Latest / Cinema Yūgen / From Grit to Lava: Roger Ward’s Wild Stories and a New Australian Disaster Epic

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From Grit to Lava: Roger Ward’s Wild Stories and a New Australian Disaster Epic · Cinema Yūgen

• 0:00
  G'day. That's right. It's that time again. Time for... CINEMA! YOOGEEEAAAAAAA!
• 1:08
  Holy moly, welcome back Cinema Yugen, raw, loud and unfiltered,
• 1:13
  Roger Ward, the Ozploitation legend.
• 1:17
  From Adelaide to the frontlines of Australian cinema, Ward is the real deal.
• 1:22
  Actor, writer, stuntman, producer, over a hundred roles and zero compromises.
• 1:27
  He didn't follow the industry, he helped build it.
• 1:31
  You've seen him in Mad Max, Stone, the man from Hong Kong,
• 1:34
  Turkey shoot, Quigley Down Under, his career carved
• 1:38
  in grit and gasoline now he's
• 1:41
  part of something else ready to erupt that's right cradle of
• 1:45
  flame by travis bain a full-scale australian
• 1:48
  disaster thriller in the spirit of irwin allen's towering disaster classics
• 1:54
  not a ship not a skyscraper a volcano a small north queensland town warnings
• 1:59
  ignored pressure building then it hits lava fire chaos an unforgettable line-up of locals,
• 2:05
  men's jet, battlers, feuding stars, and a razor-sharp old science teacher in
• 2:11
  a nursing home, rebel who refuses to go quietly,
• 2:14
  thrown into a fight against nature itself.
• 2:17
  This isn't just spectacle, it's heart, humour, and heat.
• 2:21
  Blending practical effects and cutting-edge CGI cradle of flame is set to deliver
• 2:25
  Australia's first true disaster epic, and it's coming in hot.
• 2:29
  In this episode, war stories from the golden age of exploitation.
• 2:34
  A lifetime on screen and a film ready to explode roger ward is here he's also
• 2:39
  written a book you down the links in the description but now welcome the osploitation
• 2:44
  legend to cinema you can here's.
• 2:54
  Seem inspiring i love that intro baby thank you oh thank you thank you thank you mate,
• 3:00
  The least we can do. I'm actually, I can happily say I've had a couple of very
• 3:05
  good conversations with an old friend of yours, Hugh Keysburn, before he passed.
• 3:10
  Oh, right. We had some ripper conversations, you know, asking him all the stories about Dennis Hopper.
• 3:19
  And he didn't tell me any stories from the man from Hong Kong.
• 3:25
  So maybe you can fill in the blanks there. Yeah, yeah.
• 3:29
  There was a few there. What do you do for an encore?
• 3:35
  Yeah. No, because it's a pretty wild old time back then, Ausploitation. Yes.
• 3:41
  Yeah, it was. It was a great time, you know, exciting time, fun and games. That was the trouble.
• 3:47
  Far too much fun and games. We didn't really get on the bloody job of hands,
• 3:52
  you know. Didn't really feel like work, did it?
• 3:54
  No, no. I look back now and I say to myself, god i
• 3:58
  wish i'd taken a bit more seriously than that you know but
• 4:00
  i mean they still turned out okay but i think they
• 4:03
  could have been a bit better if we behaved ourselves a bit after after
• 4:07
  the after rap you know for the day yeah anyway i was i was interviewing philip
• 4:12
  mora once and he said uh we were talking about frank thring and he said that
• 4:20
  frank thring was full of amazing stories and you were in the movie with Frank briefly.
• 4:26
  Yeah. I just wondered if he told you any of these stories,
• 4:29
  And Philip didn't have time to tell me any of these amazing stories that Frank
• 4:33
  was full of. Did he tell you any amazing stories?
• 4:38
  Well, I was a part of a couple of them, actually. But I knew some stories.
• 4:43
  I knew some stories. I worked with him on the man from Hong Kong as well.
• 4:47
  And then I think which one went first, I forget.
• 4:53
  But, you know, he's a lovely guy. I loved him. Really nice guy.
• 4:57
  I remember you in another interview talking about how you thought that Mel Gibson
• 5:02
  was kind of disrespectful when he was on Mad Max because you were a veteran at that point.
• 5:08
  It must have been imposing for you to be then in a scene with the man who was
• 5:13
  like, I mean, let's think of it.
