Soon enough I’m sitting at a table in the dining hall with Tuuli Narkle,who plays the younger version of Mary,the beloved character created by Tasma Walton.
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“I was really lucky to work with Tasma early in my career,just out of drama school in 2019,in a play calledWinyanboga Yurringa,” she says. “Tasma and I have a lot in common in that we’re both fair-skinned Indigenous actors and we share a similar lived experience growing up in rural Western Australia,and we found those connections in the character of Mary.
“Tasma’s been so supportive and generous in handing this role to me,so it feels like mine,but at the same time it’s terrifying because I respect her so much as an actor. So,for lack of a better term,I don’t want to shit the bed with it.”
From watching Narkle in action on set there’s no danger of that. She’s a powerful mix of defiance and vulnerability on screen. Narkle studied characteristics that Walton brought to Mary,from the way she rolls the word “blackfella” around in her mouth,to the way she always crosses her arms whenever Jay approaches. And like every Indigenous actor I spoke to on the set,she feels the responsibility of being a part of this franchise.
“I truly believeMystery Road is integral to the Australian Indigenous film canon,” she says at the end of our conversation,before being taken off to make-up and filming another scene.
In the tourist mine’s hall of fame,which is a cavernous,high-ceilinged,hangar-like space,there are a number of sets – police holding cells,an interrogation room,a hospital corridor,a mineshaft. A familiar rumbling,raspy voice emerges from the corridor outside the bars of the jail,repeating lines in a few different takes. Eventually the owner of that voice comes around the corner and there’s veteran actor Steve Bisley.
He’s playing Sergeant Peter Lovric,the head cop in Jardine. He does a quick tally in his head and says it’s the 15th cop he’s played on screen,including memorable roles such as Goose inMad Max,Senior Sergeant Kevin ‘Nipper’ Harris in Police Rescue and Detective Jack Christey inWater Rats. ForMystery Road he’s a laconic smalltown cop who’s got the slow-moving swagger of a goanna and an impressive walrus moustache.
“I was flying from Queensland to Perth,where my partner lives,and after the plane landed my phone dinged when I turned it on again,” he says. “The message said I’d been offered the role onMystery Road. I just about screamed. I really wanted to be in this series.
“Later I looked in the mirror and contemplated my face like a Kabuki actor. And I thought,‘What says 1990s cop?’ So I shaved off my beard,but left the sideburns and the mo.”
There’s a mix of youth and experience on the set. Production designer Herbert Pinter keeps saying he’s going to retire but the man responsible for the look of Australian classics such asGallipoli,Breaker Morant andPicnic At Hanging Rock couldn’t resist working onMystery Road.
Director Dylan River is only 29. But then,he does come with some heritage. His grandmother,Freda Glynn,co-founded the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association,the country’s largest Indigenous broadcaster,and his father is director Warwick Thornton. We sit on the balcony of one of the local pubs in town and order steaks as he explains the thinking behind this season.
“We’re essentially makingBatman orSpiderman orSuperman,but without the comic book element,” he says. “It’s telling the origin story of this character that audiences know. What’s quintessential about this series is Jay having to straddle the two worlds he inhabits as a black cop.
“Origin is very much him learning about those two worlds,and going back to his hometown and dealing with the relationships with his father and his brother. There are a lot of ideas and dialogue in there that anyone who knows me will recognise as connecting with my own life. I made him 29 because I’m 29.”
Mystery Road is also very much about place. Season one was filmed in Kununurra,Wyndham and the Kimberley. Season two was filmed in and around Broome. The settings are almost like characters in each story.
“We looked at other coastal locations in WA for this season,” says River,who is from Alice Springs,“but with me being from the desert,I wanted red dirt and a dry,dusty place. And that’s why we came to Kalgoorlie. It’s hard to shoot in a place like this,and we’ve had everything from hail storms to dust storms,but it sings on screen.”
It certainly does. The shots of Jay’s Falcon tearing along a dead straight dirt road that cuts across endless salt flats on either side are spectacular. And the nearby country town of Coolgardie,which seems frozen in time from a few decades ago,easily doubled for late-’90s Jardine.
When I finally get to sit down with the star of the show,it’s at the end of a 10-hour work day. Mark Coles Smith is sitting cross-legged on a stone bench overlooking that pond where I’d spotted him earlier. He’s wearing a T-shirt,shorts,thongs and a peaked cap.
He’s 33,but looks younger,definitely young enough to play 29. “I’ve got a baby face,” he says,grinning. “Black don’t crack,man. I got it from my mama.”
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He’s quietly spoken and there’s an intensity about him,but he’s quick to smile. Ironically,for some years he has been touted as the next Aaron Pedersen. He laughs. “I’ve got my hands full just figuring out who I am,let alone trying to be somebody else,” he says. “I first met Aaron inThe Circuit (2007),which was shot in the Kimberley. He’s always checked in on me since then to make sure I’m all right. Aaron really left an imprint on me at the beginning of my career and I hope I’ve carried that into this role.”
Did Pedersen offer any advice about playing Jay Swan? “I did ask if he had any tips,and he said,‘Nah. Just listen to country while you’re out there.’ He wanted me to do my own thing. I familiarised myself with the previous seasons and with the way Aaron played Jay. And then I let it go.
“I did hear through the grapevine that some of the crew who had worked on the show before saw some of my early scenes and were saying,‘What the fuck? He is Jay. It’s like watching a young Aaron.’ That got back to me and I thought,‘OK,it looks like I’m in the ballpark’.”
When we speak,filming is about to wrap on the series in a few days. How will it feel when this 10-week adventure comes to an end and he heads back to his home in Broome?
“It will be absolutely bittersweet,” he says,looking off towards the sunset. “MysteryRoad is such a big thing for all of us. I had the opportunity to fly back to Broome at the end,but I’m not going to do it. I’m going to drive back and take five days or so. Listen to some podcasts. Listen to some music. Take it slowly.”
You get the feeling that he also needs the time to shake off the hat,the boots,the dust and the character of Jay Swan,so he can become Mark Coles Smith again.
Mystery Road:Origin is on ABC,Sunday 8.30pm,and iview.
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