How John Ibrahim helped make Les Norton actor realise his dream
He worked as a doorman at the now-defunct nightclub Backroom — part-owned by Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim — while taking acting classes. Now Alexander Bertrand is the star of a hit TV crime drama and has landed more roles. He recalls how the King of the Cross encouraged him to pursue his acting dream.
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Alexander Bertrand, the breakout star of the TV crime hit Les Norton, has revealed he owes his acting career to advice from Kings Cross king John Ibrahim.
In the critically-acclaimed ABC dramatisation of the Robert G Barrett books, Bertrand dazzles as a tough, laconic doorman trying to get by in a world filled with crime and misdemeanour.
Funnily enough, in one of the more stark examples of art imitating life, Bertrand’s real-life backstory also took place in the same grimy back alleys of Sydney’s Kings Cross.
Bertrand said he was working as a doorman at the now-defunct nightclub Backroom — part-owned by Ibrahim — and taking acting classes during the day.
“I didn’t have a lot to do with him but the times we spoke I remember telling him about the acting thing and how it was something I really wanted to do,” Bertrand, 29, said.
“He used to say to me: ‘Never ever give up. Keep going. And don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise’.
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“He was a cool guy. I certainly never saw anything too bad. But it was certainly a fun time to be a part of that world.
“It was like the last days of the wild west … just before the lockout (laws) kicked in and everything changed.”
Bertrand will soon also be seen in the highly-anticipated Australian Gangster, a two-part miniseries to air later this year on Channel 7 in which he stars as a tattooed underworld figure.
And he is also preparing to film another ABC series set in 1950s South Australia about the fallout from the British nuclear testing at Maralinga.
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The glut of gritty hardman roles has seen Bertrand’s profile skyrocket in Aussie acting circles.
The Manly-raised former army man and Muay Thai boxer is tipped to join the ranks of superstars like Chris Hemsworth and Joel Edgerton.
But it all could easily have gone another way.
Bertrand said he decided to tread the boards only after a life-altering injury while training with the Australian Army in Singleton back in 2012.
A shattered kneecap saw him spending several months in the Holsworthy barracks rehabilitation clinic surrounded by injured soldiers recently returned from war zones.
It was, he said, a reality check.
“Character-building, you might say,” he said.
“I realised that wasn’t the life for me. That wasn’t the path I wanted to be on.
“And I decided I have one life and I’m going to have a go at acting and that was it.”
Originally published as How John Ibrahim helped make Les Norton actor realise his dream
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