May 28, 2023 • 29 mins
Eric Bana opens up about his surprising feelings about acting, the unlikely job he'd rather be doing, and why the longest relationship in his life is with 'The Beast'.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
We are encouraged. Aren't we not to be materialistic? We
shouldn't place too much importance on objects and trinkets. But
the things we have, big, small, whatever they are, no
matter how expensive or and expensive or cheap, they are
our belongings, the things in our lives. They do actually
have meaning in them. Will they make our days easier,
they make us feel good, or they unlock a memory.
(00:24):
We've chosen to have these things and own this stuff,
and we don't always take the time to stop and
appreciate why. I'm Christian O'Connell, and this is the stuff
of legends. I've asked some of the world's most interesting
people to choose three treasured items from their lives and
tell us the stories behind them. Stories you've never heard before,
(00:45):
stories they might never have shared before today. What a treat.
An Australian actor who began his career as a stand
up comedian, who featured on one of Australia's most hilarious
comedy shows, Full Frontal. He then starred in arguably Australia's
most iconic f on The Castle. Since then, he's done
so many big Hollywood films. I even watched one of
(01:05):
them again Spielberg's amazing Munich. We all know about Daniel
Craig and that, but Eric Banner is awesome in that
and his big breakout movie Black Hawk Down and and
nerving everyone in his portrayal of Chopper Reed.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
My name's Eric Banner. I would describe myself as a
part time actor.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
All right, what do you do with the other? If
you're part time actor, what do you do with the
rest of your time?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
The rest of the time, I try and find work, sells,
not to.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Become an out of work actor.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
And I also spend, let's be honest, eighty percent of
my life in the garage, tinkering on stuff, hiding from
the world.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well that sounds great. It sounds like you've got the
best of both worlds there. You've got a little bit
of Hollywood and showbiz, and they're more balants of what
you actually like doing, your passion in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's absolutely necessary because the dirty secret, if you're not
one of those actors that just jumps from job to
job to job, you spend most of your time twidly
thumbs and if you don't have a hobby, you become
one of those people who literally goes a bit crazy
from the job. So that's the way I've always kind
of approached it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So you tell me then, because you're right there on
a movie set, then you'll have a lot of time
in your trailer. What are you not working on a
carburetta or an axle or I've got this image now
that you know your trailer is like a garage workshop.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
That's actually do you know what, Yeah, the big stars
asked for you know, a trailer gym.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Gym. Yeah, he just like a workshop.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
He wants to strip down a wide block forward va
and rebuild it through the course of production. You know what,
I just something there. I'd probably smell a little bit, you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Know, especially if I get a bit of gear oil
on the hands. That's a good idea. It's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Just take my next project to the set and just
like have you know, just a little garage off the
side of my trailer and just keep that restoration project
going during lunch or whenever. You know, Hey, Eric, yeah
you're not in this scene. Fine, I'll be on the
I'll be on the hot rod. You know, it's Christian.
I think I think you have just given you an idea,
(03:13):
a kind of genius idea, and that's a curist.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Jobs. If your agent hears this, there now turn this
two life Eric's story right, you'll be making a movie.
Then you'll go when they go cut, you walk through
a door in and then they go there be making
a TV show. Then Eric fixes your car and then
suddenly put the ovals on. You only be doing two jobs,
which you don't want.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
That.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's another good idea because I'm already picturing the wardrobe
person going.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Absolutely spare right.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
But I would just simply zip up a onesie. Okay, yeah,
nip on an overall. And also what makes the ad
nervous is that you're going to take too long to
get ready. Simpleness, wipe the hands, jump out of the overalls,
and I'm still whatever character I was when I walked
off the set is lurking under the overalls. Put scanner down,
take the overalls off, back to whek you go.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
No part of the operation skips a beat. It's fluid.
What's either side of that one door? You know, there's
the car mechanic, grease monkey Eric, and then there's movie
Star where you're James Bonderwaver.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
This is the most useful interview I think I've ever done.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
This is going to be a breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So Eric, tell us what is the first thing, the
first item you've chosen.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The first item would be the car that I refer
to as the Beast, which is my nineteen seventy four
Ford XB Falcon Coop, which I've owned quite tragically since
I was fifteen approaching sixteen. I'm now fifty two years
of age, so that car and I've been together for
(04:55):
literally my entire adult life.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So it's one of your longest relationships is with that car?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It is? It is?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, it's I've got a few mates that backdate the car,
but only just.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
But it is.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It's I think the longest physical possession you could possibly have.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
But I don't have many relics from my childhood.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think I've got a ruler somewhere from like grade five,
a wooden ruler. Why someone would keep it, wouldn't ruler
from grade five? I have no idea. But anyway, Yes,
the car, the Beast would be my number one item.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
What does it remind you of? What does it mean
to you?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, it's kind of everything, because in its actual form,
it's my baby.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
It's something I like to work on.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's something I really enjoy driving, tinkering, cleaning, detailing, whatever.
But it also brings a hell of a lot of
joy to other people when you take it for a drive.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
So it just brings nothing but happiness, right.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But when I hop in it, it's literally I mean,
you know, the memories are from when I was fifteen, literally,
so it.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Means hell of a lot. It's hard to sort of describe.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But even if you remove all those memories in its
present form, it just brings me a lot of joy,
even without all the memories as an actual car, because
it's a real physical engineering masterpiece that I just am
really proud of.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Let's go back to fifteen year old you how do
you get the cash together? What fifteen year old is
getting a hold of cars?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, so I was hustling part time washing cars and
pushing shopping trolleys around the car park of the local supermarket.
And then I think it was I think the car
cost us eleven hundred dollars, so it wasn't a massive
massive amount of money. And then I just all my
working money in those early years just went towards the car,
and it was not let's just plan an accurate picture here.
