Carl Barron's new movie, 'I don’t think of myself as an actor'
Acclaimed Australian comedian Carl Barron is starring in a surprisingly serious feature film about love and loneliness.
The film's protagonist, Manny Lewis, is a successful but burnt-out comedian struggling to find love in Sydney.
After meeting the beautiful and complex Maria (Leeanna Walsman), Manny sees he may have a chance of falling in love, but first he must confront his past, heal his relationship with his father, and learn to love himself.
Barron revealed in a rare interview, with Sunday Night's Chris Bath, there is definitely a bit of himself in the character Manny.
"You know what, I’d say … I’d go 38.2 percent of it is," he said.
"Probably a bit rich, I would say 36.9 percent."
Barron was 29 and working as a roof tiler in Queensland when walked into a pub one night and tried his hand at stand-up comedy. He never looked back.
Last year more than 300,000 Australians went to his live shows and Barron has performed around the world.
He said the process of making a movie was new to him and something he wanted to try but he found the transition difficult.
"I don’t have any aspirations to be an actor, I like stand up, it is not my cup of tea. Not trying to be offensive but I am not a great collaborator," he said.
"Most days I just like being home. People say 'what’s your motivation with this scene' and I say, 'to do it as quickly as I can and piss off home'."
Barron spent four weeks in Italy turning the concept into a screenplay.
"I always had an idea … and we met up for coffee and [my manager] said “why don’t you turn it into a movie?" Barron said.
"We met up the next week for a coffee and the next minute we went to Italy and wrote it."
"I don’t know I just felt like going to Italy… why not?"
Barron not only wrote the movie but stars in it as Manny Lewis but said he still considers himself a comedian rather than an actor.
"I mean what makes an actor? If you do one film? I don’t think of myself as an actor, not after one film."
He said the hardest part of the filming process was watching himself kiss on the big screen.
"There was this one scene I had to kiss five girls in one go you know."
"I reckon I would have been watching it just going, 'Oh god, you can’t'. I’ve never seen myself like that before, I’ve never seen my head 20 foot long before," he said.
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