australian television information archive

Stepping back in time

The chance to step back in time and relive life in colonial Australia in the 1850s in Seven's new bush western drama Wild Boys was a career move Melbourne-born actor Nathaniel Dean couldn't pass up.

"For me, it's been the poetry," he said during a film break on the idyllic country set in New South Wales, about an hour's drive out of Sydney.

"I mean, you go out to the locations and there are some days when we're out on set and you'll have all the camera crews and the chaos right in front of you.

"You've got real people in costumes, horses, carts, and it's an amazing set in front of you.

"You can really lose yourself and step back into that time."

For Dean, stepping into the shoes of Hopetoun's crim turned man-of-the-law, Mick Scanlon, was like living out a childhood dream as he grew up hearing stories of the infamous men of the bush.

"I grew up at the base of the Mt Dandenong ranges in Melbourne," he said.

"Some of my earliest memories were hearing bushranger stories, watching The Man from Snowy River and the like."

When the 36-year-old first heard about the big-budget period series, he was far away - trekking through Africa.

"I was teaching for a charity and I got the call that this was happening," he said.

"So I finished up over there and flew back to a month of five hours a day of horse training, armoury training and fight rehearsals.

"So, yeah it was pretty fun."

Dean has done his fair share of acting in both TV and film and one of his greatest film credits is his award-winning portrayal of a grief-stricken 20-something alongside Vince Colosimo in the 2002 film Walking on Water .

But Dean admits that playing Scanlon is one of his more complex roles.

"Mick is a guy who plays his cards close to his chest," he said.

"And in a lot of ways, his past will always come back to haunt him.

"To play a guy who was effectively an orphan at 10 and did a lot of cattle duffing and stealing horses before spending three years in jail and getting an early release to end up in the role of Hopetoun sergeant, for me, was something pretty juicy to jump into."

And after last week's fiery episode saw Scanlon propose to Hopetoun's brothel madam Mary Barrett (played by Perth-born actress Zoe Ventoura), there seems to be a love triangle brewing between the pair and Wild Boys gang leader Jack Keenan (Daniel MacPherson), with whom Barrett was secretly involved.

But Dean wasn't going to let slip whether Scanlon and Barrett would be heading down the aisle anytime this season. "We'll see how that plays out I guess," he said.

"I think Mick's very patient and I think he's very aware of Jack and Mary's history, so he's willing to kind of wait around."

By Vanessa Williams
September 15, 2011
The West Australian