Actor Joel Edgerton weighs in on Australia’s obsession with reality TV

Actor and director Joel Edgerton weighs in on Australia’s obsession with influencers and reality television, and sends a special message to his mum this Mother’s Day.

Your current IMDB schedule is stacked. Are you sleeping at the moment?

My sleep is very good. I know there haven’t been a lot of great things to have come out of last year, and it’s been difficult, but there was something about the time that was transformative.

I went, “I can’t really work but I can write,” which I did a lot of. And I could look after myself. The one thing I can have control over is what I eat, how I exercise and, strangely, I became the healthiest that I’ve ever been, and that affected my mental outlook.

“I often wish I could take all reality TV and detonate it.” (Picture: Jake Chessum)

What changed the most for you?

I’ve given big chunks of my time and moved geographically to service this job where I’m just telling fables. So then real-world stuff [like a pandemic] happens and it affects everybody in different ways.

It’s more about reminding myself about why I do [this job], and that if I’m in that privileged spot where I can choose what I’m doing, then why not tell stories that have substance?

It’s also reminded me that I can allow a little bit more fun into my life, and some of the stuff I’ve been writing – despite what I said about substance – is wrapped up in a parcel that appears to be about joy, entertainment and humour.

You’re on the Gold Coast now shooting Thirteen Lives, a film about the 2018 Thai cave rescue, with director Ron Howard and co-stars Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen. How are you feeling about the rush of big Hollywood projects filming in Australia?

I visited the set of Thor a couple of times. It’s great to see Fox Studios full to the brim thanks to Marvel and [director] Taika [Waititi]. Thirteen Lives isn’t to the same scale, but it’s pretty big. Baz [Luhrmann] just finished Elvis.

I think it’s fantastic that there’s a lack of crew because there’s so much on. I wouldn’t begrudge a crew member for taking more money to work on a big production, because I’d do it as an actor.

“There was a little bit of fluff... mixed in with some good life lessons.” (Picture: The Secret Life Of Us)

Press rewind on that acting career and go back to your first big role on the hit Australian TV show The Secret Life Of Us, which turns 20 this year and remains revered and beloved. Why do you think it has such staying power?

Good writing, good actors, good team. And it wasn’t just fluff. There was a little bit of fluff... mixed in with some good life lessons. It was a good drama. I always wanted to be on a TV show, and I was happy it was that one.

Reality TV now dominates the field...

I know that people might want to detonate me, but I often wish I could take all reality TV and detonate it. [Or at least that I could] invent a time machine and find whoever invented reality television, lock them in a room and say, “Don’t tell people these ideas!”

I get that [those shows] bring people pleasure, but they could also bring pleasure by providing stuff that’s more thoughtful. I see the obsession with it; I think someone needs to be keeping an eye on culture and not just profit.

Maybe I’m just a bit of a fuddy-duddy. Because who am I to roll my eyes at the term influencer or say Married At First Sight is a terrible, terrible thing? You can’t judge things of a greater quality if they’re not on offer.

Joel Edgerton directing Boy Erased, starring Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. (Picture: Supplied)

You’re back on TV now – albeit in a streaming series – with The Underground Railroad, a big American story about a slave called Cora who escapes her plantation and is being pursued by your character Ridgeway, a bounty hunter.

Why did you want to be involved in it?

[Director] Barry Jenkins is the short answer. He has an eye for great material and a track record of giving actors the space to do great things. I’d heard about the project, tracked him down and tapped him on the shoulder at an event in Toronto, and was basically hustling.

Then I read the material, and I took a step back. I’d been running around for years saying it’s more fun to play a villain but then I was confronted in the material with a villain I was unsure I wanted to service because it was too heavy.

Joel Edgerton in The Undergroud Railroad with co-star Chase Dillon. (Picture: The Underground Railroad)

But I’m glad I did, because we catch an insight into how his opinions are formed and, while we don’t redeem him or ask the audience to sympathise with him, it does raise for me the important question: how do we raise our children?

How do we set them on the right or wrong path and how does that affect people on the planet? I found that it made the journey more worth doing.

The show’s subject nature and some of the scenes are confronting. Did you need to use the counsellor on set?

Having that counsellor on set, even if you didn’t use them, said a lot about [the filmmakers’] intentions to look after their team. Not just the actors but the crew, too. It basically reminds everyone to treat people with kindness.

As much as we might smirk at that like little schoolboys saying, “We don’t need to be taught this stuff”, I think that some people do.

Joel Edgerton with his partner Christine Centenera at the 2018 GQ Awards in Sydney. (Picture: Supplied)

You’re a very private person, but last year you appeared on the ABC’s Australian Story. In it you joked that you’d put your mum on an embargo, and that she wasn’t allowed to talk to the media. Is that still the case?

The reason she’s on embargo is because I was doing a theatre production, and it was opening night, and a couple of days later I open up a newspaper and see Mum had gone and opened up! It helped me get over myself in some way.

In the two-part documentary, you also detailed your struggles with anxiety and panic attacks.

Often on the street I have conversations with people about movies, and because I was willing to open up about mental-health stuff and about my anxieties, I realised how many people are waiting and willing and hoping to express themselves about their own anxieties.

Joel Edgerton features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

I’m not some huge star, but if I’m willing to be in public and say things that aren’t fun, it opens up a dialogue. I think we’re all walking around pretending to be OK all the time and, particularly now with what we’ve been through, people need to be able to say, I’m not OK.

Because pushing all that stuff down causes other problems, so I’m happy I did talk.

On that note, today is Mother’s Day. You and your partner, Aussie fashion stylist Christine Centenera, are expecting your first children – twins – later this year. Will you share if you’re planning to celebrate what’s ahead?

[Shrugs] Now you’ll write, “He shrugged.” The only thing I will say is that it would make my mum’s day if you write that I have the best mum in the world.

The Underground Railroad is available to stream from this Friday on Amazon Prime Video.