Damon Herriman, actor, 46 - not our Meryl Streep

Damon Herriman cut his teeth playing likeable nerds on Aussie TV, but US producers like him as an ‘unwashed redneck’.

Secret City starts tomorrow on Foxtel’s Showcase. Picture: Steve Baccon

You’ve starred in big-budget films with Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. Are you recognised on the street?

Only very occasionally. Often the characters I tend to play look very different to me: they dress differently, have different hair and are a lot… dirtier.

What do you mean? I played a backward southern redneck in [the American TV series] Justified for six years and I have been talking with fans of the show who didn’t realise it was me. They didn’t expect to see someone with an Australian accent who had taken a shower.

You’ve played a lot of those Deliverance-style hillbillies. Why do you attract those roles?

I don’t know. I always used to bemoan the fact that I couldn’t get those bad-guy roles. In The Big Steal and 15 years later on Love My Way, I was the nerdy friend with glasses. I think my head is very easy to transform into an unwashed redneck. It doesn’t take anywhere near as long in the makeup chair as I would like.

Speaking of makeup, your next role, in the political drama Secret City, is a departure…

I play transgender intelligence analyst Kim Gordon. She is the ex-husband of the lead character, a journalist played by Anna Torv.

The portrayal of trans characters on TV seems to be improving. Why? These sorts

of issues seem to find a point where the world as a whole wants to start talking about them and dealing with them. I’m sure somebody could pinpoint why that is happening now.

Do you follow politics? Because I live half the time in Sydney and half in America, I’m a little obsessed with American politics right now. I should be watching the subtle, nuanced Australian drama but instead I’m watching the American soap opera. I’ve been sucked in by the plots and the characters; I can’t help it.

You kicked off your career as a 10-year-old on The Sullivans. How does being a child actor set you up for a life in showbiz? I acted a lot between 10 and 12 and then didn’t take it up again until I was 18. That gap was a good thing, otherwise I wouldn’t have known any other life. You hear horror stories, but all my memories of acting are incredibly fond ones.

You played manager Chris Murphy in INXS: Never Tear Us Apart. Were you bummed

you didn’t get to be Michael Hutchence? I would have fallen on the floor if they’d offered me that part. I did enjoy playing Chris Murphy. My previous characters had always tended to be pathetic or lacking in confidence; they certainly weren’t the brash, confident alpha male Chris Murphy was. I hung out with him to try and soak up as much of that as I possibly could and we ended up becoming friends.

You learnt horse-riding and gun-twirling for The Lone Ranger. Are there any other handy skills you’ve picked up? There have been quite a few accents that I’ve had to learn over the years: Irish for The Water Diviner, Yorkshire for The Outlaw Michael Howe, German for J. Edgar and quite a few Southern accents. I’m building up a bank of accents that hopefully I can draw on down the track.

So you’re Australia’s Meryl Streep! Er, no. No, I am not.

Secret City screens on Foxtel’s Showcase