• 5:15
  He was in Ben-Hur, El-Said.
• 5:18
  I mean, come on, listen to some of these movies. Yeah, yeah.
• 5:22
  I mean, was that intimidating? Like, hey, shit, you're in Ben-Hur. man.
• 5:28
  No, it was never intimidating. I was never intimidated by another actor,
• 5:32
  no matter how good or bad they were.
• 5:35
  I always treated them with respect, but I did my job and I was never intimidated.
• 5:41
  And at times with experienced actors, I knew my lines backwards. That was my dedication.
• 5:47
  I always set my set prepared and 20, 30 minutes before set, I was ready to go.
• 5:51
  You weren't sloppy like Marlon Brando.
• 5:54
  No, that's right. No, I didn't do fristish so I can take snow.
• 5:57
  Yeah, you didn't need it written on a baby's nappy in front of you.
• 6:02
  No, no. Although I'm starting to go that way now.
• 6:07
  Now, when I audition or anything like that for the Yanks, and I do it at home,
• 6:13
  at home shooting myself, I have a bag of learning the lines.
• 6:17
  I print them up on the wall various places. You can't talk.
• 6:20
  But I wouldn't do it normally in a film. No, I wouldn't do that.
• 6:25
  When no one's seeing me they don't know,
• 6:30
  no it's a,
• 6:32
  It was a grand, it must have been a wild, wild time, like hearing,
• 6:38
  I've spoken to John Seal too.
• 6:41
  Oh, yes. In the past. And he had, yeah, he said, mate, I could tell you,
• 6:46
  he said, sit down with me over a couple of VBs.
• 6:49
  I could tell you some stories about filmmaking in the 70s and what you can and
• 6:55
  can't do now that you could get away with then.
• 6:59
  You know what I mean? Well, that's right.
• 7:02
  I've actually just had a bit of an altercation with Brian Trenchard-Smith.
• 7:06
  You know, Brian, he directed Man from Hong Kong and all that.
• 7:10
  He lives in the States now.
• 7:11
  And I've written a memoir, which I was commissioned to write three years ago,
• 7:19
  and I've written it, plus a couple of sequels to it.
• 7:22
  But the publishing company went broke, and they are still going to publish it,
• 7:29
  but it's been delayed, you know. Right, yeah.
• 7:31
  But I passed my stuff by Trenchard because I'm a pretty truthful and I'm also
• 7:38
  very astute on the set and I know what's going on.
• 7:41
  But if I'm writing a memoir, which is my thoughts of what happened at that time
• 7:45
  and the treatment of actors, and I said it to Brian and said,
• 7:50
  look, I'll run this by you, baby, and just tell me what you think. Is it okay by you?
• 7:55
  He came back pretty heavily, you know, and he said, I didn't say that.
• 7:59
  I didn't treat my actors like that. and I treated them with respect.
• 8:02
  He denied everything I said. But an extra fact, he did. He did.
• 8:07
  He was a young man, 23 or 24.
• 8:09
  And this is not a man from Hong Kong. This is before it was a young.
• 8:14
  A documentary called The Sunk Men. But Brian was in the first effort and a big
• 8:19
  effort in a big show, and the first time I met him, and he was arrogant,
• 8:23
  and he didn't believe he was arrogant.
• 8:25
  He wrote back to me and said, you know, virtually said, cut it.
• 8:29
  I don't want that to go out about me because I didn't do that.
• 8:32
  I didn't, but he did, and I feel a bit angry about it, but I respect his wishes again.
• 8:39
  Yes, it's a pity I've got to cut it, but I don't want to hurt our relationship,
• 8:43
  you know, our friendship no no no no because i mean
• 8:46
  i i can't imagine i mean you
• 8:49
  know better than i do but i mean i i can't imagine
• 8:53
  brian like losing his cool no no
• 8:56
  it's more sarcastic than anything like right
• 8:59
  right you know for god's sake roger take
• 9:03
  over the drop you know take over driving of the car that bloody
• 9:05
  stuntman's got no idea right yeah i love
• 9:08
  yeah in in preparation for
• 9:11
  our chat i was watching the man from hong kong last night and i
• 9:14
  i love to listen to it with brian's commentary and
• 9:18
  his commentary is fantastic it's somewhere between verna
• 9:22
  herzog and and someone commentating the
• 9:25
  cricket that's right you know but it's funny it's so he's so witty that when
• 9:34
  he drops like little bits like that scene at the end where jimmy and and Did
• 9:40
  Lazenby finally have a fight?
