Tom Wright (Australian actor)

Thomas M. Wright
Born Thomas Michael Wright
(1983-06-22) 22 June 1983
Melbourne, Australia
Other names Thomas M. Wright
Occupation Actor, producer, writer, director, theatre designer
Years active 1998–present

Thomas Michael "Tom" Wright[1] (born 22 June 1983) is an award winning Australian actor, writer, director and producer. He came to attention as Johnno Mitcham in Jane Campion's series Top of the Lake, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2013 US Critics Choice Awards.

He is the co-founder and director of The Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm.[2]

Early life

Wright was born June 22, 1983 in Melbourne, the eldest of three children.

Career

Regarding his casting in the series, The Australian said: "With his clear green eyes, unruly hair and quiet intensity, Thomas M. Wright evokes a young Daniel Day-Lewis, and it is not the first time that comparison has been made: Jane Campion said the same thing after meeting him."[3]

In 2015, he filmed the Universal / Working Title feature Everest, based on the 1996 ‘Into Thin Air’ tragedy.

Years before the film, Wright walked for a month in the Himalayas on his own, without a porter or guide, crossing the highest mountain pass in the world. He walked for 30 days and lost sixteen kilograms.[4]

Wright recently completed filming HHhH, an adaptation of the 2008 Priz De Goncourt winning novel, with Jack O’Connell, Stephen Graham and Jason Clarke. He also recently filmed the Sony / WGN America Series Outsiders in the lead role of Sheriff Wade Houghton for producers Peter Tolan and Paul Giamatti. His performance has been acclaimed across the press[5] and cited as the standout of the series by Hollywood Reporter[6] and Variety.[7]

He appeared as cult-figure Steven Linder in the US adaptation of The Bridge. Executive Producer Elwood Reid said of Wright’s audition for the series ‘it was the best audition I have ever seen. He walked in and the temperature of the room changed.’[8]

He played the murdered journalist Brian Peters in Balibo (2009), and Thomas Bodenham in Van Diemen's Land (2009).

As an actor in his earliest mainstage work in theatre, he was compared to a young Geoffrey Rush (Herald Sun) and has since played lead roles for the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company, including the title role Baal in the controversial production commissioned by Artistic Directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton and directed by his close contemporary, theatre and film director Simon Stone.

Balibo director Robert Connolly said of Wright and Stone, ‘We constantly fight against an ordinariness in our artistic endeavours and they really are willing to go their own way. It's intoxicating, actually, the originality of their vision is so strong.’[9]

Wright has a strong background in theatre as a writer, director, producer and designer as well. He created The Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm in 2006 at the age of twenty two, with fellow writer and director Thomas Henning.

Black Lung, the inaugural resident company at Malthouse Theatre in 2007, were at the forefront of a changing of the guard in Australian theatre. The company has received nominations, awards and critical acclaim since its inception and has been hailed as one of the most influential independent companies of the past decade.

Renowned for its uncompromising aesthetic, Black Lung brought cinematic reference and an anarchic process and performance style to their work. Chris Kohn writing for Realtime called their premiere production Avast ‘Insanely fast-paced, artfully arrhythmic, meta-theatrical - a breathtaking combination of precision and chaos. I left drunk on theatre, intoxicated on the experience of simply being’[10]

Under the Black Lung banner, Wright has created productions with Adelaide Festival and Darwin Festival, Belvoir St. Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, and Queensland Theatre Co. and Brisbane Festival, among others.

Wright is the designer, and director of Doku Rai, a production created over four and a half years, with a three-month rehearsal process on the remote island of Atauro, East Timor.

Doku Rai came about after Wright formed a close relationship with Michael Stone, then Chief Military Advisor to the President of Timor, Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta. Stone facilitated Wright flying in and out of the country over a number of years. Doku Rai was created with a group of independent Timorese artists, a number of them former resistance fighters. The film sequences in Doku Rai were co-directed by Wright with award-winning director Amiel Courtin-Wilson.[11][12]

Doku Rai played to public and critical acclaim over a two year period. Acclaimed as ‘theatre so authentic and original that it should be compulsory" [13]and ‘a vivid communion of cultures ancient and modern, that expands the realm of theatrical possibility’,[14] it was named one of the best productions of 2013/14 by Time Out and The Monthly Magazine, as well as being nominated for best production of the year at the 2013 Green Room Awards.

Currently, Wright is developing and co-producing the cinematic adaptation of an award-winning work of non-fiction.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role
2000 Stepsister from Planet Weird Cutter Colburne
2001 Zenon: The Zequel Orion
2007 The King Alfie
2009 Van Diemen's Land Thomas Bodenham
2009 Balibo Brian Peters
2010 Torn Tim Strauss
2015 Everest Michael Groom
2016 HHhH

Television

Year Title Role
2013 Top of the Lake Johnno Mitcham
2013–2015 The Bridge Steven Linder
2016–Present Outsiders Sheriff Wade Houghton

Stage

Year Title Role Notes
2004 51 Ashworth St. The Boy Co-writer, co-director, designer
2005 Hamlet Laertes Beggars Theatre
2007 The Glass Soldier Jonas Fink Melbourne Theatre Company
2007 Pimms Dying Man Writer, co-director
The Black Lung Theatre
2008 Love Song Beane Melbourne Theatre Company
2008 Avast I The Older Brother Malthouse Theatre
2008 Avast II Jack Lemmon Co-director, designer
Malthouse Theatre
2009 Glasson God The Black Lung Theatre
2010 Furious Mattress The Exorcist Malthouse Theatre
2011 Baal Baal Sydney Theatre Company
2011 And They Called Him Mr. Glamour Director, designer
Belvoir St. Theatre
2011 I Feel Awful Writer, director, designer
Brisbane Festival
2013 Doku Rai Co-writer, director, designer
The Black Lung Theatre

References

  1. ↑ "Thomas M. Wright". IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  2. ↑ http://www.theblacklung.com
  3. ↑ Colman, Elizabeth (April 14, 2012). "Actor Tom Wright is at the top of his game with Jane Campion television project". The Australian.
  4. ↑ "BBC - Home". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  5. ↑ Stuever, Hank (2016-01-25). "Got DVR space? Even WGN's Kentucky hillbilly drama 'Outsiders' is pretty good.". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  6. ↑ Lowry, Brian. "TV Review: 'Outsiders'". Variety. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  7. ↑ "'Outsiders': TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  8. ↑ "Aussie actor Wright repulses US producer". au.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  9. ↑ "The Australian".
  10. ↑ "RealTime Arts - Magazine - issue 74 - The sweet breath of The Black Lung". www.realtimearts.net. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  11. ↑ Power, Liza (2012-08-11). "From the wild zone | Doku Rai at Arts House | Amiel Courtin-Wilson". The Age. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  12. ↑ "Actor and director Thomas M Wright and 'Doku Rai". Radio National. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  13. ↑ "Glorious explosion of rock and blood | Reviews". AussieTheatre.com. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  14. ↑ Power, Liza (2012-08-11). "From the wild zone | Doku Rai at Arts House | Amiel Courtin-Wilson". The Age. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
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