(06:44):
This was not a shining, glistening piece of work. It
was a bond on wheels when I bought it.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So, and where does the car thing come from? Was
Dad into that or your family? Where does that love
of cars and appreciation of them and the assembly and
the care and them, Where does that come from?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Here?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Well, I think in a weird way, it does come
from my surroundings. My dad loved cars, but was not
mechanically minded at all, and I think I kind of
almost rebelled against that. And he had very few tools,
if any at all. So I was always really interested
in tools. And one of the first things I think
I bought was, you know, one of those forty dollars
you know, all in one tool sets that was hideously sad,
(07:28):
and spanners would bend in your hand, and that the
screwdriver plastics would just fracture and you know, cut your
hand open the minute you talked to too much.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
His best treatment was a mechanic, and so.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I have memories of going to their house and always
wanted to talk to him about cars. Formula one in
those days was you know, at its peak of beauty
in terms of the early seventies, and then obviously, you
know as a young fellow then you know, seeing an
Australian in Alan Jones competing and winning was a huge,
huge deal.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So yeah, I think it was just a bit of.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
The environment, but also just growing up in suburban Melbourne
where there was very little public transport and everyone was
reliant on a car. And I always knew that my
connection to the world was going to be reliant on
getting a license and being able to get around. So
I think a bit out of necessity, a bit of
cultural assimilation with what was going on around me.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Where is the car now? Where do you keep it?
You obviously got it near to you. Is it a home,
You've got a garage or a lock up?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, it spends time between a couple of places. It's
never far away.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I just use it. I just drive it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you know what I pray? One day thoughn't the
traffic lights in Melbourne and I see you pull up
at the lights next to me. I hear that big
old raw and then you are in it. Do people
do a double take and to go is that dirrect
banner in that car?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
There is a bit of that that goes on.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Most definitely, most definitely The most dangerous thing for me
is driving down a freeway when a truck driver realizes
that the car is coming up next to them, and
you just.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Get that gradual kind of drift of the.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Truck, you know, because it's either going for the phone
or is trying to wind down the other window to
get a view. And that's when I'm my most my
most dangerous. Yeah, and then there is that there are
people that are oblivious. You know, there's a whole generation
that wouldn't wouldn't know what the hell that was right,
this red tued or fat thing coming down the road.
But yeah, it does put a smile on people's faces.
(09:27):
There's no doubt.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Has he got old cars, those old cars that we
grew up with that they've got a distinctive smell, haven't
They's this something about them sometimes nicotine smoke when there
we used to be ashtrays into cars. What is the
smell of that car.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
There's a little bit of burnt fuel, so it's a
little bit of kind of like carbon smell, a.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Little bit of there's always a little bit of.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
A paint smell, but mainly it's extremely mechanical and the
car has no carpet it's basically you know, it's built
like a race card, has a couple of little floor mats.
You smell everything. It's it's a common of burnt fuel,
unburnt fuel.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Just mechanical gear stuff and whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I most recently started in the garage, so I've got
an old pickup truck that runs a bit rich.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So it takes on flavors of other cars as well.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, via osmosis. And do people come for a ride
with you or do they go, Eric, please wind out
in the window or this fuel? I feel sick. Pull
the car over.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It's not too bad once it's up and running. I
actually really enjoy driving upon myself. Yeah, it's a little
on the laut side in the cabin, so I don't
have a radio in there. I don't have any electronics whatsoever.
I just enjoy driving it by myself and just hearing
and feeling everything.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, and I bet those old cars like that you're
really connected to the art of driving. Nowadays, it's so
easy to drive a car. If you've got an automatic car,
you kind of removed from actually the mechanics of being
in the moment, being fully present with what you're doing.
You're really connected to the driving of a car with
those older cars.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It's true of my favorite things with my kids, who
are now all grown up, but when they were really small,
was taking them for a drive in one of my
old cars, because you know, they grow up in this
generation where you know, climate control is a flick away,
you know, the radio station.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
If they don't like it, you.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Press a button, you sync up your phone, you do this,
you do that, And it was always fun to put
them in one of my old cars and go for
a drive where there was not a decision or an
action that was possible, and there's like sixty seconds of
kind of like fidgeting, and then whoever you take for
a drive, you see them just kind of like, honestly,
it's almost like a form of like sedation where a
(11:37):
couple of minutes later, once they realize there is not
a button to press that they have anything to do with,
they just kind of relax and it's like everything sort
of slows down. And as a driver, you're right, I mean,
you're just completely engaged. And I'm watching gages and you know,
because I'm mechanically minded, I'm making sure everything's okay. I'm
doing my pre flight check. Come like a pilot, you know,
manning all the instruments, making sure that everything's okay, like
(11:59):
a doctor and the urgency room, you know, with the
pulse and the blood pressure and temperature.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
You know you're checking nothing's flatlining.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So now we know everybody's first treasured item is his
nineteen seventy four Ford Falcon coupe, aka the Beast, that
he's had since he was fifteen. Let's find out what
is his second treasured possession.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Nick Starden would definitely be camera. I'd say that the
camera was.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Probably my kind of entry point into cinema and acting
in a lot of ways. I was really really interested
in photography as a kid, and when I look back now,
I think part of what made.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Cinema so appealing to me was I.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Was always captured by the visuals, you know, And so
photography is something that I've always always really enjoyed. My
life is an actual photographer, and it's a passion that
we share, which is really really great, and I love
watching her work and watching her workflow and all that
sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But I'm still a keen amate a.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Photographer and really really enjoy taking photos.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And holding a camera it's a really fun thing to
play with.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
When you say your camera, you obviously got a specific
what type of camera is it?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
There's probably two that I switched between. One is a
Canon five D. But then I have a little a
little Fuji which is.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Graph just so I get this, get this right. It's
a little X one hundred T and it's it's a
newer digital camera that yeah, it's a very old kind
of esthetic, and it's it's quite a small camera, so
it's not if you're using it, people aren't really intimidated
by it. And it's got to fix thirty five MILLI
(13:56):
lens that's non interchangeable, and I just really like that
this plan of not being able to change the lens
and having my choices somewhat limited. But I just everything
about that camera.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I love.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
It's very very tactile, it's non invasive, it's got a
beautiful little sensor in there. I take it with me
when I'm I'm a motorbike and I'm traveling. I just,
you know, whack it in a little bag and love
taking photos of the bush.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
It's a great little piece.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And so when you're making a movie, do you like
to pop behind your camera? Lot, just to see the
composition of it all and to get that sense of it,
because obviously the visuals are really important to some actors.
It's all about what's being captured, the magic in front
of the camera. I think you're a bit of both.