• 9:43
  Uh, and, and old mate gets the machine gun and Jimmy grabs him with the gun
• 9:50
  and he proceeds to blow everything off all of the shelves around the room. Right.
• 9:55
  There's silence in the commentary and then Trenchard goes, yes.
• 9:59
  And I like to blow things up.
• 10:02
  Yeah. Yeah. He's very dry. Yeah. He's very good. Yeah.
• 10:07
  I love him. I love his, uh, I love his commentary and I love his work.
• 10:11
  Yeah. like even though there's a bit too with a with a
• 10:14
  with an actress had a string of pearls and he goes i hope
• 10:17
  she will forgive me for that awful string of pearls you
• 10:20
  know it's um it's yeah it's
• 10:23
  just like you know it's almost like out of
• 10:26
  all the stuff on the screen that's what bothered him like oh
• 10:29
  that string of pearls was just idiots you know
• 10:32
  like yeah yeah yeah yeah tremendous
• 10:35
  he's done some great work and uh oh yeah there's a
• 10:39
  film of his i wish they would bring out or give a better release to
• 10:42
  you did you ever see uh well you probably have
• 10:45
  seen it siege at fireblaze gloria the one with wings hauser who's now yeah yes
• 10:50
  yes yeah great work yeah yeah they've never given that i mean it was on dvd
• 10:54
  like a ways back but you know like they're released they're doing sort of nice
• 10:58
  releases of all his other stuff but that's one that's right yeah you know,
• 11:04
  i imagine something to do with rights or something,
• 11:07
  Well, that was my point to him when I wrote what I did. I said he was disrespected
• 11:12
  by the industry, which he was.
• 11:14
  Because, I mean, the Turkish shoot lasted three days or four days here. And they threw it out.
• 11:20
  They went to London and it broke every box office record in the world over there.
• 11:25
  He had to get out of Australia to be respected. And that's what I said. Yeah, exactly.
• 11:30
  He said, no, no, I was respected. And he didn't want to tread on toes.
• 11:34
  But of the industry that was in. and it's too late to be nice to them now.
• 11:40
  I mean, it's all gone. They didn't feel it with respect, I felt. And that was my opinion.
• 11:45
  That's all I'm getting at. That film that you just mentioned,
• 11:48
  Stockholm and the Harbour, that was a fabulous film.
• 11:51
  His work is great. He's a great worker, but he just wasn't a bit like me in a way.
• 11:56
  People just accepted your work and said, okay, that's Warty doing his thing
• 12:00
  or Trent Smith doing his thing.
• 12:04
  They don't give you any acclaim because for doing what you do,
• 12:09
  they think I was just Warty doing his thing, you know.
• 12:13
  It's a bit of a pity, really, a bit of a shame, yeah. Yeah, I mean,
• 12:17
  it's funny how, I mean, people today,
• 12:23
  I mean, especially in the digital film culture, both on YouTube and,
• 12:30
  you know, the democratization of film criticism such as it is.
• 12:35
  And it's it's interesting to see now the youngest generation discovering the films now now the.
• 12:42
  I mean the 70s and 80s to them is probably what you
• 12:45
  know us watching buster keaton or um
• 12:48
  exactly or charlie chaplin was when we
• 12:51
  were young that's right you know so yeah
• 12:55
  i mean just i mean not to
• 12:58
  disparage anyone's work but i mean just now the the
• 13:01
  looking at the you know there's this as you
• 13:05
  say when you get older you know you know how it is roger you know there's
• 13:08
  there's there's more time behind us than in front of
• 13:10
  us you know yeah and the further
• 13:13
  you wade into the sea the deeper the ocean becomes um
• 13:17
  yeah you know right right and
• 13:20
  so it's it's interesting now to see them pick
• 13:23
  up films and also the history
• 13:26
  of films at that time and seeing their
• 13:29
  marvel at oh my goodness i can't
• 13:33
  believe that they got away with you know
• 13:35
  either something in the film or the way the film was
• 13:38
  made you know yeah because now you have these
• 13:41
  now we have these cards before old movies you
• 13:44
  see them now that says you know that this movie
• 13:47
  reflects attitudes and whatever that
• 13:50
  were culturally acceptable in another time and so forth
• 13:54
  and you know i sound like someone from like the australian government that reads
• 13:59
  something to you after yeah and and and don't forget that by not signing this.
