With a sweet, sly smile on his face, Wakefield flirted with the idea of hitting up Cameron for a part in Avatar 2 -- he's also expressed interest in playing Peeta in The Hunger Games adaptation, a role that'd be well-suited for the athletic blond actor -- and recounted the physically demanding experience of filming the extreme waterborne adventure Sanctum.
There are quite a few of you Australians who've made the leap into Hollywood.
It's interesting. There are a lot of Aussies littering the place. I hope people aren't sick of us just yet!
Is there a sense of community, or unity, among you?
There is a sense of community. I worked with a lot of those guys - Chris Hemsworth, who's about to play Thor, and Isabel Lucas - on Home and Away.
Ah yes, Home and Away: Australia's most prolific talent factory! What is it about that show that has jump-started so many Hollywood careers?
Yeah! I mean, the turnaround on that show is so quick you have to learn fast, on the job. I think it's the best thing to do. It's like paid training. You work so fast, and you can see what works. You get constant feedback from watching yourself.
After acting on Home and Away and in smaller Australian films, how did this breakout role in Sanctum come to you?
I was in L.A., actually, when the briefing for it came to me from my Australian agent. It's kind of funny. I put down the test on tape here in L.A. and sent it off, then two days later Jim [Cameron] responded really well to the test. It was a really crazy thing! Then I flew back to Australia and met with the director, Alister Grierson, and with the actor who plays my father, Richard Roxburgh. Then it kind of came about; it was a fairly long process because they were still organizing the pre-production process.
How ironic, to come all the way to L.A. just to get your big break on a film back in Australia.
Yeah, it was! It was so weird. What a converted experience.
You were able to work with James Cameron on your first Hollywood production, which is a huge opportunity for an up-and-comer to have. What was your first impression of him and what sort of discussions did you have about the film and your work?
He has just been so supportive to me, a really nice guy. It's a very humbling experience, meeting him. He's one of the most successful filmmakers of all time -- I think he is the most successful filmmaker, the highest grossing -- and it's really humbling to meet him and see how relaxed he is. But he's kind of like a boy; he's like a child, with his child's imagination. But he has the intelligence and resources to back it up and make it reality, which is an exciting thing. I'm quite geeky in many ways and it was fun to talk to him about how what seems like science fiction isn't science fiction anymore. The technology, space travel, underwater travel... it's all very interesting.
Did working with Cameron on Sanctum give you an inside line on getting a role in Avatar 2? You've worked with him now, you've got the underwater filming experience...
[Laughs] We will wait and see.
Sanctum is inspired by an incredible true story, it's got genre elements, there's the father-son relationship and the coming of age arc. What was your initial reaction when you read the script? What kind of movie did you think this was going to be?
The film itself is dressed and packaged as -- and is -- a big action-adventure film, and it's such a boys' film in that way. But the core and the heart of it, the thing that really ropes the audience in right to the bitter end, is the father-son relationship. And that's what I loved about the script. It was such a pivotal part of the production. So getting that right was very important.
Richard Roxburgh plays your father; you two look quite a bit like you could be related.
We get that a lot!
You and Richard play a very intimate, angst-ridden father-son dynamic. How did you establish that chemistry with him off the bat?
They wanted to get us on the screen together, in the same frame, to make sure that we looked similar, and the director and Jim were like, "Great!" I'd met Richard once before at a friend's dinner, actually, which is really hilarious. He's so relaxed and funny, I've gotten on with him from the start. Catching up on this film and getting to know each other in these harsh environments and learning all these crazy skills, you bond with someone when you're out of your comfort zone a lot. So that just happened organically.
Speaking of the crazy skills you had to learn for the role, your character not only had to be a rock climber, he had to be an expert rock climber, and you rappel down enormous caverns and swim with no breathing aids. When you first heard of this project, did you have any idea of how difficult it would be?
No, I did not. I was so naïve to the prospect of how much action stuff I'd be doing. But I really did love the pre-production side and being physical and being forced to learn all of these skills that I may otherwise have never learned. I mean, yeah, looking like a professional is just hilarious. I remember at one point I'm running off a cliff and jumping off face-first as if it's the most regular thing to do in the world, and that's amazing. You just have to overcome any fear. Inside you're terrified, but you have to throw your body around and pretend. That's what acting really is. It's all smoke and mirrors.
That scene, in which you free-climb up a rock wall and then leap across a giant gap and pull yourself up by your fingertips on the other side. Did you do that stunt yourself?
Yeah, I really did that. And there's this moment where you leap off the cliff and you can't feel any rope or safety line holding you for a few seconds, and then it kicks in and you go, 'Okay, it's alright.' Especially going face-first. It's not natural.
The scope of the physical world in Sanctum is daunting, and the sets feel real -- so it's surprising to learn that much of it was shot with CG.
It's full-on. And that hole in the earth is all CG, which is amazing. Flawless. So many interviews have asked me where that was filmed and I'm like, "It was made up. It was computer-generated." But the sets that they built were incredible. I felt so lucky that there were tangible spaces where it was real, and you were in that space, and it was like no acting was required in many ways. It was probably 90 percent shot in sound stages and tanks.
Here's the big question: Didn't your fingers get all prune-y after so much time spent submerged in water?
[Laughs] That was the least of our worries! The soundstage was so cold, because the 3D cameras function best in a cold environment, so we were ice cold throughout the whole shoot. It was pretty amazing.
Amazing, you say?
[Laughs] Yes, I'm just being very polite about how harsh these circumstances were.
You have a scene in the film in which your character is submerged beneath a rock ceiling, finding tiny pockets of air to breathe from. How frightening was it to shoot that scene, having to perform while simultaneously having to find those air pockets just for your own base survival?
It was ridiculous. All of that, with myself underwater and no breathing apparatus and no mask or goggles. You can see about this far, and you've got rocks and cliffs everywhere in this really low lighting. So that was just crazy. It lent itself to become a very panic-stricken moment. You could go one of two ways. It became quite meditative and therapeutic -- and terrifying as well. It was a lot of having trust in the safety divers; the second they call "cut," or the second you're out of air, you put out your hand and you expect that a rig will be in your mouth as quick as possible.
Crazy.
It really is! You're under a canopy of rocks, you can't get out even if you wanted to. So it really gets scary. It was such a daunting shoot. You would see it in your schedule: "Josh, underwater swim." And I'd think, "Oh my God, how am I going to do this?"
So now you're living in L.A., you have your first studio film opening. What's your next career move?
Where I came from, after Home and Away I shot The Black Balloon which starred Toni Collette and Gemma Ward, and I loved doing that. It was such a personal story, a tiny little indie movie just shot in the suburbs of Sydney. That was a beautiful film that meant so much to so many people, and I felt honored just to have been a part of something like that. And then this film was so much fun -- learning these skills, getting fit for the role, training and meeting all these amazing people. So I really don't know. I'm looking just for a good role. An interesting role. A meaty progression in the script, is what I'm after. There are some projects on the horizon, and I'm just waiting to figure everything out.