The making of Kerry Packer
When it came to reprising the role of iconic media baron Kerry Packer, less is more according to Rob Carlton who spoke to Graham Brown about fat suits, using your bald spot and trying not to look like Krusty the Clown.
Carlton, who returns to the role in ABC's Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, joins Rachel Griffiths and Mandy McElhinney in its sequel The Magazine Wars. The story has jumped to the 1980s and 1990s at the height of the circulation stoush between New Idea editor Dulcie Boling (Griffith) and rival Woman's Day's Nene King (McElhinney).
"In the first one [Birth of Cleo], Kerry's star was aligned to Ita's star. He was a young man unproven; still was under the shadow of his father; and hadn't had a success he could point at. There was lot more fear and a lot more at stake," Carlton explained.
"In Magazine Wars we are already past the cricket years, which Lachy Hume did so beautifully, where Kerry is proving something with his idea. With Magazine Wars, it is now much smaller part of a much larger empire. So the stakes for Kerry aren't as high and he can play more than the puppet master watching two combatants fight it out."
Carlton said taking the role initially was the "most terrifying prospect of his career" but with the vision of director Dana ??? and a great crew such as hair, make-up and costumer design, he had complete trust.
"Each department has the power of vetoe to collapse the whole thing if they get it wrong. So everything is critical, in that one false note can take down the rest of the character," he said.
"If there's anything that can take an audience lose that suspension of disbelief, than you are in trouble."
He said there was a conscious decision on Birth of Cleo "not to use much make-up".
"We added sideburns which framed my face and a little bit of mottling on the skin and that was pretty much it," he said.
"We added dye to the hair and there was bit of trouble because I was another job at the time [ ]
Make-up artist Wizzy Molineaux said there was a bit of a battle as Rob divided his time between Melbourne and Sydney where he was shooting the Ben film with
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"So it had to be a rinse. We were shooting in summer and I was wearing a fat suit and shooting without air-conditioning. I was sweating so the rinse was dripping out and staining the shirt," Carlton said.
He said getting the balance right between the look and performance was imperitive.
"While we were using a fat suit, I still put on a bit of weight for both [about eight kilos]. It was a diet of hamburgers and milkshakes but it was largely for my neck. I didn't want to go from a fat suit to a pinhead," he explained.
Carlton added that the best additive was a line Packer stated in the print media inquiry which he used to "centre himself as Kerry" before shooting.
"Asked why he was there, Parker answered 'My name is Kerry Francise ???? Packer and I'll appear …. reluctantly'. It showed a man of strength under siege and a bit of f... k you."
Carlton said adding to the illusion was costume.
"We worked with costume designer, Nina Edwards, where we had high-collared shirts so if you tightened them then you can lift your neck out and drop it over [accentuating any fat]," he said.
Edwards, who worked on both shows as well as Rake, Australia and The Great Gatsby, said Rob had Packer "down pat".
"We even got spectacles from Packer's original optometrist and when he put those half-rim glasses on with all the hair and costume, he looked exactly like Kerry Packer," she said adding that building a look is very much a collaborative process.
"Some actors just stand there and you create the look. But it's better when they're involved, they've done the work and confident enough to work together and come up with something," she said.
She said working with the same director also allows for you to get on with your job. "Usually you have a lot to do in a short amout of time, so they just have to trust you," she said."It's head down, bum up."
Carlton said costume, make-up, voice was all important with getting over the first hurdle with an audience
"There's always a jarring moment that if they know the actor or if it's a real-life character, but then if the performance is calm and the script is compelling, then an audience with divest themselves of who they thought the character was and believe in your presentation of that character.
"That's where Asher's ??? 's performance of Ita was so astonishing.
"For Magazine Wars, we thought 'I'm not going to put on 50kg'. We'll use the same fat suit and a little bit more mottling because Kerry has been tthrough a lot more health issues. We thinned out my hair using my bald spot as a road map, there was also a lot more pouting of lips and Kerry led with his chin."
"Interestlingly, Kerry had quite big ears so we started playing with my ears. So we had these things made that brought my ears out. Not so much that I looked like a wing nut but it was more just bringing the ear lobe out.
"When the hair and make-up was done, I looked like Kerry, but without it when I was walking around home, I looked like Krusty the Clown. My looks have never been my asset so I didn't feel like I was protecting gold."
All three projects come from Southern Star and are produced by John Edwards. Shooting of Magazine Wars ecently finished and the ABC will screen in 2013.
