Interview: Brenton Thwaites on ‘Ghosts of War’

written by Jasper XVIII.VII

Ghosts of War is out now on digital platforms! ComingSoon.net got to chat with Brenton to discuss the movie and his role.

In looking back on how he came to be a part of the film, the 30-year-old Australian star credits writer/director Eric Bress as the biggest reason for his desire to star in the film, looking back fondly at his 2004 directorial debut as a source of reference for why he trusted Bress with this story.
“He just created such a cool movie in The Butterfly Effect that I thought, ‘Wow this is going to be littered with nuanced elements, hints, to the keen eye’ and I read it and I thought these characters are so-developed on page one,” Thwaites recalled. “Thrown in, this is such a realistic world in the World War II drama aspect of the movie, I just was in right from the get-go, I wanted to know where these men would go. I love the idea that we start the movie in such a way that carries such a weight with these guys and it allows us to really understand each character and kind of where they are and emotionally where they’re sitting and how they feel about the war and that was it. The rest of the film, the horror aspect and the multi-genreness, was great, that’s something that I’ve never done before. But really it was the first few pages of opening up on this tired group of men who have been fighting in World War II for months.”
Thwaites described the bridge Bress built between the horror and World War II drama genres as “effortless,” praising the fact that in the first act of the film there are “no real massive horror hints” of a “terrible, supernatural force” set to appear later on in the film.
“We think that it’s gonna be an art piece and we assume the setup is that these guys are in Nazi territory, we know what’s coming, we’ve seen this movie before, we know from all the weapons we have and from talking that we have the capability of lighting up this house and having a great gun show,” Thwaites described. “But he kind of pulls that rug out from under us and turns the movie in a whole other direction quite effortlessly and that was one of the things that I thought was 1) really unique, but 2) was a great opportunity for these characters to only develop further and to sink further into their tiredness and their stress and kind of mental fog.”
Tapping into the exhaustion of his character and how it would spill over into the “level of power” he would have as a lieutenant was “something that I was questioning” and proved to be one of the biggest creative challenges for the Titans star.
“I obviously didn’t want to be yelling at them to drop and give me 20, but I obviously didn’t want to carry the air of someone who couldn’t control them or lead them, but it was finding that middle ground of being compassionate, of being believable as a leader and also creating that tone to where the boys look to me for guidance and direction,” Thwaites explained. “When I don’t know what to do, that’s kind of the last straw, if I don’t know what to do or where to go, that’s the end of the power and there’s confusion and little bit more anxiety of what’s going to happen because their leader doesn’t know. Working with Eric, he was leaning more towards the compassionate, more vulnerable and tired line and so was I, so that kind of worked.”
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July 18 Ghosts of War Interview

Interviews: Brenton Thwaites Talks ‘Titans’ Series Premiere & More

written by Jasper XVI.X

Brenton did several interviews to promote Titans over the past few days. I have collected some below wherein he discusses more about Robin, the infamous ‘F— Batman’ line, and much more! Also check out screencaps in our gallery! Think of it as a new section from now on.

HollywoodLife Portrait Studio

written by Jasper XII.X

Brenton stopped by the HollywoodLife portrait studio during the 2018 New York Comic-Con for an interview to discuss Titans. Check it out below, and the gorgeous portraits in our gallery!

October 12 Interview Photoshoot Video

Brenton Thwaites for Wonderland Magazine

written by Jasper XXXI.V

The fifth serving from the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise – which landed on screens last Thursday – invaded the area, which by sheer chance is the hometown of its newest star, Brenton Thwaites. “I’ve kind of been moving to America for the last 10 years,” the baby-faced 27-year-old actor laughs, “but every time I try, I get a job back home.” Today, the Gold Coast native has flown almost 10,000 miles to set, so I hold back my moan-ologue detailing my two-tubes-and-a-bus commute that I scripted on the way.

