Working
class man: Anthony Hayes wants his role to help the cause of other victims. Source:
National Features
Holly Byrnes, The Daily Telegraph, reports
Wigmakers have had a busy year in Australian television.
There were the lustrous mullets on Channel 10's Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms, followed by the metres of sideburns and 1970s-style shagpile chest hair on Nine's Howzat! Kerry Packer's War.
Anthony Hayes, who sported a striking auburn mane on Bikie Wars and dons a modest headpiece in the new ABC1 telemovie, Devil's Dust, explains there is an art to crafting the look for such character roles.
"The key is to get into wardrobe first and get the best wig and let some other idiot end up with a raccoon on their head," Hayes says.
"There are some wigs that can ruin a production, are too much of a distraction for the audience and you can never get their attention back. So yeah, get in there quickly and leave the dead animals to some other poor sap to wear."
It's a light moment from this seriously talented leading man, who transformed himself to play "everyday hero" Bernie Banton, the anti-asbestos campaigner who took on his former employer James Hardie and won, but lost his life to the disease.
A factory worker and later (ironically) a funeral director, Banton captured national attention for his passionate advocacy and media savvy.
Hayes, who also shone recently in The Slap, admits taking on the role "scared the s--- out of me at first", turning to the make-up and wardrobe department as his starting point.
The result is a likeness so uncanny it is understood Banton's family were reduced to tears after watching an advanced screening of the two-part telemovie.
While Hayes chose to keep some distance from Banton's widow, Karen, and her son, Dean, as he went about preparing for the role, their response to the show has humbled him.
"I wanted to do it (the role) not just for him, for his legacy, for his family but for all those still fighting this cause," Hayes says.
"I had heard Dean was very moved when he saw it and stayed in the cinema crying because he said I had emulated his dad so well. I was really touched by that, you want to do it right."
From Banton's distinctive voice, to his dying days, Hayes delivers a powerful performance that should finally deliver him the plaudits and career opportunities he clearly deserves.
He says the physicality of the job took its toll, but it was the survivors' stories that fuel his own rage against the justice system, yet to hold key James Hardie executives to account.
"I still get these great surges of anger about it. It made me so angry and I still can't fathom why we can't help these people. (James Hardie) knew this stuff (asbestos products) could kill."
Hayes says meeting the widows of victims had informed his performance.
"I knew the statistics but I needed to know in depth what it's like to die from this. I didn't know how to breathe, what the stages were and these (widows) told me in detail how they nursed their husbands to their deaths. It broke my heart," he says.
When filming, he would spend the day shallow breathing, to capture the telling rasping gasp associated with the illness.
"It's one of my worst nightmares - suffocating and drowning - and with this disease you're basically doing both," Hayes says.
"If this can help reignite the debate (surrounding victims' compensation) it will have been worth it. Anything I can do to help that cause, I will."
Devil's Dust, ABC1, Sunday and Monday, 8.30pm
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EXPOSING THE HEALTH RISK
A Classic David and Goliath tale, Devil's Dust is a two-part series following four key people in the battle to expose the health risks of asbestos and holding those who knew of the danger to account.
Bernie Banton (played by Anthony Hayes) was working on the factory floor of a James Hardie plant in Sydney's western suburbs when he was first exposed to the "devil's" asbestos dust.
Matt Peacock (Ewen Leslie, pictured) was a young ABC journalist working in the science department whose research helped broadcast the fears of international scientists and what James Hardie and its allies were covering up.
During an interview for The 7.30 Report, Peacock identifies Banton's power as a public speaker for the cause, with the two campaigning together for asbestos compensation.
Bernie's second wife, Karen (Alexandra Schepsi), fights alongside him, helping him handle the emotional burden of the cause and later, his deteriorating health.
The fictional character of James Hardie PR Adam Bourke (Don Hany) appears to be Peacock and Banton's nemesis.
