ACTOR Xavier Samuel is in demand. Tudor earl, vampire, shopper beset by man-eating sharks ... he has been all these and more. But whatever his role, he is a man with innate style
Xavier Samuel has a face that you might not immediately recognise - unless you're a teenage girl or an aficionado of the Twilight movies - and it could be argued that this is what has set him on a sure path to superstardom. This year Samuel has three feature films due for release. And at just 27 years old, his CV is pretty impressive, with roles in movies such as September, Newcastle, The Loved Ones and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
There's no doubt the Adelaide-raised actor has the right looks to be a Hollywood leading man but, unlike some other rising Aussie stars, he hasn't had the pressure of being labelled the next Mel Gibson or the next Russell Crowe. Samuel has just been getting on with the job and, as his hectic work schedule attests, Hollywood's power players have sat up and noticed.
WISH chose Samuel to be the cover star of our annual Best Dressed issue because, along with fellow actors Chris Hemsworth, Ryan Kwanten and Jesse Spencer, he represents a new breed of Aussie male: one who isn't afraid to look good on the red carpet for movie premieres and awards shows and who recognises that it's Hollywood after all. Forget Gibson and Crowe, these guys are the next Errol Flynns.
Samuel seems to be enjoying his itinerant lifestyle, going from one film set to the next. "There is some endurance involved with travelling and not having a permanent base and that's part of the nomadic, gypsy excitement that comes with that," says Samuel about his prolific, back-to-back film schedule - a rarity in the entertainment industry - that has been non-stop since he graduated from the Flinders University Drama Centre in 2005.
This is a golden age for Australian actors in Hollywood. In the past three years Aussie leading men have made cinema history, with Sam Worthington helming the biggest blockbuster ever made, James Cameron's Avatar (2009), which grossed an estimated $2.7 billion in worldwide ticket sales and Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008) raking in $1 billion.
"I have always felt fortunate but it's also crazy, something of that magnitude, and hopefully I'm lucky enough to keep going," says Samuel, whose own recent box-office triumph saw him as the vampire Riley in 2010's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the third instalment in the world-engulfing franchise of Stephenie Meyer's novels.
Riley was the role that broke Samuel into Hollywood.Eclipse was his first American film but it gained him a nomination for "Best Breakout Star" at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards. "I'd been doing American auditions for a while and it always felt like sending audition tapes off into the ether," he told Interview magazine in 2010 about landing what would prove a pivotal role. "Just hearing anything back from anyone was kind of startling."
Now on a serious career trajectory, the pressure of the audition circuit has lifted for the time being. After a slew of career-building roles spanning independent Australian films such as 2:37, September, Newcastle and The Loved Ones, Samuel has since been working with veteran Australian filmmakers. He will appear in Stephan Elliott's A Few Best Men and Australia's first big-budget, 3D action flick Bait, directed by Russell Mulcahy, both of which are in the post-production stage.
"I've been really lucky in that the films I've worked on have been driven by people who are inventive and talented," says Samuel, referring to the likes of Elliott and Mulcahy. "It has raised the bar for me; helped me to get better and look at things in different ways." The sharply groomed Samuel declares his pride in the Australian film industry several times during his time on the set of WISH's 2011 Best Dressed shoot.
His next international film, scheduled for release in September, is Roland Emmerich's provocative, political thriller, Anonymous, set against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth I's succession, but he believes his future is tied to Australia. "I find my time here really valuable and important, and not only for my state of mind but to continue to remain a part of an industry that supported me. There's a tonne of great Australian filmmakers I'm keen to work with, if they'll have me ... directors such as David Michod and Luke Doolan [who most recently worked together on Animal Kingdom], who have created lots of interesting work and continue to do so."
In addition to his acting talent, another advantage Samuel has working for him is his eye for great style. On the WISH set he immediately caught the crew's attention for the way he made a range of high-end designer clothes his own. "With so many Australians on the world stage, great personal style has become more important than ever," notes fashion editor Ken Thompson. "The moment Xavier walked into the studio, I thought: 'There is a guy with innate style' - and obviously that's why he's on the list. He looks at amazing pieces and puts them together his way. I think this embodies what the modern Australian man should know, and is doing at the same time."
As part of the third generation of the gum-nut mafia to take on Hollywood since the 1980s when Mel Gibson, Paul Hogan and Bryan Brown first dropped a charismatic "G'day", Samuel knows he's in rarefied company but, in true Aussie style, remains completely laidback. "I don't really have any preconceptions or a grand plan or anything that I'm particularly interested in projecting," he says as photographer Max Doyle snaps away.
"If I can continue to work in a way that challenges me or keeps me interested I would be happy. It's hard to think of an image of who you are and what you want to be. I guess it's far more constructive to be yourself."
theaustralian
xoxo
Carrie
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