King of the comedy castle once again

By GREG DIXON

You know the face. We first saw Michael Caton as Uncle Harry in the 70s Australian soap The Sullivans but he will forever be Darryl Kerrigan, the father in the classic Aussie battler comedy The Castle. In his latest film comedy, Strange Bedfellows, the 61-year-old and Paul Crocodile Dundee Hogan star as Ralph and Vince, two small-town Aussie blokes who declare themselves a gay couple to exploit new tax legislation.

Q. Was The Castle your second wind?

A. Yeah, I was down and out when that happened. I'd had a bad period 18 months before and I'd really had to pull myself together and do a lot of work on myself. I was starting to think it was the end of my career as an actor, really.

I'd been around forever and it's really hard to sustain a career in Australia. I was painting houses mainly. It's a bit hard when you're out of work and you're so well known because people don't expect you to be out of work and they can be unintentionally very cruel.

But all of a sudden The Castle came along and there you were, you were back there again. It was the first lead I'd ever had. I was always the second guy on the right. So it was lovely to be able to shape the movie rather than do your stuff and piss off again.

Q. Surprised it became such a definitive Aussie comedy?

A. Well, I knew it was good, but I didn't think it would get the reaction it did. There are a lot of good films around that people never see. It's one of the heartbreaking things about film-making, you can have a great film but for some reason it doesn't touch a chord. It was just a great family. That's what people go for. They're all a bit silly but there is just something about it that gelled.

Q. If it had been America, they'd have spun off a sitcom, wouldn't they?

A. There was talk of that. I was approached about that but I didn't really like the idea of stripping it bare. I thought it's lovely as it is, leave it alone.

Q. Strange Bedfellows is your first Australian film comedy since The Castle seven years ago. That's a long time between laughs.

A. Yeah. It could be the age group I'm in. There's nothing much, but I must admit I've looked around and seen plenty off stuff I could play.

The industry is doing it tough right now. Nobody can get any finance. It comes in cycles. I think there have been a lot of people in Australia trying to come up with the next The Castle. People are trying to do that sort of comedy but it hasn't really worked on any scale.

Q. Had you worked with Paul Hogan before?

A. We'd said hello to each other years ago when we were both working for Channel Nine when I was doing The Sullivans and he was doing The Paul Hogan Show. But we'd never worked together.

Q. And?

A. Well it's interesting because you forget how much he knows. He co-wrote Crocodile Dundee, produced it, was there for the edit and worked on the distribution. He just knows a hell of a lot about the process, and the film is a lot better for Paul saying the odd thing during the edit. He knows his business and knows about comedy.

Q. Was Ralph an easy character to find?

A. I organised a read-through with my son, an actor mate from across the road and we just sat down and read it around the kitchen table. I found out how to play him by doing that.

Not having read it before you didn't put anything on the lines and I suddenly thought that's the way to play this, just throw it away. But we couldn't continue at times because we were laughing so much.

Q. The film relies on gay stereotypes. Has that attracted comment across the Ditch?

A. A bit, but very little. I think in the end my character has a real journey in the film. He has to face up to a few things.

Q. Comedy is hard. If people don't laugh, they hate you. As an actor who does so much comedy, do you feel the fear?

A. There's nothing worse than being in a comedy with no laughs. It's like war, sitting there at the screening. It's a bit like going to the theatre when you've got a friend in the play and it stinks. You don't know quite what to say.