Do you want to come and see what the directors
and the ad are seeing on what we're seeing as
well how it's all lit and composed.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, if I'm not getting in their way.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I mean, obviously there are some days where there's you know,
you've got too much on as an actor, but there
are times when it's really fun to just kind of
like you've got that rapport with the director and the
cinematographer to duck behind the monitor and have a look
at what's going on and also watch the way they
work together, and watch the way the cinematographer and the
gaffer work together. It's one of my loves on a
(15:06):
film set, and I've been unbelievably lucky to work with
some of the great directors in the world, and what
comes with that is that they work with the greatest cinematographers.
So it's kind of like going to the greatest film
school on earth. If you're paying attention I mean, it
scares me to think you could sit in your chair
(15:27):
on your phone and not take.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
All this stuff in which I see people do.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, yeah, I do love watching cinematographer work and then
the process of how they compose their shots and all
that sort of stuff and the tech I'm really interested in,
you know, as an actor. You know, some people like
to do their thing and not know where the camera
is and what the camera's doing. And sometimes I find
it really helpful to know what the cinematographer and the
(15:54):
director are trying to capture because it can sort of
like it's a weird thing to say, but it can
help you in some way.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Back I'm rewatching Breaking Bad and the cinematography on that
on a TV show, and those original kind of POV
shots and even the color scoping that they do. Sometimes
it's just like an art form. It's a treat to watch,
like a Faberget egg, the way it's all been constructed
for us, and most people just it goes by them,
but it's stunning to look at.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Absolutely. I Mean, one question you get asked a lot
as an actor is you know who is that you
haven't worked with that you'd like to work with?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You know, and they always ask which actor would you
like to work with you? And I always say Roger Deakins,
and they look at me like, what there is just
such an interesting, talented man.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
What do you do with all your photos? What do
you do with all the photos? So you like taking photos?
But the worst thing about our cameras and using those
as camera phones now is they're just stay on a
hard drive. You take the photo. It's like McDonald's just gone.
It's too easy, an instant. But actual photos are a
joy to look at. Where do you keep them all?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It's a really good point. We don't print enough photos.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But I guess it's kind of like going for a
drive in a way, and that to me that the
act of finding and taking.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
The photo is part of the joy. So I think,
you know, we should feel some pressure to print.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Out photos of our kids, or you know, photos from
Christmas and so forth. I don't always feel necessary to
print out stuff of my own a because you know,
it's never as good as my wife's and I don't
want it to sit side by side with hers, But
also because I don't know where i'd hang it, or
I'd just get joy out of the process.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And then looking at them on my iPad on my laptop.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, what's your next item? Then, So we got the
car and we got the camera, which feel kind of
they feel connected to each other as again of being
in the moment, enjoying the process of what you're doing.
You're very engaged in the moment, whether it's taking photos
(18:04):
or behind a wheel. So I'm curious to know what
you're next.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Time to me is well, I'm going to run with
another c and it's the coffee machine. My wife, very
very dearly, for my fiftieth birthday, brought me a beautiful
home espresso machine, and that's something it's a little ritual
that I do two or three times a day and
(18:26):
I absolutely love it. I love my coffee. I still
enjoy having a coffee, you know, out of the house
as well. But my god, especially during the lockdowns and
the pandemic, it was just like every day I'd wake
up and just bow at the altar.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Of my my espresso machine and grinder, and I.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Was like, oh, hail, I love you, my darling for
having given me this gift. So I do love I'm
really into coffee, and I love the ritual of the
morning cooking breakfast and making that special first cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So are you into You strike me as the kind
of guy that knows where you're getting your single source
beans or the grinds that go in. I'll bet you
go into that detail. You're not just chucking any old
muck in that beautiful machine, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
No. I'm getting the same beans every time, and it's
a bean to.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Guatemal and being that works well both as a long
black for my wife and as a milk based coffee
for myself. Very smooth, very very strong, full flavored. But yes,
I'm grinding separate grinders. I'm grinding, getting my dosage right,
getting it all set up, and then it sort of it.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Looks after itself relatively every day.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I'm making little micro adjustments and then I'm pouring my shot.
So then I'm doing my milk froth and it's, you know,
like I'm going out of the house for coffee, you know,
to support the local business, but I don't really need to.
Let's be honest, you know, we're at that level now,
Christian where let's be honest. And on the dry the
(19:54):
movie that I did last year, I actually took the
machine with me to location, and I had a little
house that was rented and I was making coffee and
then sometimes in the morning, Robbed, my buddy, and director
and Stephan, our cinematographer, would.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Come to my house in the mornings and we'd have
a cup of coffee and then off we'd go.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And if my wife came to visit, she would bring
some croissants and I put them in the freezer, and
so every now and then we'd have some pastries.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And yeah, I did the same as you.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
So years ago, I suddenly, in my mid thirties, got
into coffee, never had it before in my life, and
I went like an evangelist. I brought the machine and
the grind, started to research it all. And then what
happened was it was too much temptation having it in
the house I was having for a guy who'd gone
having no caffeine to suddenly I thought would be okay
to have fifteen to twenty express those a day. And
(20:48):
then suddenly I'm not choking. Right. I went to the
doctor right because I was having these heart palpitations like
three am wide away and my chest was I went
to doctor and he said, have you change anything? And
I got this coffee machine. Right, it's amazing. I've got
these grinds. And it was like, right, okay, and how
many of you have it? I went fifteen to twenty
express she is actually serious, yes, And so my wife
(21:11):
had to stage an intervention. I came home one day
it had been sold. She was like, we've had I've
just had to take actual action. How do you limit yourself?
It'd be too tempting for me because coffee is delicious.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
No, I get a real buzz from it.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So I absolutely limited myself to three a day and
I faced them out. My wife's only on one a day,
so no, just a bit of dis them. But also
it doesn't sit with me. I've been then out four
or five a day road and yes, it's not good
for me either.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
A different Eric comes out.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, little tick, little ticky, little little unsettled, a little
a little manic, a little mad.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, two little or three? Yeah, three days just the cut.
