‘Chuffed’ David Wenham happy he didn’t delete spam

Who would have thought that Johnny Spit, the greasy, mullet-adorned Gettin’ Square scene-stealer, would ever be recognised as an outstanding and inspirational Australian.

Actor David Wenham. Picture: John Feder

Who would have thought that Johnny Spit, the greasy, mullet-adorned Gettin’ Square scene-stealer, would ever be recognised as an outstanding and inspirational Australian.

David Wenham, the stage and screen legend who enkindled this vile yet beloved creation, immortalising the line “Hey, you’re trying to verbal me, trying to put words in my mouth”, has been awarded a medal of the Order of Australia for his eminent service to the performing arts as an actor.

David Wenham as Johnny Spit in Gettin’ Square.

It’s an honour Wenham says he is “quietly chuffed” about. Though one that took him by surprise, he says, admitting that when he was first notified of the award by email, he thought it was spam.

“I’m very fortunate that I didn’t delete the email.”

The 57-year-old actor, who enraptured Australia as heart-throb Diver Dan from Seachange and later the world as Faramir in the Lord of the Rings considers the Australian film industry to be “a community”. It’s “a family of fellow artists, which I’ve felt really happy to be involved in”, he says.

“What I do, acting, is not an ­individual endeavour.

“It’s really not possible to do it by yourself, it’s a team sport. I love it when I’m collaborating with other people. That’s when I’m ­happiest creatively – when I’m bouncing ideas back and forth ­between actors and directors.”

Wenham is joined on the honours list by fellow actor Jean Kittson, actor and ­producer Claudia Karvan, and Rabbit-Proof Fence filmmaker Phillip Noyce.

David Wenham and Toni Collette in The Boys.

Wenham grew up in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Marrickville. After getting knocked back by NIDA, he studied acting at the University of Western Sydney in Penrith. He juggled scrap parts in soaps such as Son and Daughters and A Country Practice and calling bingo at the Marrickville Town Hall, before landing his breakthrough in 1998, as the merciless Brett Sprague in Rowan Wood’s The Boys. A harrowing film inspired by the murder of Anita Cobby, in which Wenham starred alongside a young Toni Collette, it is he says a movie that “still stands the test of time”.

He went on to star in Hollywood blockbusters such as 300 and its sequel, the Pirates of the Caribbean, and Lion, and found a collaborator in Baz Luhrmann, with roles in both Moulin Rouge and Elvis.

In a career full of highs, Wenham still considers those early Australian films “right there at the top”.

In 2017, he directed his debut feature, a lovely little slice of life called Ellipses, shot in Sydney, on a tiny budget of $250,000. He says he “whipped up that film as an experimental project” after another film he was set to direct fell over.

“I think for a long time I have been a frustrated director in an actor’s body,” he says. “Hopefully, down the track there will be more opportunities for me to direct.”