Australia falls for the movie | Review

When a who’s who of Australian actors faced the international media in Sydney on Tuesday, all eyes were not on the Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, or beefcake Hugh Jackman, but an unknown 13-year-old Aboriginal boy named Brandon Walters who steals the show in the new Baz Luhrmann movie Australia.

Brandon received a spontaneous round of applause upon being introduced to the usually cynical press who had been wowed by his debut acting performance at a preview screening of Australia the night before.

The teenager, who formed a close bond with Kidman and Luhrmann on the set of the film, has even been mooted for an Oscar for his portrayal of Nullah, a half-caste Aboriginal boy who befriends an English aristocrat who forms a motherly bond with him.

Kidman said she first met Brandon at Luhrmann’s Sydney house, which doubles as the headquarters of his production company. They were both so shy around each other, “I thought gosh, how is this going to work?” Kidman recalled on Tuesday.

But something clicked and Brandon was cast in the film, a sweeping epic about an English aristocrat who tries to drive cattle across the Northern Territory in the 1940s. It has romance, comedy and even the drama of the indigenous stolen generations set against the backdrop of the Australian Outback.

Brandon, who was discovered by Luhrmann’s casting people while at a swimming pool with his father in their hometown of Broome in far north west of Western Australia, has been described as a natural talent.

Oprah Winfrey gushed about him last week and even Luhrmann cannot stop raving about his discovery, also casting Brandon in the Australian tourism campaign associated with the movie, and declaring recently: "Our next leading man is about four-foot high, (with) long, sort of gold hair, and is an Aboriginal boy".

On Tuesday Brandon appeared shy, but didn’t seem to mind being in the spotlight. He talked about his friends at school, how they think it’s cool he’s a movie star now, and what happened when Luhrmann – the fast talking, Oscar-nominated director of Moulin Rouge – came to visit him and his family in the Outback.

“Baz came over to Broome and we went out to where my grandfather’s country is and I took him out fishing,” Brandon said, eyes sparkling grinning from ear to ear.

“And [then] Baz went out with my dad to a little place called Roadhouse and they went out hunting and they got a turkey and Baz took a picture of it, and they came back and we had a big cook up.”

Kidman said she grew extremely close to Brandon on set, which was evident on Tuesday when she instinctively mothered him at the media call, holding his hand under the table as the photographers clamoured to take his picture.

"I just got to watch Brandon grow into an extraordinary actor … and I feel very protective of him,” she said.

Kidman, who has been in the international spotlight since she was a teenager, and knows the highs and lows of the Hollywood hype after being married to Tom Cruise for most of her 20s, said she is astutely aware of what could happen next to Brandon if he gets caught up in the whirlwind of publicity surrounding Australia which will premiere in America next week, followed by London.

“I feel very protective and I’ve actually said that to a lot of people … that if the film does really well he’s going to need a lot of protection,” she said.

Luhrmann said he was also aware of the ramifications of plucking a young teenager from obscurity and throwing him into the international spotlight, and kept that in mind when he was casting the role of Nullah.

“When we went to make the choice of who should play this [role] and we saw so many young fellas, part of that process was knowing what a young actor like this would be going to go through,” Luhrmann said.

“Because we know what this journey can mean, and part of that was also an assessment not only of Brandon’s abilities and his potentials but of the family around him. And you know, [Brandon’s parents] Janie and Paul, one day they’re in Broome and the next their little boy is all over the world… part of that deciding factor was that it was such a terrific strong family unit.”

“The family were a team in making this happen for Brandon, a genuine team.”

Stalwart Aboriginal actor David Gulpillil, who got his first break as an 18-year-old in Walkabout in 1971 and stars as Brandon’s grandfather in Australia, has also hailed the talents of the teenager.

Gulpillil, who helped ‘uncle’ Brandon during the filming of Australia, declared his protégé “a new star”.

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