Suitcased Memorabilia: Manu Bennett
After the hugely successful season of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ in 1995 at Rippon Lea, our new producers Foster Gracie wanted to produce a further two seasons of the show in two locations at the same time — Melbourne again (both at Rippon Lea and the Botanic Gardens) and Sydney (at Vaucluse House).
Mark Gerber played Mellors in Sydney and I had to find and cast another Mellors for Melbourne. It was suggested that I should look at a young NZ actor from the soapie called ‘Paradise Beach’ (1993). Made to sit through one or two episodes was torturous, however, the actor Manu Bennett had, in my opinion (but nobody else’s) much potential. He possessed a streak of inscrutable countenance that gave little away. He was fearless. Manu got to play Mellors — and extremely well too.
On a plane from Sydney once, after a public display of romance with his then girlfriend in the airport, he told me he desired to make some action films — well, after much hard work and persistence — he did.
Not only the ‘Spartacus’ series but also ‘Lantana’, ‘The Violent Earth’, ‘The Hobbit’, ’30 Days of Night’ and many more. We are still in touch occasionally, and my respect for him and his work has endured. A class act.
