With director Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s High Ground arriving in America via Digital and On Demand this weekend, I recently spoke with Simon Baker about starring in the Australian film about the massacre of an Aboriginal Australian tribe in 1919. Written by Chris Anastassiades, Baker plays Travis, an ex-sniper from WWI that’s now a policeman in northern Australia. When a mission to talk with a local Aboriginal tribe ends in tragedy, Travis leaves in disgust, only to be forced back twelve years later to help hunt down an Aboriginal warrior attacking local settlers. But as the truth of what happened all those years ago comes to life, Travis becomes the hunted. High Ground also stars Callan Mulvey, Aaron Pedersen, Ryan Corr, Caren Pistorius, Jack Thompson, and introduces Jacob Junior Nayinggul, Witiyana Marika and Esmerelda Marimowa.
During the interview, Baker talked about why he wanted to be part of this film, why it’s okay to feel uncomfortable while watching, the importance of talking about our history, and the difficulty in making films about this subject matter. In addition, he talks about making L.A. Confidential and how he auditioned for the Ed Exley role that Guy Pearce landed, making Margin Call and working with such a great cast, how he’s never seen The Devil Wears Prada, why he’d like to make a film about someone that wants to get into politics, and a lot more.
Finally, as someone that didn’t know a lot about Australian history, I thought High Ground was extremely well made and pulls back the curtain on a dark chapter in Australian history. Definitely recommended.
Check out what Simon Baker had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about and director Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s statement about the film.
Simon Baker:
When will he make another movie?
What TV series would he like to guest star on?
What movie or movies has he seen the most?
If he could get the financing for anything what would he make and why?
Why he’d like to make a film about someone that wants to get into politics.
What does he remember about making L.A. Confidential?
Talks about how he came close to landing the Ed Exley role that Guy Pearce ended up playing.
What does he remember about making Margin Call and working with such a great cast?
How he’s never seen The Devil Wears Prada.
Why did he want to be part of High Ground?
How he never learned what is depicted in High Ground in school.
How stories like High Ground are tough to get made.
Why it’s okay to feel uncomfortable watching the film.
How streaming is allowing more stories from around the world to be told.
Director Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s statement:
At the heart of High Ground is the tragic story of Frontier encounters and the missed opportunity between two cultures, black and white. High Ground was conceived as a story that would challenge accepted notions of the settlement of Australia. Faced with the myth of terra nullius the aim with the film is to create a new mythology and present a different perspective on how this country was made. It explores the themes of identity and culture and the attempts that were made to preserve and progress culture in the face of an overwhelming threat. High Ground is a story with mythic proportions with complexity and no easy answers. This story presents a view that there really is no such thing as settlement it’s all about conquest, it explores the way in which society is built and how connections are made between people and it exposes the shameful truth of our frontier history but rather than choosing to dramatize a specific historical event ‘High Ground’ draws on contact history from a variety of locations-a fiction to illustrate a deeper truth. High Ground is a powerful human drama, instilled with a strong sense of hope and fear, a story of treachery, heroism, sacrifice, freedom and love, misguided beliefs, an unequal struggle for power, and grief. But above all it is a story about the finding of one’s roots. My aim has been to entertain and immerse an audience in an environment teeming with unexpected threats, and to take them on a ride through an aspect of our history that is under-represented and hopefully encourage them to rethink the Australian story.
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