Still, despite the occasional rough shooting day, Stapleton clearly had a positive experience on the set of Cut Snake, and says he still relishes the opportunity to work in his native country – not to mention his native accent. “Obviously I’ve spent the last few years fighting on Strike Back, but to have to dominate this woman in a physical sense… it’s one thing to throw some punches at another actor, but to do that was difficult.” “That was hard,” admits Stapleton, and for a moment he seems to struggle for words. One scene in particular, involving Pommie and a prostitute, ends in a moment of absolutely horrifying violence – and while it’s certainly effective, it can’t have been pleasant to film. That’s not to say the shooting process was always easy. The collaboration between us, and the support I received from him, it just made the job awesome.” He’s a great man and has a true gift as an artist. “I’ve wanted to work with Tony for years,” says the actor. Best known for the domestic dramas The Home Song Stories and Walking On Water, the award-winning filmmaker arrived to the crime genre afresh, but Stapleton says Ayres was instrumental in helping bring Pommie to life. Stapleton is also quick to give credit to his director, Tony Ayres. I hope we pulled it off.” When asked if it was difficult getting inside the head of such an unstable man, he chuckles: “No, not really. “It’s too easy to play these types of characters as one note. “The challenge was to give the character the menace and the aggressiveness that he needed, but also the vulnerability and the need to be loved and accepted,” explains Stapleton. At the same time, there’s an emotional rawness to Stapleton’s work – especially towards the end of the film – that makes it impossible to view his character as a straight-up villain. His humour and charisma mask a violent streak bubbling just beneath the surface, one that lends every scene in which Pommie appears an almost suffocating sense of danger. “He loses his mate who he spent time in prison with, and then when he gets out he tries to bring him back into the criminal world, really the only world he knows.”Īlthough Ayshford’s script covers some fairly well-worn ground, Stapleton’s performance is an absolute standout. “He’s a brooding, menacing man who’s been in and out of prison for most of his life, and I guess he just can’t get away,” says Stapleton of his character. As it soon becomes clear, the two men did time together in prison – and now Pommie wants to lead his former cellmate back down a dangerous path, whether Sparra is interested or not. Written by Blake Ayshford, Cut Snake takes place on the outskirts of Melbourne during the early 1970s, centring on Sparra (Alex Russell) and Paula (Jessica de Gouw), a young couple whose life together is thrown into disarray with the unexpected arrival of Pommie (Stapleton).

To go in and out of all those layers that make him who he is – that was really fun.” “It read so well off the paper, and the character just stood out. “It was such a great role to play with,” says Stapleton over the phone from the US, where he’s been living while working on Blindspot.

Cut snake sparra and pommie