actors playing that role. This [Royal David] is the second new play I’ve done, after Fury. So it’s exciting playing a new role because you help create the play in the rehearsal process so it changes and shifts. And it will always change but it will stay in that solid foundation.
Q: In Royal David you are playing a variety of roles. Is that a new challenge for you?
A: Yes. I play a guard and a German. I did the audition in German…ask me in a month or so how my German is! At NIDA you are forced to throw yourself in the deep end and play a variety of roles. It is more difficult than playing one role. You have to maintain truth and distinction in all the parts, otherwise it can be muddy.
In Royal David, a lot of scenes are fast and fleeting moments in our lives that add up to something. That’s why theatre is great, because you can reflect on those moments as you recognise yourself. In life we don’t take notice yet they mean something.
Q: Do you prefer theatre or film?
A: I think as an actor you can’t be too choosy. You need to take what you can get. But theatre does offer you closer analysis of ideas and words as film and TV moves quickly.
Q: Is your sister an actor?
A: No, she is an artist like our mother. We’ve both had an apprenticeship with our parents.
Brendan Cowell in Michael Gow’s new play Once In Royal David’s City
Q: What do you have coming up?
A: Potentially there are things that are happening, but they are not firmed up. As long as you have something on the horizon you feel ok. Old School (ABC) will be out next year with Sam Neill and Bryan Brown. It’s a crime show and I play a computer hacker.
Q: Any advice for other aspiring actors?
A: Challenge yourself. Don’t say no to anything because you never know. As an actor, try to be involved in parts of our culture and get as much life experience as you can draw on for your characters.
Q: What do you think of the term ‘emerging?’
A: We are all emerging. We emerged from our mothers. That was the last time I emerged! We are all growing and changing.
Once in Royal David’s City by Michael Gow and directed by Eamon Flack (Angels in America) premieres at the Belvoir February 8 – 23 March. Bookings: Belvoir.com.au from $35 (student rush)- $68