• 14:06
  Form you get to receive and so on and so forth to the governor of whatever, da, da, da.
• 14:12
  Yeah. And it's, and it's weird because they used to be just films, but now they're,
• 14:19
  that horrible word content and content needs to be labeled and it needs to be
• 14:26
  shelved in a particular area.
• 14:28
  And so, you know, it's, it's weird. I thought we were getting away from,
• 14:32
  I thought, I thought we'd almost solved that whole thing, that culture of,
• 14:36
  of labels and now everything seems to be more labeled than ever.
• 14:40
  Yes, that's right. Almost like Adam West's Batcave. If everyone paid attention
• 14:45
  to that show, everything in the Batcave was labeled.
• 14:48
  Everything. Okay. From the waste bin. I'm not shitting you.
• 14:52
  If you watch those old episodes, if you look in the Batcave,
• 14:56
  everything's labeled from the Batacelerator to the trash can to the,
• 15:02
  you know, pure drinking water, filtered drinking water. It's all labeled.
• 15:07
  Good guy. Yeah. And unfortunately I think our society has gone a little bit that way too.
• 15:12
  We seem obsessed with, no, I'm this and I'm that and you're this and you're
• 15:16
  him and that's there and that's this and that's canceled and that's not, you know?
• 15:21
  I mean, it's, um, yeah, I thought we were getting past all that and somewhere
• 15:26
  in between there and then we sort of like, no, no, no, it's gotta be this.
• 15:31
  It has to be, you know, that that's not culturally.
• 15:35
  It used to be politically correctness. Now it's about cultural correctness or
• 15:40
  what's culturally inappropriate or whatever, you know?
• 15:45
  And I mean, I never got it.
• 15:48
  Like I would have loved to have sat down and just had a conversation with the
• 15:52
  late great David Stratton about why he hated turkey shoots so much.
• 15:59
  Like even at the time he reviewed it, he hated it. And when they did that really
• 16:03
  good documentary about him before he passed.
• 16:06
  Yeah. He still hated it. There was a section devoted to how much he hated Turkey Shoot, right?
• 16:14
  Just that one. But the rest of the section was about him and all the Australian
• 16:18
  films that he loved and his family history.
• 16:21
  And there's this one, like, nearly 10-minute whole section devoted.
• 16:25
  He's sitting at the drop bin in his car, and he's just like,
• 16:29
  oh, I've got nothing else to say about Turkey Shoot.
• 16:32
  I don't know why. with
• 16:36
  a passion like you know it offended
• 16:39
  him almost like romper stomper like you remember
• 16:42
  how he famously like oh my
• 16:44
  glass of wine at him at the festival because he
• 16:48
  said oh he wanted to he said that apparently he you know you talk about things
• 16:53
  you're just talking about things that he said that he he actually said but he
• 16:59
  now enough times going by no i didn't say that now but yeah But he did say it then, right?
• 17:06
  He did say at the time, apparently he did say at the time he thought the film
• 17:10
  Rompus Lompus should be burnt.
• 17:14
  And, and the dude like attacked him. I forget that his name's going to disappear
• 17:18
  right now, but the filmmaker attacked him and threw a glass of wine at him at the festival.
• 17:26
  It's in the doc. Look, it's in the, like the guy remembers it clear as day,
• 17:30
  but David's like, no, I did. I wouldn't have said that.
• 17:34
  You know what I mean I wouldn't have said that much as turkey shoot offends
• 17:41
  me I wouldn't have said that you know,
• 17:44
  But, yeah, it's really crazy. But, yeah, but, I mean, look, we can't go back.
• 17:51
  We can only look back and wonder and marvel about what we got away with.
• 17:55
  But we should, Roger, devote a little time, the links, ladies and gentlemen,
• 17:59
  in the description to get down and support Travis Bain's Kickstarter.
• 18:07
  Of Flame. You've worked with Travis in the past.
• 18:11
  This is exciting. He's really good with, I like people who smash concepts together, rather unexpectedly.
• 18:23
  He loves to do that. Do you like those movies yourself, personally?
• 18:27
  Yes, yes. Yeah. Genre matching ones?