But I love it. It's just my favorite meal on the.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Day's breakfast, Okay, So I love having my coffee with
the wreckfast and also Melbourne winter. I don't want to
have to go and during the pandemic, mate, when the
lockdown was that it's the irony was when the lockdown
was that its strictest, was when everywhere was the most crowded.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
That was my interpretation.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So I thought, this is so we're all apart, but
this is like there's fifty people queuing up for a
coffee now, right because the restrictions are so form so
to not have to go and you know, light up
out in the rain or in the cold was the
real Oh my god, it was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And so what is it about the machine? What do
it mean? It's not just a taste of the coffee,
because you could get someone else to make that. It's
the fact that you're again you're actively involved in making something,
being part of the whole process. That's really important to you,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Oh? I love it.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I absolutely love it, and I love you know, checking
that everything's okay, and I'll occasionally weigh the weigh the
dose and keep it within range and adjust the grind
and so forth. And it's one of those things that
seems quite difficult at first, and then you know, you
put the time in and it actually then becomes quite easy.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And I love making coffee for other people. You know,
people come over.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And they're always a bit surprised when you put it
in front of them and it doesn't look like as cafe,
and it's like.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Wow, that actually looks like a couple. That's a that's
a serious cup of coffee. Mate, what's going on there?
You know whether to be offended by the reaction or not.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Do you know what? I've got another idea. You need
to open up your own garage where your men cars.
But they also got a great coffee whilst you're mending
their car. Call it Eric's. It's a franchise.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
No, no, no, too much ight work?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Then too much No, you've now we've crossed the line
with We've gone into it. Now it's a business now right, Okay? Yeah,
before I felt like i'd cracked the key to the matrix,
and now I'm working for the man. There's a fine.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Line there is. Everyone's got their line. Yeah, exactly, So
you're right. I think the most enjoyable middle of the
day is breakfast. There's something magical about the mornings, isn't there?
But it's not everyone feels that way. Why is it?
Is it the start? The potential? Is it the new?
Why do you like the mornings and the breakfast so
much that ritual.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I think by the time I get to dinner time,
it's almost like I'm a bit over food.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I mean, I do love my food, and my wife's
an amazing cook. I'm so lucky.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
But if I had to fend for myself, it'd be
a fair bit of average meals at nighttime.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
But breakfast. I'm not someone that can skip breakfast. I'm
not one of these intermittent fasters. I'd be one.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I'd be an intermittent rager if I was trying to
try to fast.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And it's possibly the only thing.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
That I dislike about going to work on a film
is that your breakfast becomes this kind of hussle, busy
thing that you do with a lot of other people,
and you don't you know. It's the only It's literally
the only thing I don't love about working on a
film is the breakfast, because it is my favorite meal
of the day.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
It's generally something I do on my own.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Do you know what I'd love to go for riding
your car, but only after you've slammed five shots of express.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
It had a big had a big meal, had a
big meal.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I want to be in the car with twitchy Eric,
like bullet.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
He's intermittent, fasted all the way to eight am.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
That's your next movie. Just film you tearing it up
around like mad Max, mad Eric, just around Melbourne after
five coffees, five espressos.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't have my license for long. I
don't think.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Listen, Eric, this has been brilliant, really really interesting. I
love the openness. I think you must see there's a
connection with all your items, all the things that you chose.
There's kind of to me, there's kind of a through line.
You really like being actively involved in what you're doing.
You respect being part of a process.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, maybe maybe you're right.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I hadn't thought of it that way, but I do
like doing things with my hands, and it's something I've
always weirdly felt a bit uncomfortable or guilty about being
being an actor because I wanted to be a mechanic.
I want to leave school when I was sixteen and
get my apprenticeship. And my dad, who was a migrant
who worked his way up at a company that he
(26:07):
was working for as a logistics manager, really I think
was kind of scared of having a son who was
getting a good education who was then going to end
up on the tools. And now I feel the exactly
opposite way, Like if my kids wanted to do a trade,
I'd be all over it.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I'd be yeah, you do that.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Trade, like absolutely, But back then it was kind of
like the opposite. So I've always felt a bit of
guilt for my white collar crime as an actor, but
so I've probably tried to compensate for in other areas.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
That's probably true.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
I get the fee of Eric. If you never did
another movie again, you'd actually be okay. Some actors I've interviewed,
I'm like, if they ever lost that acting gig, I
don't think they'd be okay. I actually think you'd be
you'd be fine.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I probably would be pretty okay.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Don't put that on your show. Real you know, if
you're trying to get a job on Tarantino's next movie, go,
do you know what I can take or leave this.
I've got my coffee machine in a nice car.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So yeah, I've always I've always wished, you know, when
you see a movie and they always feel the pressure
to have the kind of award credentials of the actors.
You know, it's like Academy Award nominee Academy Award winner
Meryl Street. I've always wished that there could be one
when my face pops up and says, just really likes
(27:29):
working on cars. I don't know, but it just seems
like crazy to me every time that there's this fascination.
So you're right, I love my love, love my job,
but it's not where I try and get my life's
purpose or my kind of to be airy fairy about it,
my happiness from if I can great, but you know,
(27:52):
it's definitely other areas that I'm getting my cut full.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Do you know what I think your IMDb credits you
should just list all the cars you've worked on over
the years. Take down the movies, take down the TV shows,
just have the cars up there. Please do that as
soon as we're done with this edit it okay.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
It's a bad idea, a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
You've seen him in Here's Ford. All right, Eric, I'll
let you go. Thank you very much for sharing those
items and stories with me. I hope you've enjoyed it.
I've loved this chat, and I hope in the new
year can come and have a ride in the car
after you've slammed five coffees.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
We've got to put it on the back at this mate.
I'm up for us.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Let's do that, all right, Eric, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Thanks Frisian. Great to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
What a great guest. Thank you very much, Eric Banner,
I love to chat. It's clearly a man who finds
joy wherever he can each day, in the process, in
the doing and the making of things, and being in
the moment. Listen to him. Speaker is a great mind.
We don't always have to be productive.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
There's so much self help talk these days, but how
much you can get out of your day it's just exhausting.
This cheeringing of doing more, achieving more, all these productivity happs.
We don't always have to achieve. I think it's important
to remind ourselves just to enjoy the process, just being
not having to do something. So thank you very much.
This is the second series of the Stuff of Legends.
(29:12):
There's loads of great ones if you stumbled across this
episode with Eric Banner. We've got some great guests coming
up on this season but season one. Ricky Gervais, a
great chat with Celis Barber, Hamish Blake. There's also Matthew McConaughey.
Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Until next
time and you join us again on the stuff of Legends.
