Roy Billing: From Under the Mountain to Underbelly...

Actor Roy Billing has talked of becoming "an overnight sensation in my early 60s", thanks to playing ‘Aussie Bob’ Trimbole in hit Australian drama Underbelly. Before that he had a successful 30 year acting career in both Australia (Rabbit Proof Fence, The Dish and Siam Sunset) and New Zealand (Inside Straight, Gliding On and Skin and Bone).

In this ScreenTalk, Billing talks about:

• His one-line debut in Beyond Reasonable Doubt, the movie about the Arthur Allan Thomas case 
• Being mistaken for a taxi driver on the set of Inside Straight
• Getting a taste of fame after marrying Beryl on Gliding On
• Being accused of impersonating a pilot in a bar while shooting Erebus: The Aftermath
• Basing the character of Tupper on his father in Skin and Bone
• Playing a cross-dresser in Mirror Mirror and looking like his mother-in-law Dame Cath Tizard
• Working with Sam Neill in the Australian film The Dish
• Trying to make the audience love drug dealer ‘Aussie Bob’ Trimbole in TV';s Underbelly
• How the drama became the highest rating show ever in Australia, and made his career

This video was first uploaded on 26 July 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside