Back in thongs: David Wenham revives the beloved star of Gettin’ Square
By Garry Maddox
David Wenham was walking in Brisbane recently when a bus driver pulled up beside him, opened the door and yelled “are you gunna pay your fare this time?”
It was a variation of the many comic lines called out over two decades that go back to a character, Johnny ‘Spit’ Spitieri, who has become an unlikely hero in Australian popular culture.
Wenham thinks Spit, who he played in the 2003 crime comedy Gettin’ Square, has resonated with audiences more than anyone else he has played, even the beloved Diver Dan in SeaChange and Faramir in The Lord of the Rings films.
Back in cinemas: actors Helen Thomson and David Wenham with Spit director Jonathan Teplitzky.Credit: Paul Harris
He was a thong-wearing, not-too-bright junkie whose biggest concern when he was in court was who was going to pay his bus fare home.
While not a box office hit, Gettin’ Square was so popular on VHS and DVD that lines like “Me bus driver’s not going to take a cheque” and “I’m on the bones of me arse, mate”, keep getting quoted back to Wenham.
“I lived opposite a Video Ezy just down the road from Kings Cross, and the lady who ran it used to say it was the most stolen VHS and the most stolen DVD in her entire store,” Wenham said. “People up Darlinghurst Road and Kings Cross saw themselves in it.”
Twenty two years on, “Johnny Spit” is back and this time he has his own film, Spit, which had a world premiere on the Gold Coast on Sunday night.
What director Jonathan Teplitzky called “a standalone comedy” rather than a sequel has a now-clean Spit arriving back in Australia on a false passport after being on the run overseas for 20 years.
When he gets out of an immigration detention centre, Spit finds his enemies are looking to settle old scores.
The premiere was the final session of the five-day AACTA Festival that saw the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man and Netflix’s Boy Swallows Universe dominate the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.
“The most flawed good man you could ever come across”: David Wenham in Spit.Credit: Vince Valitutti
Wenham thinks Spit has resonated so much because he is an everyman Australian.
“He’s a good man, but he’s the most flawed good man you could ever come across,” he said.
Teplitzky, who started mapping out the new film with criminal lawyer-screenwriter Chris Nyst over Zoom during the pandemic, thinks Spit is the kind of mythological character – an ordinary man doing his best – that Australians like to believe they are.
“He almost gives people permission to be flawed because of his simple, unjudgemental walk through life,” he said. “He could be the dumbest or the smartest guy in the room, and you never quite know which it is.”
Twenty two years ago: David Wenham in Gettin’ Square.
Helen Thomson, who joins Gary Sweet, David Roberts and David Field in returning from Gettin’ Square, says her character, Marion Barrington, has gone from the wife of a gangster played by Timothy Spall, to a widow who runs “a funeral home and function centre”.
“None of us have ever had an experience in our careers where something we did [22 years ago] has come back,” she said. “Because it was such a happy experience the first time, and because they were such great characters, we were all thrilled.
“And I wasn’t disappointed when I read the script. It’s a gift.”
Wenham found it easy to slip back into character when he put on a pair of thongs.
“I hadn’t worn them for twenty-something years, but as soon as I put them on, it gives a physicality which helps me get into the character,” he said.
Spit, which opens in cinemas on March 6, is the latest long-delayed next instalment of a film that taps into fan nostalgia.
While it’s commonplace for Hollywood and British filmmakers to add belated new films to such blockbuster series as Independence Day, Jurassic Park and Bridget Jones, Australia has had Mad Max: Fury Road, an updated version of Crocodile Dundee opens in May, and there are plans to revive Two Hands and The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.
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