Jamie Croft, now 20, but playing 17 year old Zack, the youngest character; yet Croft is one of the most experienced of the cast, and is playing his first grown up sort of role. Zack's a fun character, he says, young, nave and innocent. He's sexually inexperienced but pretends he knows it all. There's a little bit of me in Zack - from back when I was 17.
Tony Brockman echoes Croft: I went to Byron Bay for my schoolies - and this is a chance to re-do it with more action! I know this guy (Bradley, going by train with Jillian, played by Jess Gower). I hate to say it but there's parts of me a years ago Nave! Playing a flawed character like that fees you up in performance.
It's his first film, and it's exhausting work. You have to have it on tap and make it consistent with what you did two weeks ago or 10 minutes ago.
The cast are uniformly impressed by and enjoyed working with director Evan Clarry. Says Croft: I like that he doesn't sit behind the video splithe actually watches us work, not on the monitor.
Featured on the Moviehole Webpage
Young Jamie Croft has barely been off our screens for five minutes. Whether it be provoking beam in classic TV �A County Practice�, Winning acclaim for roles in films like �That Eye, The Sky� or doing it for the kiddies (�Joey�) � he�s never been two foot away from a lens. Now, the talented rising newcomer returns to cinema, with a starring role in �Blurred�, an unruly new comedy about a typical Australian ritual�schoolies week, and as he tells Moviehole, he�s not unfamiliar with that custom.
�Yep I did schoolies week too�, says Croft, from his Sydney home. �I did it there in Queensland too. It was great, and having done it, it helped me draw on the experience for the film�.
So what enticed the young actor to the project? �I read the script and I really liked it. I think it�s different, because it�s an ensemble movie, and better still it�s a teen movie. We just don�t have any teen movies here in Australia�, he says. �It�s about time�.
In the film, Croft plays Zack, but he�s quick to point out the characters as far away from real life as possible. �I don�t think I�m as na�ve as Zack�, he laughs.
Croft says he�s always been lucky to work with great actors, but never has he formed such friendships as he did on the set of �Blurred�. �I enjoyed it so much. Most of the time you usually come to the set, do your work, and everyone goes his or her separate ways. But I�ve actually stayed in contact with nearly everyone from this cast. That�s rare, but truth is, we were getting on even from rehearsals�.
Although Croft counts �Blurred� as one of his best experiences, he still has a soft spot for a film he did a few years ago called �That Eye, the Sky�. �It was beautiful. I couldn�t have asked for better people to work with either � Peter (Coyote) and Lisa Darrow were amazing. Not a bad way for someone to kick off their feature film career�. At the time, Croft says he was working on �A Country Practice�. �I decided to do the movie at the end of the original Channel 7 run, so that�s why I never went to Ten. It also didn�t entice me that the series was being moved to Melbourne. But I think I made the right decision�.
Croft, currently hosting a new series on Nickelodeon, says he�s heading to the states next Jan or Feb to suss out his options there. Shortly after he said people should be able to check him out in the �Blurred� DVD. �Thankfully, most of my scenes stayed. But there�s some good stuff near the end that will be worth checking out�.
BLURRED COMMENCES OCTOBER 31 AROUND AUSTRALIA
Featured on the Official The Real Macaw Webpage
In "The Real Macaw" Jamie Croft plays Sam Girdis, a teenager who is very fond of his eccentric grandfather.
Comments Croft: "Sam doesn't get on at all well with his father. But he adores his grandfather and spends as much time at his house as he can. He's much more interested in learning about life from his grandfather than he is in his schoolwork."
For Croft, working with Jason Robards was both an honour and an opportunity to hone his acting skills. "When I first met him I was very nervous, but he was so nice - he put me completely at ease. The amount of work he's done over the years is staggering. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to play opposite him and to watch the way he works."
When Croft first began to get to know the macaws, a few weeks before filming began, he was, he says: "very hesitant! Tango, the main parrot, has a real attitude and he would screech all the time, which was very off-putting. He bit me when we first met! However, over the weeks of filming we got to know each other very well and I was able to predict his various moods. By the end of the film we were great friends - I'll miss him. He's definitely the star of the film -he has all the best lines!"
At just 15 years old, Croft is already an industry veteran. Film credits include the recently completed "Joey" for Village Roadshow Pictures, in which he stars with a baby kangaroo; the role of Fred in Twentieth Century Fox's "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers"; a leading role in "That Eye The Sky" which won him both critical acclaim and a 1995 AFI Award for Best Young Actor; the voice of Napoleon in "Napoleon" directed by Mario Andreacchio; the voice of Impatiens in "Pettles Animation"; "Cats Cradle" and "Hope and the Mass of Men".
Television credits include starring roles in "A Country Practice"; "Mission Top Secret"; "Sun On The Stubble"; "The Territorians"; "Fire"; "Bordertown" and "Police Rescue".
Croft is a talented singer, dancer, ice-skater, gymnast and soccer player! His interest in acting was sparked by appearances in school plays, which led him to an agent and an acting scholarship. Unlike his character in "The Real Macaw", Croft is a very keen scholar and with a private tutor on set whenever he is filming, he has managed to stay at the top of his class. He intends to take time out from acting at the end of this year, so that he can concentrate on his schoolwork in years 11 and 12. "I think it's very important that I do concentrate on my school work at this time, because if I don't make the grade as an actor when I'm older, I'll always have other options. Although acting is in my blood now - I can't imagine doing anything else. It's always a challenge and it's given me so many opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have had."