Whiff of eucalyptus oil and expat Callan McAuliffe ‘still considers myself very Australian’
Despite 18 years as an expat and achieving success in Hollywood, Callan McAuliffe can be sent back to his childhood with the simple smell of eucalyptus.
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Aussie actor Callan McAuliffe, who stars in new film The Duel, is experiencing his own inner battle – between the two places he calls home.
Despite his confusing US-Irish twang, the 29-year-old will always consider himself Australian, despite not living here for the last 18 years.
In fact, it was his youth spent in the outback as part of a Scot’s College six-month Glengarry outdoor education program that sealed the deal for him.
“It ended up being especially important because I left for America so soon after that, it really laid the foundation for a love of the Australian wilderness, which I’d always had but which I hadn’t had all that much experience with,” he tells Insider from his US home.
“I’d been camping and hiking and bushwhacking and whatever in my youth, but to do it for such a long time, and to become so well acquainted with the bush through that experience, charged me up – so from then until now, it’s kept Australia in my heart.
“I’m really glad that I was able to do that before I moved – and when I talk about the sights and sounds and smells, it really burns them all into your brain.
“Everyone in Hollywood is using eucalyptus oil now, so I walk through a hallway and smell it and have a flashback to the 24-hour Rogaine, or Duke of Ed, or whatever it was we were doing back then.
“So I still consider myself very Australian, just with a bit of a cluster-f--k of an accent,” he laughs.
As a kid, McAuliffe had no designs to become an actor. His ambitions leaned towards the sciences – despite, he admits, a lack of aptitude – and the arts. He was a keen scholar, star athlete and gifted musician.
Acting only became an interest in his teens, and something that seemingly fell into his lap. He’s got a few stories of how it started – needing pocket money for a dog, shucking oysters while on holiday in Nantucket when a prospective manager spotted his screen potential – he doesn’t remember exactly how it happened, but here he is.
Back home he started on shows like Blue Water High and Packed To The Rafters. Then, while on holiday with his family in America, McAuliffe auditioned for iconic filmmaker Rob Reiner – of When Harry Met Sally and Stand By Me fame – for the lead in his 2010 teen romantic drama Flipped. The role that changed everything.
After that he starred in 2011’s I Am Number Four, a sci-fi epic produced by Steven Spielberg, and back home he appeared in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Then came The Walking Dead, in which he was cast as Alden.
But his new film, The Duel, is his favourite project yet. The movie was conceived and directed by two other friends, Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts – the “lads of the industry” he’d hang out with at the Sunset Tower Hotel as a teenager.
“It’s probably my favourite project to date,” he says.
“One of the reasons for that is, it was conceived by two dear friends of mine … they wrote this and we made it during Covid in such a short amount of time.
“It really was something of a gift, something of a passion saver, because so many of us were just languishing in a creative deficit.
“It’s quite a risk sometimes – there’s a lot of uncertainty when you work with friends, especially if you’ve not worked with them before, because you’re never sure if the work environment will jeopardise the relationship.
“But, lo and behold, everyone weathered that potential storm perfectly. And, in the end, I’ve gotten to make my favourite movie ever with my favourite people ever.
“I’ve been lucky to do work with some industry greats, but there’s something different about just working with your mates.”
The Duel comes to a head when McAuliffe’s character Woody discovers his best friend, played by Dylan Sprouse, is sleeping with his girlfriend. So he challenges him to an old-fashioned duel to the death. By all accounts it’s a killer comedy about the price of betrayal and the power of friendship.
“The concept is fun – but it resonated with me because I’ve always been very fascinated by duelling, and I’ve always been very aware of its history,” he says.
When he can, he’ll take any excuse to come home. His mum is in Sydney, dad in Victoria and extended family in Perth, as well as his school mates, of course.
“My heart is still very much in Australia,” he says.
“America itself, and Hollywood, have generally been kinder to me than I deserve and I’ve been consistently working. So just stick with it. Something I used to say a lot was, ‘Ride the bus till the wheels fall off’. I’m still riding the bus.”
The Duel will be available to rent or buy on all digital platforms from September 3
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