ABOVE: JO EY MANCINI (BRUCE BOXLEITNER), RIGHT, KIDNAPS REGINALD LANGSBURY (BRUCE MYLES) IN DON MCLENNAN'S BREAKAW AY. RIGHT: JO EY AND REGINALD. BREAKAW AY. BELOW: HILDA (TONI SCANLAN), REGINALD, MARION (DEBORAH UNGER) AND JO EY. BREAKAW AY. AND; DON MCLENNAN, RIGHT, WITH LONG-TIME COLLABORATOR ZBIGNIEW (PETER) FRIEDRICH, WHO SHOOTS AND EDITS THEIR FILMS.
o n e o r two features som e tim e ago. H e was the co-lead in Scarecrow and Mrs King an d has done quite a few tele-movies, including a rem ake o f Red River. O n e o f the reasons Bruce w anted to com e o u t h ere was th a t it rep rese n ted an opportunity to get into features. W ith Breakaway, he has m ore than shown h e ’s capable o f carrying a feature. I ’m sur prised th a t he h a sn ’t d o n e m ore, to be honest. What about Bruce Myles? His character has to change from being an accountant-type figure into a crazed bankrupt. That is a fairly difficult thing for an actor to pull off, and Myles does it very well. Bruce is p a rt o f VIP [Victorian In tern atio n al P ictures], w hich also includes M ichael Pattinson, Jam es H ardy, Mac G udgeon an d Jo n Stephens. W hen Ja n cam e to m e with script for Breakaway, h e said, “I ’ve always th o u g h t o f Bruce paying this ro le.” I ’d seen Bruce in several plays at the M elbourne T h eatre Com pany and so on, an d th o u g h t it was a w onderful idea. Physically, he was ju s t rig h t fo r th e role. B ut I also knew we h ad to have a really top actor, given as you say th e jo u rn e y his character has to take. I th o u g h t Bruce w ould be
fantastic fo r it, an d h e was. His p erfo rm an ce is o u tstanding. Bruce is also a directo r as well as an acto r a n d w riter. H e co d irected Ground Zero with M ichael P attinson, an d h e has d irected quite a lo t o f plays fo r th e MTC an d o th e r com panies. His back g ro u n d is th eatre, ra th e r th an films, b u t h e ’s b e e n o n th e o th e r side o f the cam era an d h e is aware how to pitch his p erfo rm an ce for cinem a. What was the rapport like between Boxleitner and Myles? They h ad a fantastic relationship, off an d on th e set, an d I th in k th a t shows in th e film. Before we started shooting, th e two Bruces, myself, D eb o rah U n g er a n d T o n i Scanlan w ent th ro u g h th e script, read in g th e lines an d discussing w hat the p o in t o f each scene was. T h a t was th e ex ten t o f o u r rehearsals. I d o n ’t like to do too m u ch reh earsin g before shooting so as to m ain tain freshness an d spontaneity. D uring film ing, th e two Bruces sp en t q u ite a lo t o f tim e betw een set-ups ru n n in g th ro u g h scenes betw een themselves. O n ce we g o t on th e set, the th ree o f us w ould th e n w ork to g e th er o n th e p erfo rm ances. W hat m ade it w ork so well was the fact they g o t o n well together. What roles has Zbigniew (Peter) Friedrich taken on the production? P eter is d irecto r o f p h o to g rap h y an d supervising editor. W hat we have d o n e o n this film, w hich we h a d n ’t d o n e b efore, is have two editing room s, with two assembly editors w orking u n d e r P e te r’s supervision. P eter an d I look at th e stuff, m ark u p w hat we want, an d th en th e assembly ed ito r goes to w ork o n it while we go to the o th e r ro o m an d start w orking o n th e n e x t reel. It speeds th e process u p enorm ously, cu ttin g down all th a t sitting-around w aiting while th e splices are d o n e an d th e footage is fo und. You have had a long association with Friedrich. I m e t P eter ab o u t twenty years ago at Crawfords, w here we becam e m ates. T h a t was in th e days w hen everybody w orked o n each o th e r ’s films an d nobody h ad any m oney. W hen Hard Knocks cam e along, I chose P eter to sh o o t an d cu t it. T h a t w orked o u t very well, so th e relationship co n tin u ed . I have a lo t o f resp ect fo r P e te r’s ability as a film m aker, a n d I tru st
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