I'm Christian O'Connell, and I know you got something from
(29:32):
today's chat with Eric Banner.
We are encouraged. Aren't we not to be materialistic? We
shouldn't place too much importance on objects and trinkets. But
the things we have, big, small, whatever they are, no
matter how expensive or and expensive or cheap, they are
our belongings, the things in our lives. They do actually
have meaning in them. Will they make our days easier,
they make us feel good, or they unlock a memory.
(00:24):
We've chosen to have these things and own this stuff,
and we don't always take the time to stop and
appreciate why. I'm Christian O'Connell, and this is the stuff
of legends. I've asked some of the world's most interesting
people to choose three treasured items from their lives and
tell us the stories behind them. Stories you've never heard before,
(00:45):
stories they might never have shared before today. What a treat.
An Australian actor who began his career as a stand
up comedian, who featured on one of Australia's most hilarious
comedy shows, Full Frontal. He then starred in arguably Australia's
most iconic f on The Castle. Since then, he's done
so many big Hollywood films. I even watched one of
(01:05):
them again Spielberg's amazing Munich. We all know about Daniel
Craig and that, but Eric Banner is awesome in that
and his big breakout movie Black Hawk Down and and
nerving everyone in his portrayal of Chopper Reed.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
My name's Eric Banner. I would describe myself as a
part time actor.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
All right, what do you do with the other? If
you're part time actor, what do you do with the
rest of your time?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
The rest of the time, I try and find work, sells,
not to.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Become an out of work actor.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
And I also spend, let's be honest, eighty percent of
my life in the garage, tinkering on stuff, hiding from
the world.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well that sounds great. It sounds like you've got the
best of both worlds there. You've got a little bit
of Hollywood and showbiz, and they're more balants of what
you actually like doing, your passion in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's absolutely necessary because the dirty secret, if you're not
one of those actors that just jumps from job to
job to job, you spend most of your time twidly
thumbs and if you don't have a hobby, you become
one of those people who literally goes a bit crazy
from the job. So that's the way I've always kind
of approached it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So you tell me then, because you're right there on
a movie set, then you'll have a lot of time
in your trailer. What are you not working on a
carburetta or an axle or I've got this image now
that you know your trailer is like a garage workshop.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
That's actually do you know what, Yeah, the big stars
asked for you know, a trailer gym.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Gym. Yeah, he just like a workshop.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
He wants to strip down a wide block forward va
and rebuild it through the course of production. You know what,
I just something there. I'd probably smell a little bit, you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Know, especially if I get a bit of gear oil
on the hands. That's a good idea. It's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Just take my next project to the set and just
like have you know, just a little garage off the
side of my trailer and just keep that restoration project
going during lunch or whenever. You know, Hey, Eric, yeah
you're not in this scene. Fine, I'll be on the
I'll be on the hot rod. You know, it's Christian.
I think I think you have just given you an idea,
(03:13):
a kind of genius idea, and that's a curist.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Jobs. If your agent hears this, there now turn this
two life Eric's story right, you'll be making a movie.
Then you'll go when they go cut, you walk through
a door in and then they go there be making
a TV show. Then Eric fixes your car and then
suddenly put the ovals on. You only be doing two jobs,
which you don't want.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
That.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's another good idea because I'm already picturing the wardrobe
person going.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Absolutely spare right.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
But I would just simply zip up a onesie. Okay, yeah,
nip on an overall. And also what makes the ad
nervous is that you're going to take too long to
get ready. Simpleness, wipe the hands, jump out of the overalls,
and I'm still whatever character I was when I walked
off the set is lurking under the overalls. Put scanner down,
take the overalls off, back to whek you go.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
No part of the operation skips a beat. It's fluid.
What's either side of that one door? You know, there's
the car mechanic, grease monkey Eric, and then there's movie
Star where you're James Bonderwaver.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
This is the most useful interview I think I've ever done.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
This is going to be a breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So Eric, tell us what is the first thing, the
first item you've chosen.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The first item would be the car that I refer
to as the Beast, which is my nineteen seventy four
Ford XB Falcon Coop, which I've owned quite tragically since
I was fifteen approaching sixteen. I'm now fifty two years
of age, so that car and I've been together for
(04:55):
literally my entire adult life.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So it's one of your longest relationships is with that car?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It is? It is?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, it's I've got a few mates that backdate the car,
but only just.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
But it is.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It's I think the longest physical possession you could possibly have.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
But I don't have many relics from my childhood.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think I've got a ruler somewhere from like grade five,
a wooden ruler. Why someone would keep it, wouldn't ruler
from grade five? I have no idea. But anyway, Yes,
the car, the Beast would be my number one item.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
What does it remind you of? What does it mean
to you?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, it's kind of everything, because in its actual form,
it's my baby.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
It's something I like to work on.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's something I really enjoy driving, tinkering, cleaning, detailing, whatever.
But it also brings a hell of a lot of
joy to other people when you take it for a drive.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
So it just brings nothing but happiness, right.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But when I hop in it, it's literally I mean,
you know, the memories are from when I was fifteen, literally,
so it.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Means hell of a lot. It's hard to sort of describe.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But even if you remove all those memories in its
present form, it just brings me a lot of joy,
even without all the memories as an actual car, because
it's a real physical engineering masterpiece that I just am
really proud of.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Let's go back to fifteen year old you how do
you get the cash together? What fifteen year old is
getting a hold of cars?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, so I was hustling part time washing cars and
pushing shopping trolleys around the car park of the local supermarket.
And then I think it was I think the car
cost us eleven hundred dollars, so it wasn't a massive
massive amount of money. And then I just all my
working money in those early years just went towards the car,
and it was not let's just plan an accurate picture here.
