FILMOGRAPHY
2006] Whisper
2005] Kinky Boots
2005]
Star Wars: Episode III
2005] The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
2005] Open Window
2004] King Arthur
2003] The Night We Called It a Daye
2003] Ned Kelly
2002] The Hard Word
2002] Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
2002] "Dossa and Joe"
2001-02] "The Secret Life of Us"
2001] The Secret Life of Us (TV)
2001] Saturn's Return (TV)
2001] The Pitch
2000] Gate
2000] Sample People
2000] The Three Stooges (TV)
1999] Dogwatch
1999] Secret Men's Business (TV)
1999] Erskineville Kings
1998] Never Tell Me Never (TV)
1998] Bloodlock
1998] Praise
1996] Loaded
1996] Race the Sun
LINKS
Born 23 June 1974 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Joel's brother Nash is also an actor, stuntman & creator of several short films some in which Joel co-wrote & produced with Nash.
In 2002 Joel appeared in Ben Lee's single 'Something Borrowed, Something Blue' video clip. The clip was directed by Joel's brother, Nash Edgerton.
Studied drama at the University of Western Sydney-Nepean Kingswood Campus after graduating high school.
In 2002 Joel Edgerton won the KPMG AFI Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama for his role as Will in The Secret Life of Us.
Joel on being AFI nominated in 2002 for roles in both TV [The Secret Life of Us] and film [The Hard Word]:
"I remember saying to my brother, Nash, that if I was going to win an Award, I would very much doubt that I would win both, but I would be really proud to win one for Secret Life because it was something that was a great production to be involved in, it was a big part of shifting myself into a different gear, just by having my funny looking head in people ’s living rooms."
Joel on his experiances with theatre:
"It is a great thing to do and it certainly nourishes you in some great ways that film can’t. It is the whole immediacy of it, I certainly think that any actor who has previous experience on stage should keep going back to it as often as possible. It is certainly something that I want to do in the not too distant future."
Joel on his production company:
"Blue Tongue is our production company, I am involved in with my brother Nash, Kieren Darcy-Smith and Tony Lynch. We have made a bunch of short films and I have been writing a couple of scripts. We are going through the whole formal process of trying to raise finance for a film at the moment, which hopefully we will make in Australia in the next year or two."
Joel on working in the bush during filming of Ned Kelly:
"I think you can sort of fit humans into two categories in any instance. One of my two categories in life, are people who are into camping and those that aren ’t - people who need to be within ten metres of a power point at any given moment. And yeah I like all of that stuff, particularly when you are playing it on screen it is good to, you know, as aggravating as it can be to be standing out in the rain or having wet socks and mud in your boots just sort of helps the whole experience. In the same way as it would have been for the guys wearing the armour in the final scenes, having the real heaviness of the armour. Those things just really help to bring things to life on screen in a real way rather than feeling like you are pretending too much. I mean if those scenes in Aaron Sherrif ’s hut were shot in a studio it would ave felt really weird."
Joel on filming Ned Kelly:
"Working on Ned Kelly was one of the best experiences I think I'll ever have. Dressing up and the whole adventure side of it was cool, but also just being part of telling of Ned Kelly is awesome. It's so, um, comforting to go into shooting a film knowing that the rest of the cast is a bunch of pretty extraordinary people. And not just 'cause they're people that have got fame or success overseas, but they're just really good actors. And seeing Naomi do so well recently has been awesome. It's great - when everyone found out she said she'd do the role, everyone was excited. Knowing I'd get a few scenes one-on-one with Geoffrey was great. And getting to work with Heath, who I think has done an extraordinary job."
Joel on reading the script for The Hard Word:
"I really got into the script. It had this wicked sense of humour without being too wanky. There’s a lot films of that genre, that kind of gang robbery genre, where the jokes are all really forced and really lame or cartoony. I suppose to me the whole thing kind of crackled along in the script, and the character too, and certainly when I was told to read for the character of Shane that certainly appealed to me. I thought he was just a really good change from anything I’d done."
Joel on the comparison between working with an Australian crew& working with one such as that of Star Wars:
"Working with any kind of crew generally is a great experience, but an Australian crew often needs to be a little bit more resourceful. Australian crews have an incredible reputation all around the world, in the same way, as you know Australian actors working in America have such a great reputation. I mean the crew on Star Wars was 95 to 98% made up of Australians. I heard someone say that Australia has a disproportionately high amount of talent considering our population, and I think that is what sets Australian apart from others. Australian crews also work well together because there are not as many productions going on here, therefore you get crews that have worked together a lot more often.You know it ’s like a sports team that plays together a lot, there is a lot more harmony immediately."