• 18:32
  What was that one? I said, do you like genre-matched movies? Oh, yes. Yes, I do, yeah.
• 18:40
  I don't mind. I mean, I'm not a great movie gal, really, for an app.
• 18:45
  I used to, but I select my movies.
• 18:51
  Like in the old days, I went to movies like every Saturday for store,
• 18:55
  you know, and I was there, and I'd see all my mates there.
• 18:59
  We'd all be there for the acting. but in later years I've lost a bit of interest
• 19:05
  in it mainly because of the young models and young actresses you know models
• 19:11
  and young footballers and so on becoming actors and well thinking they're actors
• 19:16
  and it's just the industry turning to it,
• 19:19
  after all these years of studying and all of a sudden these guys.
• 19:24
  I'm not talking about Gibson Gibson did turn
• 19:27
  out for a while i
• 19:30
  thought that he was just another good looking head but the kid
• 19:33
  proved his work he's gone on to prove it but the
• 19:36
  rest of them so i just lost a bit of interest in it when there's no
• 19:39
  respect left anymore for people who work their way like you
• 19:42
  know yeah no i look and i totally agree with you i i i think that there is a
• 19:47
  culture of this like oh because he's because he or she is ridiculously good-looking
• 19:53
  and has 50 billion followers on Instagram or whichever. That's right. Exactly.
• 19:59
  Uh, all of a sudden they're an actor now and a director now and,
• 20:04
  and, and have a fast food chain now and, uh, and a color and a,
• 20:10
  don't forget aftershave.
• 20:12
  I don't think you're a celebrity without one.
• 20:15
  Uh, yeah, it's no, it's crazy. No, it's really like, it's just as a reward him
• 20:21
  because he's, you know, what happens when he stops being beautiful?
• 20:26
  You know, like, like Terrence Stamp was famous for telling stories about,
• 20:31
  like he said, I was the, you know, the most beautiful man in the world for,
• 20:34
  you know, up until, up until the seventies.
• 20:38
  Right. And he never had to audition everything because he was like the most
• 20:41
  beautiful man in the world.
• 20:42
  And then the seventies come and he has to, he's older now and he's lost that
• 20:47
  most beautiful world thing.
• 20:49
  Now he's older Terrence Stamp and now he's got to audition and he panics and he flees to India.
• 20:56
  As they did and he gets to
• 20:59
  india he just gets to india and he's ready to be
• 21:02
  you know discoveries you know whatever and and
• 21:05
  he gets the phone call to come back oh we want you to come and
• 21:08
  audition for this movie superman you know oh yeah
• 21:12
  and then superman happens and then terrence stamp
• 21:15
  comes back and you know everything's fine and
• 21:19
  yeah gee geez you know i tell you what the great robbery
• 21:22
  like they give awards away like they're giving away popcorn
• 21:25
  at the cinema uh yes yes i
• 21:28
  was really surprised that he never got any sort of nod
• 21:31
  or recognition for priscilla queen of the desert i thought fabulous yeah erin
• 21:37
  stamp i thought was absolutely incredible in that movie yes he was he was fabulous
• 21:42
  when the camera pans around and you go oh my god it's general zod in drag and you just go, holy shit.
• 21:50
  And then he starts and he didn't change his voice really or do anything, but no, no, no.
• 21:57
  But he was like, you completely bought him in that role.
• 22:01
  And, you know, and him and Bill Hunter, who, you know, end up going off together and, you know, yeah.
• 22:11
  Yeah. Who's been playing hide the sausages as Guy Pearce says in the movie?
• 22:18
  Yeah, Guy was good too. Very good in that. Very good. Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:23
  But, yeah, the cradle of flame. So we're looking for people to come and support this movie.
• 22:30
  So obviously you and Travis have sat down and said, you know, what's in store, Roger?
• 22:35
  What do you think our audience, what can you tell that won't get you in trouble
• 22:42
  that would entice our audience to come over and want to be part?
• 22:46
  Because you can actually almost, you can be a producer on this if you want to, folks.
• 22:50
  And get all kinds of great perks over at the website. Roger,
• 22:54
  what can you tell us about, you know, what's in store, what sort of character
• 23:00
  your character is or something?
• 23:03
  Well, I love my character. And so he spoke about it a long time ago,
• 23:07
  maybe two years ago, when he discussed this character, and I love him.