(06:44):
This was not a shining, glistening piece of work. It
was a bond on wheels when I bought it.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So, and where does the car thing come from? Was
Dad into that or your family? Where does that love
of cars and appreciation of them and the assembly and
the care and them, Where does that come from?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Here?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Well, I think in a weird way, it does come
from my surroundings. My dad loved cars, but was not
mechanically minded at all, and I think I kind of
almost rebelled against that. And he had very few tools,
if any at all. So I was always really interested
in tools. And one of the first things I think
I bought was, you know, one of those forty dollars
you know, all in one tool sets that was hideously sad,
(07:28):
and spanners would bend in your hand, and that the
screwdriver plastics would just fracture and you know, cut your
hand open the minute you talked to too much.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
His best treatment was a mechanic, and so.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I have memories of going to their house and always
wanted to talk to him about cars. Formula one in
those days was you know, at its peak of beauty
in terms of the early seventies, and then obviously, you
know as a young fellow then you know, seeing an
Australian in Alan Jones competing and winning was a huge,
huge deal.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So yeah, I think it was just a bit of.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
The environment, but also just growing up in suburban Melbourne
where there was very little public transport and everyone was
reliant on a car. And I always knew that my
connection to the world was going to be reliant on
getting a license and being able to get around. So
I think a bit out of necessity, a bit of
cultural assimilation with what was going on around me.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Where is the car now? Where do you keep it?
You obviously got it near to you. Is it a home,
You've got a garage or a lock up?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, it spends time between a couple of places. It's
never far away.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I just use it. I just drive it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you know what I pray? One day thoughn't the
traffic lights in Melbourne and I see you pull up
at the lights next to me. I hear that big
old raw and then you are in it. Do people
do a double take and to go is that dirrect
banner in that car?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
There is a bit of that that goes on.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Most definitely, most definitely The most dangerous thing for me
is driving down a freeway when a truck driver realizes
that the car is coming up next to them, and
you just.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Get that gradual kind of drift of the.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Truck, you know, because it's either going for the phone
or is trying to wind down the other window to
get a view. And that's when I'm my most my
most dangerous. Yeah, and then there is that there are
people that are oblivious. You know, there's a whole generation
that wouldn't wouldn't know what the hell that was right,
this red tued or fat thing coming down the road.
But yeah, it does put a smile on people's faces.
(09:27):
There's no doubt.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Has he got old cars, those old cars that we
grew up with that they've got a distinctive smell, haven't
They's this something about them sometimes nicotine smoke when there
we used to be ashtrays into cars. What is the
smell of that car.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
There's a little bit of burnt fuel, so it's a
little bit of kind of like carbon smell, a.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Little bit of there's always a little bit of.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
A paint smell, but mainly it's extremely mechanical and the
car has no carpet it's basically you know, it's built
like a race card, has a couple of little floor mats.
You smell everything. It's it's a common of burnt fuel,
unburnt fuel.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Just mechanical gear stuff and whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I most recently started in the garage, so I've got
an old pickup truck that runs a bit rich.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So it takes on flavors of other cars as well.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, via osmosis. And do people come for a ride
with you or do they go, Eric, please wind out
in the window or this fuel? I feel sick. Pull
the car over.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It's not too bad once it's up and running. I
actually really enjoy driving upon myself. Yeah, it's a little
on the laut side in the cabin, so I don't
have a radio in there. I don't have any electronics whatsoever.
I just enjoy driving it by myself and just hearing
and feeling everything.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, and I bet those old cars like that you're
really connected to the art of driving. Nowadays, it's so
easy to drive a car. If you've got an automatic car,
you kind of removed from actually the mechanics of being
in the moment, being fully present with what you're doing.
You're really connected to the driving of a car with
those older cars.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It's true of my favorite things with my kids, who
are now all grown up, but when they were really small,
was taking them for a drive in one of my
old cars, because you know, they grow up in this
generation where you know, climate control is a flick away,
you know, the radio station.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
If they don't like it, you.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Press a button, you sync up your phone, you do this,
you do that, And it was always fun to put
them in one of my old cars and go for
a drive where there was not a decision or an
action that was possible, and there's like sixty seconds of
kind of like fidgeting, and then whoever you take for
a drive, you see them just kind of like, honestly,
it's almost like a form of like sedation where a
(11:37):
couple of minutes later, once they realize there is not
a button to press that they have anything to do with,
they just kind of relax and it's like everything sort
of slows down. And as a driver, you're right, I mean,
you're just completely engaged. And I'm watching gages and you know,
because I'm mechanically minded, I'm making sure everything's okay. I'm
doing my pre flight check. Come like a pilot, you know,
manning all the instruments, making sure that everything's okay, like
(11:59):
a doctor and the urgency room, you know, with the
pulse and the blood pressure and temperature.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
You know you're checking nothing's flatlining.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So now we know everybody's first treasured item is his
nineteen seventy four Ford Falcon coupe, aka the Beast, that
he's had since he was fifteen. Let's find out what
is his second treasured possession.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Nick Starden would definitely be camera. I'd say that the
camera was.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Probably my kind of entry point into cinema and acting
in a lot of ways. I was really really interested
in photography as a kid, and when I look back now,
I think part of what made.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Cinema so appealing to me was I.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Was always captured by the visuals, you know, And so
photography is something that I've always always really enjoyed. My
life is an actual photographer, and it's a passion that
we share, which is really really great, and I love
watching her work and watching her workflow and all that
sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But I'm still a keen amate a.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Photographer and really really enjoy taking photos.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And holding a camera it's a really fun thing to
play with.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
When you say your camera, you obviously got a specific
what type of camera is it?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
There's probably two that I switched between. One is a
Canon five D. But then I have a little a
little Fuji which is.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Graph just so I get this, get this right. It's
a little X one hundred T and it's it's a
newer digital camera that yeah, it's a very old kind
of esthetic, and it's it's quite a small camera, so
it's not if you're using it, people aren't really intimidated
by it. And it's got to fix thirty five MILLI
(13:56):
lens that's non interchangeable, and I just really like that
this plan of not being able to change the lens
and having my choices somewhat limited. But I just everything
about that camera.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I love.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
It's very very tactile, it's non invasive, it's got a
beautiful little sensor in there. I take it with me
when I'm I'm a motorbike and I'm traveling. I just,
you know, whack it in a little bag and love
taking photos of the bush.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
It's a great little piece.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And so when you're making a movie, do you like
to pop behind your camera? Lot, just to see the
composition of it all and to get that sense of it,
because obviously the visuals are really important to some actors.
It's all about what's being captured, the magic in front
of the camera. I think you're a bit of both.
