Mad Max Fury Road star Quentin Kenihan says movie was a personal triumph ahead of the Oscars

IF Mad Max: Fury Road wins just one Oscar it will be a double victory for Adelaide’s Quentin Kenihan. | See the photo shoot video

IF Mad Max: Fury Road wins only one Oscar it will be a double victory for Adelaide’s Quentin Kenihan.

The action film, in the running to win 10 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director at Monday’s Academy Awards, has been a personal triumph for Kenihan who plays Corpus Colossus.

“I’ve got fans all over the world,” Kenihan told the Sunday Mail.

“I’m not known as ‘that brave little boy’ anymore ... people say ‘That’s that dude from the movie’.

“I’m not just seen as a person in a wheelchair but as an actor, which is what I’ve always wanted.”

Born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bones, Quentin became a household name aged seven when he appeared in a documentary with Mike Willesee.

Quentin Kenihan practices for the Oscars red carpet in front of the Palace Nova Cinema. Photo: Calum Robertson

But being a national treasure soon lost its shine for Quentin, who battled drug addiction at 18 as outlined in his one-man 2015 Adelaide Fringe show Quentin, I’m 40. Now What.

He is now working on his memoir titled Quentin: Not All Superheroes Wear Capes, for which publisher Hachette Australia has secured the world rights.

With the book due for release in Australia in October, Quentin has been writing about 3000 words a day up to four days a week recounting his childhood in the spotlight and highlights from his career as a filmmaker, movie critic, radio host, stand-up comic, disability activist and, of course, actor.

He auditioned for Fury Road in 2012, reading scenes from When Harry Met Sally for Australian director George Miller.

By the end of the following year, Quentin “had forgotten all about it” when his agent said Miller “wanted to have a talk”.

Quentin was asked to create a backstory for the character described as “the eyes and ears of the citadel” who he decided was a childhood friend of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa — “with a bit of a crush”.

While Corpus was to meet a grisly end, Miller had a change of heart after filming the scene.

“George came out and said ‘There’s something I don’t like about this ... I can’t kill Quentin’,” he said, adding he was keen to resume the role should Miller go ahead with the two Mad Max movies on the drawing board.

Quentin, who celebrated his 41st birthday on Saturday, will watch the live broadcast of the Academy Awards at home with friends.