Adam Gardia explains why My Eyes was ‘something special’

More than 30 years since Aussie actor Adam Garcia has lived in Sydney – and since playing Kevin in cult film Coyote Ugly – My Eyes has brought him back to Australia.

My Eyes has brought Adam Garcia back to Australia.

It’s been more than 30 years since Aussie actor Adam Garcia has lived at home in Sydney, and more than 30 since he played Kevin in famed film Coyote Ugly – a cult role that has happily followed him ever since.

But his new film, My Eyes, brought him back to Australia to shoot – the first time he’d been back in more than five years, because of that pesky thing we know as Covid.

The film, which premiered at the Gold Coast Film Festival this month and hits cinemas next week, was a special one for Garcia – especially as a father of two.

“It is something special,” he told Stellar of the film.

“When I read it, it really grabbed me straight away, but what I’ve noticed is when I’ve tried to tell people about it, and I start to explain it and go through the rough synopsis. And they’re like, ‘oh my God, that’s really, that’s a really interesting story’.

Adam Garcia as the father of a girl with a rare inherited eye disease in My Eyes.

“And people have different takes on their idea of what may play out, which means they’re always intrigued by all the things that are going on within this family.”

My Eyes is inspired by the life of writer/producer/actor Tsu Shan Chambers, who plays Alana, an optometrist who discovers her daughter has a rare inherited eye disease, so has to look into her past to realise her vision for the future.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1203590175107992

A judo athlete with a visual impairment halfway across the world may hold the answers, but old truths threaten to derail the mission and Alana’s marriage. Can she save her daughter’s sight without losing everything else she holds dear?

“I think the choices that everyone has to make in this film – me as the father and Tsu as the mother and the wife, and even Nia (Rush), who’s playing Izzy, as the child who is the person who’s going to be afflicted – and overriding all the different dynamics between people, and all the different pressures – (the choices) could tear or they could stick,” Garcia explains.

“Over all of that is the fact that this little girl has something that needs to be (dealt with). The stakes are high.

“Most families have this familiarity with this construct or this context and as soon as someone gets really sick, it’s somehow really magnified.

As a parent, Adam Garcia found “it wasn’t hard to transpose the concept that this could be my daughter, and these things could be happening to her”

“Being a father of someone of a similar age as Nia, who played my daughter in the film, it wasn’t hard to transpose the concept that this could be my daughter, and these things could be happening to her.

“And it’s mortifying.

“Even on a less deep level, maybe not even as a parent ... but you hear of people going through things and you feel for them. So there was definitely compassion there and definitely compassion for the character I was playing, who isn’t perfect, but who is trying to figure out at least what the right thing is to do.

“That’s his struggle.”

Even though he’s lived in the UK for more than three decades, Garcia says Australia will always be home.

“I’ve been away from Australia longer than I lived there – it’s been 31 years – I don’t know how that happened,” he laughs.

“I haven’t changed my accent – I couldn’t do that, I didn’t know which one to choose.

“I do feel Australian.

“If something’s on, I’m not going for England – or not when they face us anyway.

“So it was lovely coming home – it had been five years since I got home, so it was five years since I saw my family and my nephews, my nieces, and my best friends because of Covid, so it was lovely coming home.”

Turning 52 next week, there’s a lot Garcia misses – mostly his family and friends of course – but there are a few things that will always remind him of the sunny Sydney he remembers.

“The thing that gives me the best recall, is every year my mum gives me the Wilderness Society diary,” he says.

“It’s happened for, like, 25 years.

“But it’s the most fantastic calendar, and it’s now a tradition.

“Also bird calls in the morning – I don’t think anything really beats Australia.

“And, look, I do miss Sydney and the idea of walking out of your house, walking down to the beach and going for a surf – there aren’t many cities that you can do that.”

Adam Garcia in Coyote Ugly.

While some fans will always see him as his Coyote Ugly self, he’s come a long way since dancing on that bar – but it’s a time he will always hold dear.

“Making that film was a total pleasure,” he says.

“There were times, maybe 10 or 15 years ago – because it’s been more than 20 years ago now – I was like, I don’t want that to be ‘it’ – but actually, it’s a cult film that’s been handed down through generations.

“The music’s great, the story’s cool, it looks fantastic – and there’s very few films that can do that, so I’m delighted.”

My Eyes is in cinemas on Wednesday

Originally published as Adam Gardia explains why My Eyes was ‘something special’