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asturbana
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Re: About Bana
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4188660a1860.html
A close encounter with Eric Bana
Sunday Star Times | Tuesday, 4 September 2007
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QUICK CHAT: Hollywood superstar Eric Bana can cover a lot of territory in just 15 minutes.
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AdvertisementBusy Aussie actor Eric Bana takes precious time out to tell Mark Broatch about Hollywood, his new film and Aussie Rules football.
"Gidday, it's Eric Bana."
I am just turning the car into my street. It's 10.30 at night. My eyelids are drooping but Eric Bana is ringing on my mobile. His voice is pleasant, alluring, reassuringly Australian. I head back to work.
That would be Eric Bana the actor. Born Eric Banadinovich in 1968 in Melbourne, Victoria. Star sign: Leo. Height: 1.9m. Status: married, to the daughter of Australian High Court chief justice; two children. Major films: Chopper, Hulk, Troy, Munich. Interests: acting, motorsport driving, St Kilda Australian Rules football team. He was due to call at 9.45pm, but he's been caught up "in an edit".
Yeah, sure. We have been scheduled for just 15 minutes, barely enough time to swing a couple of questions, so, because of the delay and the late hour, I check with him how much time we have. "I've got 15."
Turns out that Eric Bana is time- poor but a pretty decent bloke; wry, thoroughly unspoilt by the Hollywood that now loves him.
He first came to our attention in the 90s, doing skits on the Australian comedy series Full Frontal and briefly fronting his own show. Bana made his scene-stealing cinematic debut as the kickboxing accountant boyfriend in the Aussie classic The Castle. And he was astonishing as Mark "Chopper" Read, a clever, deadpan Melburnian lunatic. "Jimmy, if you keep stabbing me," he tells his shiv-armed prison mate, "you're gonna kill me."
Before I spoke to Bana, I watched Chopper and the Steven Spielberg- directed Munich again. Hulk I couldn't stomach a second time.
Munich - which Bana says is his favourite role (reasons: Spielberg and "It was the kind of film I grew up watching") - holds less appeal for me. That's not to say that Bana isn't great as the conflicted Israeli assassin. Just that Munich is the kind of film in which Bana's character runs back to save the daughter of a target from a bomb, then goes on to blow him up, leaving her without a father.
Mind you, Chopper is the kind of bloke who stabs a fellow prisoner repeatedly in the head, only to offer him a cigarette as he's lying in a pool of his own blood.
As Raimond's ethnic Romanian dad in the Australian true-life tale Romulus, My Father, which we're mainly here to talk about, he's just trying to be a good immigrant, a good father, a good provider in the face of repeated infidelities by his German-born wife Christina (played by Run Lola Run's Franka Potente). You sometimes hear it said of an actor that they have the ability to inhabit a character. Bana is one of those actors. You'll never catch him showing off for the camera - being Eric Bana being Chopper, or being Eric Bana being Avner the assassin. He's instinctive and exacting. For Chopper, he gained about 15kg and spent hours in makeup every day to have the identical tattoos applied.
He says the role - which is what really won the attention of Hollywood - was rewarding but "excruciating". No wonder there are no roles he'd like to do over. "No, when I'm done with them, I'm done. It's like getting blood out of a stone."
Perhaps this approach can be taken too far. Romulus is almost too hard to read. As his wife repeatedly runs off from their rundown country house to Melbourne, he bears the betrayal in silence, the hurt in his eyes and flashes of violence toward his son the only signs of inner pain.
There are a few lovely moments from the main players - in particular Bana, Marton Csokas as his brother, and the boy, played brilliantly by Kodi Smit-McPhee. The boy shares an upbringing close to Bana's own. His father was from Croatia, his mother from Germany. The ancestry and values were familiar, he says. "There was a taste in that script that felt like a meal I've had many times."
The director is Australian actor Richard Roxburgh. Did that help bring out such touching performances? Bana says he loved working with Roxburgh. It's the first time he's worked with a director who can act. He knows his work (the duke in Moulin Rouge, Guy from Thank God He Met Lizzie) and trusts his opinion, Bana says. And that goes the other way. "He has a lot of faith in his actors. You feel you're in the best possible hands at all times." Some directors have the knack of how to work with actors, some don't, says Bana.
Romulus is an immigrant's story, and getting the accent right is important. Bana's not sure if he's good at voices because of his family background or his background in comic mimicry. "I've just always loved doing accents." Maybe it makes it a bit easier because your ear is tuned to those sounds, he says, but getting it right is important to him.
Bana misses the comedy, and also the storytelling that comedy requires. This is a not unfamiliar theme in actors' interviewing tool belts, but Bana had his own comedy show, remember. "When you're an actor you are involved in storytelling, but on a different level. You can only tell the story within your own sphere. You're just like one planet in a galaxy. Sometimes that's a little frustrating."
I ask him why Antipodeans are doing so well overseas at the moment - Crowe, Kidman, Blanchett, Csokas, Karl Urban, Cliff Curtis, Flight of the Conchords. "I think we're as common as muck," he jokes.
"There's nothing special about us any more. We used to be novelties."
It helps that we can play ethnicities, he agrees. "If you want to have a career that's larger than the size of a postage stamp in our countries, you need to be able to expand beyond your borders, so it's just out of necessity."