Joel on landing the role of Owen Lars in Star Wars:
"I remember talking to Nash, about it at the time, thinking ‘wouldn’t it be awesome to get a job?’ You always justify jobs you don’t get in some fashion. I remember thinking ‘it’s been like a month since I did a meeting about it’ and I said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to get that job’ and he said, ‘Don’t worry. You don’t want your career and your life defined by the fact that you played a small role in Star Wars.’ And I’m like, ‘yeah, yeah, you’re right.’ But then I got the job and it was like ‘wooooo hoooo!’ I also found out on my birthday, which was pretty cool. I think Nash brought me some great gift in the morning, but thanks to Lucasfilm, I can hardly even remember what it was. I had to call him and say, ‘Mate, I’ve just got a slightly better birthday present.’"
Joel talking of the effect being in Star Wars had on his career even before the film was released:
"In a funny kind of way I should have been more cunning about really milking it in the interim, because I know I’m in the film for a short amount of time, and as exciting as that is for me, it doesn’t necessarily create a jump ramp to the other side of a chasm of excellence or anything like that. I don’t count on work leading to other work. I think that is more likely just to lead to disappointment, but certainly it whips people into a mini frenzy. You know, it meant that I could see almost anyone that I wanted to in LA, workwise – mainly casting directors or agents. It’s almost like your business card. So you’re on the other side of a very, very solid door and they look through the peephole and you say, ‘Hi, I was in Star Wars!’ and suddenly you can hear the locks being undone."
Joel on what he thought of Star Wars II - Attack Of The Clones:
"Didn't like it. I thought it was much better than the first, The Phantom Menace, and it's a visual feast but I thought it was a little flimsy on story. I thought there was too much emphasis on trying to push it into the teen market."
Joel on working with Dennis Hopper on 'The Night we Called it a Day':
"He was a real gentleman. Dennis was a herbal tea and Cigar kind of guy, that was about as wild as he got. He was an incredibly generous actor. The first day I worked with him, he had a two-minute tie raid, which you'll eventually see in the movie, he did that all day long. He gave us much energy to every other actor's close-ups as his own, and straight away I was a huge fan, if I wasn't already."
Joel on exploring the idea of working in Hollywood:
"I think once that you get to a certain stage of work that it is definitely worth poking your head in there and having a look. The opportunities there are so many and the benefits are so high, that it is like trying to climb the ladder of any career, you go to where the hub of it is. If you can go there and feel satisfied with the projects that you become involved with, I reckon that ’s great. I don ’t think actors should be going there to chase money and fame because I think it can spell quite a huge amount of unhappiness. But there are so many gems of scripts, it is definitely a place I want to set my sights on."
Joel on doing the rounds in LA:
"I’ve done a really mini version of the rounds for a few weeks when I finished Star Wars. And the trouble at the time was, I’d met casting directors and a few agents and a few managers and sort of got used to the whole lay of the land, got a really good map of LA in my head and had a blast of a time, but I was coming back to do the first series of Secret Life, which was a six month contract, and the way things run over there meant I couldn’t audition for anything because everything’s auditioning to shoot 3 months later. But it was good to meet people and I’ll go back again. It’s like familiarity by erosion. You just slowly chip away at it. Or as happens to a lot of people, you have a film like Chopper and it gets seen overseas in festivals and then in a pretty immediate way you get an actor getting a nice bridge to work in the United States. And you’ve got someone as amazing as Ben Mendelhson, who I reckon is one of the greatest actors this country’s ever produced, and because of the fact that a lot of the films that he’s made haven’t had that bridge, his chances of working in the States weren’t as great. I don’t think a lot of the general public know that. I mean the world of actors is so unpredictable. Whenever a younger actor asks for any sort of advice I feel completely unable to give it. How do you map your career? And then you look at someone like Heath [Ledger] who, while he did Two Hands here, he sort of went over there and dug in for a while. You could wait around here for a really good film in Australia before you go work overseas, but then you could be waiting forever."
Joel on auditioning for a role in the new Superman movie:
"I just did a test in America for the villain in "Superman". They said 'I want you to audition for the new Superman', but because Josh Hartnett and all these guys had said no, I said 'I won't do that'. And they said, 'why don't you come in and test for the villain'."
Joel on more opportunities for aussies in Hollywood:
"It's better now - thanks to Russell - than say 15 years ago. The doors are open, but you’ve still got to have somewhat of a reputation here [in Australia] and then you've got to go in there and do the right type of tap-dance. It's still hard work. I mean the amount of work the agents do over there to try and help you and sell you is incredible."
Joel on ambitions to direct:
"Yeah, I do, but I also don’t want to be too unrealistic about the time frame in which I do it. I imagine myself doing that in about five or ten years time."
Joel on what's next for him:
"I am involved again in the next Star Wars. Apart from that I am not really sure, I am waiting to hear about a couple of things and I am going to keep obviously looking at the opportunities but you know if the next good opportunity comes out of Australia then I will be here working again."