Vince Colosimo on classic Aussie crime film Chopper turning 25
When Vince Colosimo first uttered the now famous line: “There’s no cash, right? Cash, no.” He couldn’t have predicted strangers would be shouting it at him on the street 25 years later.
It is one of the most memorable, and oft-quoted, scenes in Australian cinema.
Melbourne actor Vince Colosimo knows this first-hand because total strangers ask him every day to hit them with his most famous movie line.
On paper, those 11 words read like back-to-front Yoda-speak.
But in Colosimo’s hands, they lit up the screen. “There’s no cash here,” Colosimo’s character, Neville Bartos, says in the 2000 film, Chopper, based on the life of underworld figure, Mark Brandon Read. “Here, there’s no cash, right? Cash, no.”
Twenty five years after Chopper first screened, Colosimo is constantly reminded off his scene-stealing turn as Bartos.
“There’s not a day that goes by without somebody yelling at me, ‘Cash, no cash’,” Colosimo told the Herald Sun.
“At the time I never thought that, 25 years down the track, we’d still be reminiscing about it, or people would still be coming up to me on the street asking me to say, ‘No cash.’ It’s something I’ll have to take to the grave. They never let me forget it.”
Chopper — helmed by then first time writer and director Andrew Dominik, with a seismic performance by Eric Bana as Read — shocked a nation and changed the face of Australian cinema.
To mark the milestone, the brutal and savagely funny film has been digitally remastered and reloaded once again for the big screen.
The 25th anniversary edition of Chopper, which opened in cinemas last Thursday, also features bonus footage, including conversations with Bana, Dominik, and Read.
Bana said in a statement: “Chopper was an incredibly unique and distinctive character. Getting the chance to play someone like him is rare. It’s always a treat if a film holds up over time, and I’m proud of its space in the Australian film landscape.”
The film also stars Colosimo, Simon Lyndon as Jimmy Loughnan, and David Field as Keithy George.
“I had to teach myself to write in order to make the film. I basically learned how to do it on the job,” Dominik told the Herald Sun.
“But the biggest challenge was Mark himself. He was somebody who lived an extraordinary life. And he was hilarious, But Mark was challenging, too.
“We’d be trying to get funding, and he’d go on TV and joke about stuffing someone in a concrete mixer. He’d cause outrage and the funding would dry up.”
But Read’s words impacted in useful ways, too.
He insisted Bana, who first shot to fame in Australia as beloved bogan Poida in a sketch comedy show, should play Chopper in the movie.
Dominik: “I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that guy Poida on television?’ It seemed like a dumb idea until Eric came in to read. And he was obviously right for it.
“Eric came from comedy and stand up. But he did impressions, and worked from the outside in. He would take on the mannerisms of a person, and create an internal mental process to make the exterior of the character work, which is the opposite of what a lot of actors do.”
Producer Michelle Bennett told the Herald Sun: “Every film is challenging, but this one had a lot of obstacles. It was first time filmmakers, and Eric didn’t have the drama pedigree that he has now. It was matter of convincing everyone how amazing he would be playing the role of Chopper.”
Bennett would not confirm or deny reports she and Dominik met with actors including Russell Crowe, Richard Roxburgh, and Ben Mendelsohn for the Chopper film. “We met with a lot of people,” she said. “But Eric had something different.”
Colosimo auditioned for the Bartos role. Before Chopper, his movie and television credits included Street Hero, Moving Out and A Country Practice.
“There was whispers (about the Bartos role) in our small circle. I was asked to audition,” Colosimo said. “I’ve never been great at auditions, but with this one, I felt comfortable.
“The script was controversial and confronting. I was having private giggles to myself, and thinking, ‘This is so over the top, and out there.’ There was a lot you could do with it.”
He said Dominik was open to “playing around with ideas” and urged Colosimo to make the role his own.
Colosimo suggested Bartos should wear a velour tracksuit, and a mass of chains around his neck. “They were real chains. It was a couple of kilos around my neck,” Colosimo said, laughing. “At the end of the day, I’d have sore cheeks from laughing, and a sore neck from the chains.”
He also gave Bartos a “western suburbs tone” and accent, adding: “I felt like Neville should have a speedy way of speaking. He wanted to get his information out as fast as possible. He couldn’t get enough of himself, to be honest.”
Dominik shot the famous “cash, no cash scene” in a rented house in Bulleen.
“Neville’s house was very kitsch. A bachelor pad with a big garage, and a dark living room with a billiard table and a bars. We were there for two or three nights,” Colosimo said.
Colosimo said there was a “guide” to playing the scene with Bana, which is centred on Read demanding money from Bartos, but Dominik let the actors riff.
“The whole ‘cash, no cash; scene was improvised,” Dominik said. “Vince would say things, from take to take. That line about the cash just came out of his mouth. It was a magical moment, and we had to remember it. We had a lunch break, and kept yelling the line at him all through the meal, so he wouldn’t forget it.”
Colosimo laughs: “I broke out with, ‘No cash here’ and went on, and on, and on. The rest is history. It’s an experience I’ll never forget.”
He says the scene also encapsulated the ease with which he and Bana could experiment, and find occasional gold.
“We were both in the make-up chair for so long. We’d talk a lot about scenes and preparation.
Eric and I would go on tangents, and keep going,” Colosimo said.
“He was really good at it, and I loved doing improv, especially with characters who were so loose. Andrew did a lot of takes. Eric would sometimes throw in a wisecrack, and I’d try a couple. It was a fun way to work.”
The beloved scene stars Bana, Colosimo and Sam Houli, as Bartos associate Robbo.
“Nev, how you holding for cash?” Chopper asks in the living room of Bartos’ home.
Bartos and Robbo are sitting on a couch, and Chopper is seated opposite.
“Listen, mate. What are you talking about?” Bartos replies.
Chopper: “Cash.”
Bartos: “There’s no cash here. Here, there’s no cash, right? Cash, no. Robbo?”
Robbo: “No cash.”
Chopper: “I’ll tell you what You try getting from where you’re sitting to the front door, because I reckon I could shoot you from where you’re sitting to the front door, because that’s about as long as you’ve got to produce some money for me right now.”
Twenty five years on, Colosimo says he politely refuses most requests to re-enact the scene.
He explains: “I mostly say no because I don’t want to ruin it, and I don’t want to ruin their memory of it, and what it was.
“That scene, and the film has a quality all its own. It stands alone,” Colosimo says. “It has its own character and personality. People loved it for so many reasons. It was part of this town, and it was a true story.”
Dominik agrees. When he and Bana spent time with Read to research the role, “neither of us got a word in for, like, two days,” Dominik says.
“Mark would sit there and tell the story after story. And they were so hilarious. But there was always an undercurrent with Mark. He had this sort of jail-mind-control technique where you felt like he was doing you a favour by not hurting you. I think what Mark was trying to do was allow Eric to see him. He was performing.”
Mark ‘Chopper’ Read died from liver cancer in 2013. He was 58. Read is survived by his wife, Margaret, and two sons.
“Chopper’s first book is the most shoplifted book in Australian publishing history, so people wanted to know his story,” Dominik said.
“He represented a particular aspect of the Australian character. Mark was a raconteur … and certainly a better comedian than he was a criminal. But Chopper, the movie, and Chopper, the person, entered the cultural lexicon. The impact was amazing.
“It’s an example of that peculiar Australian thing of being able to laugh at anything,” Dominik says, “no matter how dark or f---ed up it is.”
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