Do you want to come and see what the directors
and the ad are seeing on what we're seeing as
well how it's all lit and composed.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, if I'm not getting in their way.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I mean, obviously there are some days where there's you know,
you've got too much on as an actor, but there
are times when it's really fun to just kind of
like you've got that rapport with the director and the
cinematographer to duck behind the monitor and have a look
at what's going on and also watch the way they
work together, and watch the way the cinematographer and the
gaffer work together. It's one of my loves on a
(15:06):
film set, and I've been unbelievably lucky to work with
some of the great directors in the world, and what
comes with that is that they work with the greatest cinematographers.
So it's kind of like going to the greatest film
school on earth. If you're paying attention I mean, it
scares me to think you could sit in your chair
(15:27):
on your phone and not take.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
All this stuff in which I see people do.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, yeah, I do love watching cinematographer work and then
the process of how they compose their shots and all
that sort of stuff and the tech I'm really interested in,
you know, as an actor. You know, some people like
to do their thing and not know where the camera
is and what the camera's doing. And sometimes I find
it really helpful to know what the cinematographer and the
(15:54):
director are trying to capture because it can sort of
like it's a weird thing to say, but it can
help you in some way.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Back I'm rewatching Breaking Bad and the cinematography on that
on a TV show, and those original kind of POV
shots and even the color scoping that they do. Sometimes
it's just like an art form. It's a treat to watch,
like a Faberget egg, the way it's all been constructed
for us, and most people just it goes by them,
but it's stunning to look at.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Absolutely. I Mean, one question you get asked a lot
as an actor is you know who is that you
haven't worked with that you'd like to work with?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You know, and they always ask which actor would you
like to work with you? And I always say Roger Deakins,
and they look at me like, what there is just
such an interesting, talented man.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
What do you do with all your photos? What do
you do with all the photos? So you like taking photos?
But the worst thing about our cameras and using those
as camera phones now is they're just stay on a
hard drive. You take the photo. It's like McDonald's just gone.
It's too easy, an instant. But actual photos are a
joy to look at. Where do you keep them all?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It's a really good point. We don't print enough photos.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But I guess it's kind of like going for a
drive in a way, and that to me that the
act of finding and taking.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
The photo is part of the joy. So I think,
you know, we should feel some pressure to print.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Out photos of our kids, or you know, photos from
Christmas and so forth. I don't always feel necessary to
print out stuff of my own a because you know,
it's never as good as my wife's and I don't
want it to sit side by side with hers, But
also because I don't know where i'd hang it, or
I'd just get joy out of the process.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And then looking at them on my iPad on my laptop.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, what's your next item? Then, So we got the
car and we got the camera, which feel kind of
they feel connected to each other as again of being
in the moment, enjoying the process of what you're doing.
You're very engaged in the moment, whether it's taking photos
(18:04):
or behind a wheel. So I'm curious to know what
you're next.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Time to me is well, I'm going to run with
another c and it's the coffee machine. My wife, very
very dearly, for my fiftieth birthday, brought me a beautiful
home espresso machine, and that's something it's a little ritual
that I do two or three times a day and
(18:26):
I absolutely love it. I love my coffee. I still
enjoy having a coffee, you know, out of the house
as well. But my god, especially during the lockdowns and
the pandemic, it was just like every day I'd wake
up and just bow at the altar.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Of my my espresso machine and grinder, and I.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Was like, oh, hail, I love you, my darling for
having given me this gift. So I do love I'm
really into coffee, and I love the ritual of the
morning cooking breakfast and making that special first cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So are you into You strike me as the kind
of guy that knows where you're getting your single source
beans or the grinds that go in. I'll bet you
go into that detail. You're not just chucking any old
muck in that beautiful machine, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
No. I'm getting the same beans every time, and it's
a bean to.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Guatemal and being that works well both as a long
black for my wife and as a milk based coffee
for myself. Very smooth, very very strong, full flavored. But yes,
I'm grinding separate grinders. I'm grinding, getting my dosage right,
getting it all set up, and then it sort of it.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Looks after itself relatively every day.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I'm making little micro adjustments and then I'm pouring my shot.
So then I'm doing my milk froth and it's, you know,
like I'm going out of the house for coffee, you know,
to support the local business, but I don't really need to.
Let's be honest, you know, we're at that level now,
Christian where let's be honest. And on the dry the
(19:54):
movie that I did last year, I actually took the
machine with me to location, and I had a little
house that was rented and I was making coffee and
then sometimes in the morning, Robbed, my buddy, and director
and Stephan, our cinematographer, would.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Come to my house in the mornings and we'd have
a cup of coffee and then off we'd go.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And if my wife came to visit, she would bring
some croissants and I put them in the freezer, and
so every now and then we'd have some pastries.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And yeah, I did the same as you.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
So years ago, I suddenly, in my mid thirties, got
into coffee, never had it before in my life, and
I went like an evangelist. I brought the machine and
the grind, started to research it all. And then what
happened was it was too much temptation having it in
the house I was having for a guy who'd gone
having no caffeine to suddenly I thought would be okay
to have fifteen to twenty express those a day. And
(20:48):
then suddenly I'm not choking. Right. I went to the
doctor right because I was having these heart palpitations like
three am wide away and my chest was I went
to doctor and he said, have you change anything? And
I got this coffee machine. Right, it's amazing. I've got
these grinds. And it was like, right, okay, and how
many of you have it? I went fifteen to twenty
express she is actually serious, yes, And so my wife
(21:11):
had to stage an intervention. I came home one day
it had been sold. She was like, we've had I've
just had to take actual action. How do you limit yourself?
It'd be too tempting for me because coffee is delicious.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
No, I get a real buzz from it.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So I absolutely limited myself to three a day and
I faced them out. My wife's only on one a day,
so no, just a bit of dis them. But also
it doesn't sit with me. I've been then out four
or five a day road and yes, it's not good
for me either.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
A different Eric comes out.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, little tick, little ticky, little little unsettled, a little
a little manic, a little mad.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, two little or three? Yeah, three days just the cut.