• 23:11
  He's a real estate agent and a flamboyant old bastard and a loud mouth and he
• 23:17
  drives a Lamborghini and a...
• 23:19
  Get some of the sets and all. As they do.
• 23:22
  Yeah. And I like that character, that type of character. I like that.
• 23:27
  A bit alien to what I played. The last time I worked with him,
• 23:30
  I played an old pensioner.
• 23:32
  I'm still an old pensioner, but I'll be playing as a real estate agent. Right.
• 23:38
  You're a pensioner with a bit more pizzazz.
• 23:42
  Yeah, that's right. Oh, a lot more, yeah. Yeah. And a Lamborghini. I could...
• 23:49
  Well, I suggested a trophy wife.
• 23:53
  Why not both? Why not both?
• 23:57
  But he said, I promised a certain actress that role was the role of her wife.
• 24:03
  Right. Unless you fool's out, I won't be able to do anything about her. Right.
• 24:07
  So that was my interpretation. So that's a potentially,
• 24:11
  there's a potential surprise there, listeners, if you get over and support the Kickstarter,
• 24:16
  get down to the links in the description there's a
• 24:19
  potential surprise they said the film gets made roger it could be a it could
• 24:23
  be a potential special guest that is your yeah plays your your trophy wife as
• 24:29
  it were that's right that's right that's so there you go is it there's a there's
• 24:34
  a there's like a perk well it's
• 24:35
  not really a perk but it's it's like a a thing like if if they support.
• 24:41
  This could eventuate this, you know, the, the more people support these films,
• 24:45
  the more wonderful things that they can add to a movie.
• 24:49
  Because as we were talking a little bit before we were recording,
• 24:52
  Roger, you were talking about, you know, back in the day, it was like,
• 24:56
  you know, some of these films that you were making were considered small,
• 25:00
  but were still made for a couple of million dollars, as opposed to what some
• 25:04
  independents make these films for under 50 grand sometimes.
• 25:08
  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Different.
• 25:11
  Different low-budget worlds as
• 25:14
  opposed to low-budget then as opposed to low-budget now, wouldn't you say?
• 25:18
  Yes. Yeah, well, in those days we were playing pretty healthily for the basis of the day.
• 25:26
  I mean, whatever the basic wage was, we were paid. You could live off it.
• 25:31
  Oh, yeah, we were paid well. And I had American producers, directors come out
• 25:36
  here that I worked with on their previous films, and they'll just ring me up
• 25:40
  and say, Hey, Roger, we've got another film for you.
• 25:43
  What do you want? Play the copper. He's got 25 days. You can play the heavy.
• 25:48
  He's got 30 days. I'll take the heavy.
• 25:51
  I'll take the 30 days. You get 30 days paid.
• 25:54
  I didn't even read the script. I just said, yeah, I'll do the heavy.
• 25:57
  And that's the way it was. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:01
  We just work from one film to the other. No problems. But nowadays, it's totally changed.
• 26:07
  You've got to fill out a form, whether you're a bi, aboriginal,
• 26:11
  or lesbian, or a bloody homosexual, or what are you, he, her, and all that. Yeah.
• 26:18
  Not I'm an actor.
• 26:21
  Yeah, that's right. Exactly. That's exactly what I say. That's it.
• 26:27
  I get the yeah yeah forget forget gender age
• 26:30
  race religion i'm an actor that's right i'm
• 26:33
  here to i'm here to audition for the part of whoever you
• 26:36
  know like yeah i mean i don't do they still audition that way or i don't know
• 26:42
  it's been a while since i was what they do pretty well now since the pandemic
• 26:47
  or whatever we're auditioning at home now they found out this is great you know
• 26:52
  Now, this is great. The casting directors didn't have to bother.
• 26:55
  They just send an invitation to you, do your audition at home,
• 26:59
  and then if we added 1,000 or so, they've auditioned because they can afford
• 27:04
  to audition 1,000 people then
• 27:06
  because they don't come into the office like they were in the old days.
• 27:09
  Because they can just record your little bit and then send it to them.
• 27:14
  Yeah, that's right. Send it to the user.
• 27:16
  Yeah, and you're sort of vetted by the casting director and then the rest of
• 27:21
  them, the ones that they passed, go on to the production company.
• 27:24
  Then the production company's got through them.
• 27:26
  But I mean, I'll show you how random it is.
