Irish guy: Guy Pearce as Jack Irish with co-star Marta Dusseldorp. Source: Supplied
Darren Devlyn, The Daily Telegraph, reports
Guy Pearce has long battled to negotiate the slippery course between celebrity and anonymity.
In January, he reminded us of his awkward relationship with fame when he arrived at the G'Day USA black tie gala in Los Angeles with wife of 15 years, Kate.
He had picked up his first Golden Globe nomination for his role as Monty Beragon in the acclaimed TV mini-series Mildred Pierce, which co-stars Oscar winner Kate Winslet.
Winslet had been open in declaring that, as a schoolgirl in England, she had a crush on Pearce during his soap days on Neighbours.
"I was in love with Mike (played by Pearce)," Winslet said. "I used to fake illness so I could escape school and watch it at 1.25pm and the repeat at 5.30pm."
Pearce, meanwhile, was less colourful in describing what it was like being nominated for the Globe alongside Winslet.
"I don't really know how I am feeling ... nervous and embarrassed," Pearce said. "It is great, it is a real privilege, but it is just emotionally kind of nerve-racking."
Pearce, who this week makes his much-anticipated return to Australian TV in the first of two Jack Irish telemovies, was a former junior bodybuilding champion who at 18 scored the role of Mike Young on Neighbours.
He impressed in Snowy River: The McGregor Saga series, but his breakthrough came in 1994, when he signed for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The film was as camp as a handbag full of rainbows and Pearce revelled in the role of bitchy Felicia Jollygoodfellow.
By 1997, he and Russell Crowe had Hollywood talking with their standout performances in L.A. Confidential. But Pearce, unlike Crowe, struggled with the Hollywood fame game.
He appeared in big-budget movies including Rules of Engagement, The Time Machine and The Count of Monte Cristo, but for years he felt his interests would be best served in low-budget, character-driven pieces. It has been in less-hyped projects such as Memento, The Proposition and Death Defying Acts (as Harry Houdini) that he has proved how he can veer between wildly different roles.
"When I went to Hollywood to do some promotional stuff for Priscilla, my agent said I should meet some agents there," Pearce says.
"I was really grumpy in those days. I said, 'I don't want to f---ing do that', and my agent said, 'Well, just meet one, Chris Andrews', and I walked in and got on well with him straight away and I've been with him ever since. But he really had a battle on his hands with me because I wasn't interested in trying to create a profile. I was spending years trying to get away from a profile that I had created here.
"And the big jobs (movies) I took on, I didn't have a good time. I didn't feel my work was any good and I wasn't happy.
"Here I was working when all these other actors were out of work, but I wanted to ... say, 'It's (Hollywood) a big f---ing factory and I hate it'.
"When Chris saw The Proposition in 2004, he said, 'Now I get what you are doing'. He said, 'If I ever talk to you about a big film you don't want to do, I won't pester you about it'. But I've come a little more to the centre about the kind of work I want to be doing. Here I am now popping up in Prometheus and Iron Man 3. Ten years ago I'd never have done that."
Born in England, Pearce and his family moved to Australia and settled in Geelong after his father, Stuart, was offered the position of chief test pilot for the Federal Government. Stuart was killed five years later on a test flight, leaving his wife Anne to care for Guy and his older sister, Tracy.
His family, including wife Kate - whom he met as a 12-year-old at school - have been the defining influences on his life.
When he begins speaking about them, it's easy to see why he's awkward about self-promotion.
Tracy has Cornelia de Lange syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects both intellectual and physical development.
"I think growing up with Tracy and seeing the world from her point of view has stopped me if ever I have become a bit big-headed about things," Pearce says.
"There are people in the world who say, 'If you've got it, flaunt it', and there are people who say, 'If you've got it, spare a thought for those who don't'. I can't carry on in this world thinking if you've got it, flaunt it.
"And my wife ... she's a very down-to-earth person. I don't want to be surrounded by people who talk s--- or flatter you for the sake of it. She would be the last person to do that," he adds with a laugh.
"She, in her own time, will acknowledge work that I've done and in the same way I'll acknowledge things she does. She can stand her ground."
Jack Irish, ABC1, Sunday, 8.30pm
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RIGHTING THE LEDGER
A PHONE message from ex-client Danny McKillop prompts lawyer Jack Irish (Guy Pearce) to search 10-year-old case files.
Jack's memory of the case is clouded by the fact his life was a mess at the time - his wife had been murdered and he was searching for solace in a bottle of whiskey.
Danny did five years for manslaughter but may have been set up. So when he turns up dead, Jack feels he has failed him, twice. Keen to set the ledger straight, he starts investigating Danny's death.
Along the way Jack meets Linda Hillier (Marta Dusseldorp), a smart, sexy investigative journalist who has a weakness for burnt-out, dishevelled men.
He also has comical meetings with a streetwise cop, played by Shane Jacobson (below, left, with Pearce).
"I like the idea Jack is not a victim," Pearce says. "He's kind of depressed and still not over the death of his wife."
The telemovie brims with raw, natural-looking action sequences.
"We wanted it to have a sense of reality about it. It's not about special effects," Pearce says.