As we sink into fat armchairs in a corner of the studio, Thwaites tells me of his formative years Down Under. “I was very ambitious,” he explains, “I wanted to do darker stuff and I wanted to portray characters like I’d seen in Candy and Good Will Hunting, flawed characters that eventually overcome [their problems].” Now playing Henry in Salazar’s Revenge, a British soldier and son of the cursed William Turner (Orlando Bloom), Thwaites’ CV amounts to a sizeable list of challenging roles. In Home & Away (which seems to serve as a secondary drama school for Aussie actors) he played an abusive boyfriend and thuggish gang member, while he transformed into a “gay heroin addict who was struggling to come out to his father” for naval drama, Sea Patrol.

Just before those debut roles, Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearlhad its first airing. “To me, it was just another movie coming out,” Thwaites shrugs. In all fairness, he was just 14. “Looking back, it was a feat for its time because it had state of the art CGI, a great story, it was funny, adventurous and action packed and we all just fell in love with Jack Sparrow. I just remember thinking, ‘I haven’t seen anything like this.’”

“It was weird,” he says of his first scenes with the inimitable Johnny Depp. “It still is weird. I don’t think that weirdness will ever go away. I mean, usually after you do a week’s worth of work, it just becomes work. On Pirates, I never lost that sense of excitement.” Shared scenes were aplenty, as the plot intertwines the lives of Henry Turner and Jack Sparrow, with Henry hunting for the captain to enlist him on a mission to free his father. On their escapades the pair meet the empowered and educated astronomer Carina, played by Thwaites’ fellow newcomer, Kaya Scodelario. “She’s a great actress,” he gushes of his co-star. “I saw her work on Skins so I was a super fan and it’s definitely a different side of her that we’re seeing in Pirates.”

Salazar’s Revenge recruited not only new leads, but a fresh directorial duo in Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. Their inclusion, in part, encouraged Thwaites to audition for the film. “I was excited that these two new directors had a new vision, a passion and excitement for the franchise,” he enthuses. “They have sharp ideas. When they say, ‘we’re going to go big,’ they’ve already got ideas about how to make it bigger.” The most extravagant scenes? “Aboard the ships when we’re doing fight scenes,” Thwaites replies eagerly, the childhood dreams of those brought up on Pirates turned reality. “They include most of the cast at one time, they have a sense of adventure, the supernatural and spectacular about them.”

With Salazar’s Revenge projected to make a cool $1 billion worldwide and Thwaites having scooped CinemaCon’s 2017 Breakthrough Performer award, (the supposed) final chapter of the Pirates of the Caribbean tale is set to end the series on the same exhilarating high it began.

May 31 Interview Photoshoot Video

Vanity Fair Interview: “Brenton on His Performance in The Giver”

written by Tiffany XV.VIII

As male ingénue parts go, few rank higher on the scale of infamy than the lead in The Blue Lagoon, the role that brought the lithe, beach-permed Christopher Atkins a depressing sort of immortality and, in 2012’s remake, launched the film career of 25-year-old Brenton Thwaites, an easygoing former soap actor from Australia who was last seen (as Prince Phillip) with Angelina Jolie in Disney’s $200 millionMaleficent. Fairy-tale-prince looks and the ability to carry off a loincloth scene could be characteristics sufficient to rocket Thwaites to stardom, but the Cairns, Queensland, native has serious parts in his sights, and one under his belt: he has the lead in Phillip Noyce’s screen adaptation (out this month) of Lois Lowry’s futuristic novel The Giver. Thwaites plays Jonas, whose life of Utopian conformity is rocked when he is endowed with all the memories of the world. Thwaites’s co-star, Jeff Bridges, struggled to get the project made for nearly two decades, and the younger man says that Bridges was “very supportive and very kind, considering it was my first big-league role.” Thwaites describes director Noyce as “kind, but with tough love, which I needed…. I have been very lucky with the films I have been dealt.” He wouldn’t mind mirroring the career of a fellow Aussie. “My favorite actor would have to be Hugh Jackman,” he notes. “I love how he can do X-Men and then come back and do a heavy dramatic part like the one in Prisoners.”

August 15 Interview Photoshoot