interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 5 November 2003.

Matthew Saville is the writer/director of Roy Hollsdotter Live, one of the more successful of the recent batch of 50-minute short features funded by the Australian Film Commission, SBS Independent and Film Victoria. Starring standup comic Darren Casey and comedy titan John Clarke, it’s shot around Fitzroy and North Melbourne. It’s a darkly humorous tale of a comedian, Roy Hollsdotter, who stalks his ex-girlfriend with a long-lensed camera, ostensibly for new material, but really because the pain he feels at their separation is all-consuming. His best friend Simmo attempts to explain to Roy that his behaviour is “on a scale of One to Fucked-in-the-Head, a strong Seven”.

Saville is a busy man, with a lot of projects on the go. But for now he’s happy to have put Roy to rest, purging this highly personal project that has been kicking around for 10 years.

You wrote the first draft of Roy Hollsdotter Live in 1994. Was it always tailored to 50 minutes?

No. We were chasing bureaucratic tails, I think. In 1998/99 we were being mooted as a possibility for one of the AFC’s “million dollar movies”. But five of those got funded before we did (including Mall Boy). And then that money ran out and suddenly the AFC weren’t doing low-budget features any more. We had to take stock, and what emerged from the AFC after that was that they were doing 50-minute films. So we had to rewrite.

Luke Elliot & Darren Casey in Roy Hollsdotter Live

How did the cast fall into place?

From the start, I wrote the script with Luke Elliott [who plays Simmo] in mind. And [producer] Trevor Blainey read the script in 1997 and said, “I know Roy” – and that was Darren. From that point on, for about five years, the only member of the cast that actually auditioned was Asher Keddie [who plays Kate, Roy’s ex-girlfriend]. You don’t audition for John Clarke’s role [as Roy’s boss]. You just get John Clarke – if you can. I said it would be great to get someone like him and Trevor said, “Well, why not John Clarke?” And he went and spent two months pursuing that.

The acting is uniformly superb.

Yeah. I’m not actually a great performance director, but I’m very good at casting.

What was John Clarke like to work with?

Like riding a thoroughbred. You just hang on, basically. You get onto the bit that looks like a saddle, punch him in the guts, and hang on like hell. I didn’t do very much directing with him – I don’t know how you would direct John Clarke. I don’t know why you’d bother. You just say, “Well John, here are the lines from the script, please say something similar to what I’ve written down, and I’ll be over there if you need me.” Interestingly enough, he’s just directed a telemovie. I’d beg him to let me on a set to watch him direct, because he lives and thinks at a million miles an hour.

Saville is an interesting man to interview. He’s sharp and witty but his answers tend to meander through many possible outcomes, stopping and starting before arriving upon a definitive version. At one point, he apologises and promises to “try and finish a sentence”. But I also learnt pretty quickly that it doesn’t pay to ask him obvious, cliched questions, like “who’s your favourite director” or “what do you like most about Melbourne”? He’ll either dismiss them (albeit charmingly) with a vague answer or stonewall you with one equally as silly as the question (see below). Above all, Saville challenges you to engage him.

What do you like most about Melbourne?

The weather.

When Victorian writers scooped the pool at this year’s AWGIE awards [including Saville for Roy: Best Original Screenplay for Television], did it signify to you a renaissance in filmmaking in this state? Is there a stronger film community here than elsewhere?

Five years ago, everyone was moving up north and now everyone is staying down here. One thing I’ve done – and it’s just sheer laziness – is stand still. But I’ll tell you something: it seems that Sydney is becoming increasingly more difficult to shoot in. And I think it’s because of the Fox studios there and the amount of American productions. I worked on a sketch comedy that originated in Sydney, but they chose to come down to Melbourne in the end. But I sense the same thing in the inner suburbs of Melbourne: the differences between shooting in Port Melbourne, South Yarra and Narre Warren are tangible.

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