• 27:29
  I was asked to do an audition for a commercial of some form and I did one in
• 27:36
  the backyard, you know, and I found out that the producer, director,
• 27:41
  was driving back from Melbourne with his girlfriend and his girlfriend was flicking
• 27:46
  through the pile of the actors that he had on pile and as he's looking at it, as he's driving,
• 27:54
  he's saying, hold it, go back, go back. I think that was Roger Ward.
• 27:57
  He said, I'll put him in the fifth.
• 28:03
  He just happened to see me. And that's how I got the job. He told me afterwards,
• 28:08
  you know. That's fantastic. Unbelievable.
• 28:11
  So he's driving, also looking at the screen, and she's flicking it.
• 28:16
  She's going through the options. and he's just watching out of the corner of
• 28:21
  one eye and watching the road with the other eye. Exactly. Exactly. And that's happened.
• 28:25
  That's almost, Roger, that's almost better than Bruce Willis getting discovered
• 28:29
  behind the bar, mate. That's.
• 28:32
  I think you've got a career ahead of you, son. You can do good.
• 28:39
  You'll do well. I think you've got legs as an actor, mate.
• 28:45
  That's right. Legs all the way to your ass, yeah.
• 28:50
  Forget where you'll never work again, son. The stars are yours.
• 28:56
  Yeah. That's fantastic. it
• 28:59
  would have been funnier if it had also like created
• 29:03
  an accident at some point and that would have
• 29:05
  yeah that's yeah the beauty of
• 29:08
  that story the beauty of stories like that roger is that can go
• 29:11
  around like chinese whispers and by the end like it created
• 29:14
  a five car pile up but he didn't care he
• 29:18
  jumped in the ambulance said quick me take me to roger ward's
• 29:21
  house i need to cast him in my movie you know
• 29:24
  that's right and they can just keep adding more
• 29:27
  and more crap to the story till eventually becomes its
• 29:30
  own movie you know that's how
• 29:34
  it happens today i often yeah looking at looking at the man from hong kong last
• 29:40
  night i was thinking about that scene from quentin tarantino's Once Upon a Time
• 29:46
  in Hollywood with Bruce Lee and Brad Pitt.
• 29:51
  And I thought if they made a movie about the making of the mayor from Hong Kong,
• 29:56
  it'd be interesting to have a scene like that between a dude playing Jimmy Wang
• 30:00
  and a dude playing Grant Page.
• 30:03
  Yeah. They have, like, a real, like, literal disagreement and Grant Page makes
• 30:09
  the shit out of him, you know, like, just like old mate comes at him with Kung
• 30:15
  Fu and he just like grabs him and throws him.
• 30:18
  Yeah, that's right. Because I can imagine Grant Page would be similar because
• 30:23
  he's a man who's taught his body or at least convinced his body to absorb great
• 30:28
  and ridiculous amounts of pain, albeit for short periods of time.
• 30:32
  Um, so I could imagine if he even opened up on him, like it wouldn't be too
• 30:38
  much, like Grant's probably seen worse and been hit by harder objects.
• 30:43
  Oh yeah. You know what I mean?
• 30:46
  He was like those test dummies that they put on those cars and drive them into
• 30:50
  walls and shit. You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 30:53
  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the, the unsinkable bloke, unfortunately.
• 30:59
  Yeah. You know? Yeah. Really. it's
• 31:02
  sad i mean that's probably the saddest thing about watching these
• 31:05
  movies is rogy is is that you know little by
• 31:08
  little the anniversaries keep going on and it's wonderful to celebrate them
• 31:12
  but the cast keeps diminishing and you know and one day there was and one day
• 31:17
  there was one you know what i mean yeah that's right yeah yeah and you're the
• 31:23
  last guy talking and you know still telling stories from the you know.
• 31:30
  In the early days of television I used to sit and watch television with one
• 31:36
  of my friends who's an actor as well, a bit of a rake and we used to compare
• 31:40
  the young actress would come on board and oh yeah I've been with her, yeah, yeah,
• 31:46
  and we were comparing notes about the actresses now you look at it now you compare
• 31:51
  who's died they're all dying now,
• 31:55
  yeah it's it's kind of sad it's either the anniversary of something that happened
• 31:59
  like 40 or 50 years ago like dundee is 40 years old yeah yeah,
• 32:04
  Yeah, yeah. And here comes Paul back again.
