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WA lads band together on Gallipoli series

Ewen Leslie was itching to work alongside Rockingham-raised Hollywood star Sam Worthington in Foxtel's highly-anticipated miniseries Deadline Gallipoli, but not just because he's a fan of his work.

The Fremantle-born-and-raised actor was first acquainted with Worthington back in high school having attended John Curtin College of the Arts during the same years as the Avatar star.

"I went to school with Sam," Leslie told AAA Weekend on the red carpet at the star-studded Foxtel Upfront launch in Sydney on Thursday.

"We weren't friends at school, we were years apart, but it was nice to be able to work with him finally on something that was really really close to him."

Filmed in South Australia, Deadline Gallipoli will air next year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

Recently seen on Ten's drama Wonderland, Leslie portrays journalist Keith Murdoch who was among four war correspondents reporting on the ground in Gallipoli in 1915.

"It was such an amazing group of writers and directors and an amazing cast, so I think we were all pretty stoked to be apart of it," Leslie said.

"It's very relevant to a lot of the stuff that's happening today, so it's a really timely story."

WA is strongly represented in the four-hour miniseries, with Albany-raised NIDA graduate Joel Jackson and Perth-raised actress Jessica De Gouw starring alongside Leslie and Worthington, who is also executive producer.

Jackson described working with Worthington as an opportunity of a lifetime.

"Meeting Sam in the audition room until we started three months later, he's all heart, all support," he said. "He'd either be giving advice or helping out behind and in front of the camera, it was love all around."

Making his TV acting debut as journalist Charles Bean, Jackson said landing the role had personal significance.

"When I was 15, I actually wrote an essay on Charles Bean," he said. "So I was in love with him a long time ago. So for me to be able to give a persona like that back to someone like my grandfather, who's been telling me about him since I was five, it's an unbelievable opportunity and privilege."