But I love it. It's just my favorite meal on the.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Day's breakfast, Okay, So I love having my coffee with
the wreckfast and also Melbourne winter. I don't want to
have to go and during the pandemic, mate, when the
lockdown was that it's the irony was when the lockdown
was that its strictest, was when everywhere was the most crowded.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
That was my interpretation.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So I thought, this is so we're all apart, but
this is like there's fifty people queuing up for a
coffee now, right because the restrictions are so form so
to not have to go and you know, light up
out in the rain or in the cold was the
real Oh my god, it was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And so what is it about the machine? What do
it mean? It's not just a taste of the coffee,
because you could get someone else to make that. It's
the fact that you're again you're actively involved in making something,
being part of the whole process. That's really important to you,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Oh? I love it.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I absolutely love it, and I love you know, checking
that everything's okay, and I'll occasionally weigh the weigh the
dose and keep it within range and adjust the grind
and so forth. And it's one of those things that
seems quite difficult at first, and then you know, you
put the time in and it actually then becomes quite easy.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And I love making coffee for other people. You know,
people come over.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And they're always a bit surprised when you put it
in front of them and it doesn't look like as cafe,
and it's like.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Wow, that actually looks like a couple. That's a that's
a serious cup of coffee. Mate, what's going on there?
You know whether to be offended by the reaction or not.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Do you know what? I've got another idea. You need
to open up your own garage where your men cars.
But they also got a great coffee whilst you're mending
their car. Call it Eric's. It's a franchise.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
No, no, no, too much ight work?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Then too much No, you've now we've crossed the line
with We've gone into it. Now it's a business now right, Okay? Yeah,
before I felt like i'd cracked the key to the matrix,
and now I'm working for the man. There's a fine.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Line there is. Everyone's got their line. Yeah, exactly, So
you're right. I think the most enjoyable middle of the
day is breakfast. There's something magical about the mornings, isn't there?
But it's not everyone feels that way. Why is it?
Is it the start? The potential? Is it the new?
Why do you like the mornings and the breakfast so
much that ritual.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I think by the time I get to dinner time,
it's almost like I'm a bit over food.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I mean, I do love my food, and my wife's
an amazing cook. I'm so lucky.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
But if I had to fend for myself, it'd be
a fair bit of average meals at nighttime.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
But breakfast. I'm not someone that can skip breakfast. I'm
not one of these intermittent fasters. I'd be one.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I'd be an intermittent rager if I was trying to
try to fast.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And it's possibly the only thing.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
That I dislike about going to work on a film
is that your breakfast becomes this kind of hussle, busy
thing that you do with a lot of other people,
and you don't you know. It's the only It's literally
the only thing I don't love about working on a
film is the breakfast, because it is my favorite meal
of the day.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
It's generally something I do on my own.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Do you know what I'd love to go for riding
your car, but only after you've slammed five shots of express.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
It had a big had a big meal, had a
big meal.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I want to be in the car with twitchy Eric,
like bullet.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
He's intermittent, fasted all the way to eight am.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
That's your next movie. Just film you tearing it up
around like mad Max, mad Eric, just around Melbourne after
five coffees, five espressos.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't have my license for long. I
don't think.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Listen, Eric, this has been brilliant, really really interesting. I
love the openness. I think you must see there's a
connection with all your items, all the things that you chose.
There's kind of to me, there's kind of a through line.
You really like being actively involved in what you're doing.
You respect being part of a process.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, maybe maybe you're right.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I hadn't thought of it that way, but I do
like doing things with my hands, and it's something I've
always weirdly felt a bit uncomfortable or guilty about being
being an actor because I wanted to be a mechanic.
I want to leave school when I was sixteen and
get my apprenticeship. And my dad, who was a migrant
who worked his way up at a company that he
(26:07):
was working for as a logistics manager, really I think
was kind of scared of having a son who was
getting a good education who was then going to end
up on the tools. And now I feel the exactly
opposite way, Like if my kids wanted to do a trade,
I'd be all over it.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I'd be yeah, you do that.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Trade, like absolutely, But back then it was kind of
like the opposite. So I've always felt a bit of
guilt for my white collar crime as an actor, but
so I've probably tried to compensate for in other areas.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
That's probably true.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
I get the fee of Eric. If you never did
another movie again, you'd actually be okay. Some actors I've interviewed,
I'm like, if they ever lost that acting gig, I
don't think they'd be okay. I actually think you'd be
you'd be fine.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I probably would be pretty okay.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Don't put that on your show. Real you know, if
you're trying to get a job on Tarantino's next movie, go,
do you know what I can take or leave this.
I've got my coffee machine in a nice car.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So yeah, I've always I've always wished, you know, when
you see a movie and they always feel the pressure
to have the kind of award credentials of the actors.
You know, it's like Academy Award nominee Academy Award winner
Meryl Street. I've always wished that there could be one
when my face pops up and says, just really likes
(27:29):
working on cars. I don't know, but it just seems
like crazy to me every time that there's this fascination.
So you're right, I love my love, love my job,
but it's not where I try and get my life's
purpose or my kind of to be airy fairy about it,
my happiness from if I can great, but you know,
(27:52):
it's definitely other areas that I'm getting my cut full.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Do you know what I think your IMDb credits you
should just list all the cars you've worked on over
the years. Take down the movies, take down the TV shows,
just have the cars up there. Please do that as
soon as we're done with this edit it okay.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
It's a bad idea, a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
You've seen him in Here's Ford. All right, Eric, I'll
let you go. Thank you very much for sharing those
items and stories with me. I hope you've enjoyed it.
I've loved this chat, and I hope in the new
year can come and have a ride in the car
after you've slammed five coffees.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
We've got to put it on the back at this mate.
I'm up for us.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Let's do that, all right, Eric, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Thanks Frisian. Great to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
What a great guest. Thank you very much, Eric Banner,
I love to chat. It's clearly a man who finds
joy wherever he can each day, in the process, in
the doing and the making of things, and being in
the moment. Listen to him. Speaker is a great mind.
We don't always have to be productive.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
There's so much self help talk these days, but how
much you can get out of your day it's just exhausting.
This cheeringing of doing more, achieving more, all these productivity happs.
We don't always have to achieve. I think it's important
to remind ourselves just to enjoy the process, just being
not having to do something. So thank you very much.
This is the second series of the Stuff of Legends.
(29:12):
There's loads of great ones if you stumbled across this
episode with Eric Banner. We've got some great guests coming
up on this season but season one. Ricky Gervais, a
great chat with Celis Barber, Hamish Blake. There's also Matthew McConaughey.
Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Until next
time and you join us again on the stuff of Legends.
I'm Christian O'Connell, and I know you got something from
(29:32):
today's chat with Eric Banner.
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