• 32:10
  You know, thank God he's sort of aging a bit more gracefully now.
• 32:13
  Like he's given us a face and whatever.
• 32:16
  And he's just going gentle into that good night. Yeah.
• 32:19
  Yeah, I was surprised. I saw that the other day. I saw something the other day
• 32:22
  and he looked a bit normal. Yeah, you're right.
• 32:26
  He looked a bit normal. Because, man, when him and Redford got that thing done
• 32:31
  where they get all the crow's feet and the alcoholic bags taken away from underneath.
• 32:36
  And they look like they're excited, you know, because the look of surprise is a youthful look.
• 32:42
  Yeah. It just, it looks weird. It was like when Kenny Rogers did the same thing.
• 32:48
  It was just like, wow. Oh, yeah.
• 32:50
  Just stretch your face back into, hey, look, don't I look 45 again? It looks great.
• 32:57
  It looks like the dudes that drive really fast and their face is pulled back by the chair.
• 33:05
  Yeah, it's just like, oh, mate, you know.
• 33:08
  It's like I saw a photo the other day of Wayne Newton, and he's still trying
• 33:12
  to look 45, and I think he's 80-something. I don't know.
• 33:17
  He's defying. Look, he's age-defying on two legs.
• 33:24
  Forget oil of your land. This guy knows the secret.
• 33:30
  Roger it's been fantastic to talk
• 33:33
  to you mate listeners get down to the links in the
• 33:35
  description and the Cradle of Flames
• 33:39
  Cradle of Flame by Travis Bain that rhymes almost yeah yeah my guest has been
• 33:48
  Roger tell our listeners why they should get over and support Cradle of Flame right.
• 33:56
  Right. Well, Travis has been around for a long, long time. He's a very honest
• 34:01
  guy, and he puts out some beautiful work.
• 34:03
  Not much of his scene, unfortunately. He never gets a major release,
• 34:08
  and yet he wins awards all the time as a director, and his actors often win awards.
• 34:14
  And as a matter of fact the actors in the last one he did we had all got four
• 34:19
  acting awards for the last film we did and he did
• 34:22
  two he won about two or three I think for
• 34:26
  his film but he's a dedicated worker and a genuine guy he works in a normal
• 34:31
  job like most of you and he suffers with bosses that don't treat him well but
• 34:37
  he goes out at weekends and he shoots in the guerrilla warfare style and shoots
• 34:42
  on weekends and in holidays.
• 34:44
  He's a dedicated guy and I really would love him to back him.
• 34:48
  As my wife said, if my wife said to me, the moment I win the lotto,
• 34:53
  I'm going to finance it. Not the $13,000.
• 34:56
  They're going to give him $150,000 or whatever he wants. Wow.
• 34:58
  I mean, the mate just, you know.
• 35:00
  So he's a lovely guy and a dedicated guy. He could be backed by the industry,
• 35:06
  but he's not, unfortunately.
• 35:08
  So it's up to us. I'll be to back him. And please do that if you can.
• 35:13
  Ladies and gentlemen Roger Ward
• 35:16
  the man the legend himself telling
• 35:20
  you get down to the links in the description the Gradle of
• 35:23
  Flame Terrence Bain one and the same the quality the experience and the legends
• 35:32
  involved you can also be part of it don't wait get down to the links in the
• 35:37
  description Roger Ward thank you for being my guest on Cinema Eugen Service
• 35:42
  It's been a real pleasure.
• 35:42
  Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Lovely to talk to you. Thanks, mate.
• 35:46
  Yes, Roger Ward. What a man. What a legend.
• 35:49
  He is Australian cinema personified, and he is a part of Cradle of Flame.
• 35:57
  Get down to the links in the description. You can be part of this movie, ladies and gentlemen.
• 36:02
  Not often you get a chance.
• 36:04
  Sometimes people work all their lives to be part of the movies.
• 36:07
  You don't have to wait. Get down to the links in the description to support Cradle of Flame.
• 36:12
  And my thanks to Roger Ward. What a man. What a legend. Get down to the links in the description.
• 36:19
  And as always, my little Yugenites, thank you for listening to us on Spotify,
• 36:24
  iHeartRadio, or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts.
• 36:28
  I'm Kent Hill. And until next time, you've been listening to us on Cinema Yugenite.