It's been a busy time. Last year Bana wrapped a film in which he played Henry VIII, and the week after we spoke he was to start filming as Henry De Tamble, the time traveller in The Time Traveller's Wife. Does playing such a beloved character concern you? "Yes and no. It concerns me if I think the script isn't as good as the book, but in this case I most definitely think the script is better than the book." The words are what count for him. "I refuse to do a script if I don't think it's good. That's the one area I don't make any allowances."
There is lots of nudity in the book, De Tamble having to career around the time-space continuum starkers. He's not particularly worried about nudity, he says, but isn't saying how much there will be. "You'll have to wait and see." Doubtless he will be in the kind of shape that should, by rights, have seen him kick Brad Pitt's arse in Troy.
Being tall by Hollywood standards (though a squidge next to his 2m-tall father and brother), has he ever had to stand in a ditch during a film? "No, but it can be a problem. It means a lot of unflattering angles for me," he says, signalling that he is enough of a player to have noticed. "My co-stars love it. They always get to look up at the camera; I generally have to look down."
I ask him to explain the exotic appeal of his beloved Aussie Rules. "It's very simple. It's the best ball sport in the world. The most flowing and most athletic and interesting." He's not having my suggestion that it's a baffling game.
"It's not reaaally. It's pretty simple; you kick through a goal from one end to another. What happens in between is pretty spectacular to watch, even if you don't understand it."
I'm tempted to ask if that's a metaphor for his acting, but my 18 minutes, 24 seconds are over.
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9/3/2007, 7:46 pm
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asturbana
Bana Heaven
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Re: About Bana
New curious
If leather isn't cozy enough, maybe you'd find an Eric Bana pillowcase more soothing. Get a printed pillowcase of the Romulus, My Father star bidding you "sweet dreams, love Eric" for a mere $10.
source:http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/253561
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9/6/2007, 10:02 am
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asturbana
Bana Heaven
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Re: About Bana
Visa Bana
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9/13/2007, 8:40 am
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asturbana
Bana Heaven
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Re: About Bana
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22465063-2862,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22465063-2862,00.html
ACTOR Eric Bana has sold his four-bedroom house in Hampton for close to $2 million as Melbourne's property market reaches boiling point.
The star is moving to a more luxurious house in Brighton.
The spring property market peaked with 900 houses auctioned and 750 by private sale yesterday.
Price records were broken at auctions which left veteran estate agents shaking their heads in disbelief.
First-home buyers are being pushed further from the city by rising prices.
Agents reported high demand for land in the inner city, with buyers ready to demolish old houses to build new homes worth more than $2.5 million.
Alistair Craig, of Jellis Craig, said 23 Bevan St, Balwyn, sold for $1.56 million and a cleared block at 28 Victoria Ave, Canterbury, for $1.8 million.
Brad Teal, of Brad Teal Real Estate, said a house with river views at 60 The Esplanade, Maribyrnong, sold for $1.95 million.
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9/22/2007, 4:54 pm
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asturbana
Bana Heaven
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Re: About Bana
Top 10 TV picks: October 2-8
3. Kath and Kim: On the eve of that "bloody Howard"
standing for re-election, look who's back for a fourth series (the premiere was the highest-rating programme of the year 'in Australia). Guests include Shane Warne, Donna Hay, Rob Sitch, Eric Bana and Little Britain's Matt Lucas.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4221821a20879.html
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10/1/2007, 8:03 pm
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asturbana
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Re: About Bana
NEW PROJECT FOR MR BANA
ERIC BANA ANIMATED GOES GAY
HE'S played a tattooed crim, a green monster and now the gay love interest of a Kiwi sheep farmer named Desmond.
In his most unusual role yet, Eric Bana will voice the character in Oscar-winner Adam Elliot's first animated feature, Mary & Max.
Bana previously lent his vocal tones to a shark in Finding Nemo in 2003.
Elliot has also recruited Toni Collette to voice Mary in his $8.5 million plasticine-character flick, while Barry Humphries is the narrator.
Mary & Max is due to hit cinemas late 2008.
source: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22553355-5012980,00.html
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10/8/2007, 3:43 pm
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asturbana
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Re: About Bana
Eric bana is villane in a new star trek movie
Bana will star as the movie's main bad guy, Nero, in the Paramount based movie, which is being directed and produced by Abrams through his Bad Robot production company.
Anthon Yelchin, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy and Zoe Saldana have already been cast in the movie, but Abrams is still on the lookout for the new Captain James T. Kirk for the eleventh movie in the series. Internet rumours have suggested that Abrams may be looking in the direction of actor Mike Vogal for the coveted role, but talk of his casting has gone quiet over the last week or so.
Casting on the flick, which is released on Christmas Day 2008, continues in New York and London.
http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/artman2/publish/movie_news/Eric_Bana_is_villain_in_new_Star_Trek_movie_30101007.php
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10/10/2007, 1:43 pm
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lulitome
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Re: About Bana
That is some awesome news. I'm a Star Treck fan and this news makes my nerdy heart very happy.
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10/10/2007, 2:16 pm
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asturbana
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Re: About Bana
I agree with you Luli. I love series of science fiction and I love see to Eric Bana as Villane. 
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10/10/2007, 3:49 pm
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lulitome
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Re: About Bana
Totally, asti. Apparently, the vilains in the new Star Treck movie are Romuliens. They look a little like Spock, so if Nero is, in fact, a Romulien, Mr. Bana's beautiful face will be made-up but not beyond unrecognizable which is good because he's too pretty to hide uner heavy disguise. 
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10/10/2007, 5:12 pm
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