Playing politics
As the final season of Rake airs, Richard Roxburgh reflects on the show and tells DANIELLE MCGRANE about placing the roguish barrister in Aussie politics.
When Richard Roxburgh first started playing Cleaver Greene, he didn’t know the brilliant barrister would end up in the Australian Senate, yet it seems like the perfect way to see off a character he’s played for nearly a decade. As the star and co-creator of
Rake, Roxburgh can say with certainty that making Cleaver a senator for the show’s final season wasn’t something they had cooked up at the start of his TV life.
“We never really had that long scope for Rake but at a certain point it seemed like a fabulous idea,” Roxburgh said.
“We thought that would be a great thing to happen to somebody like Cleaver. And I think it was because of the state of play in the Australian Senate and the array of characters in there, how particularly kind of nut-job it all was, it just seemed like a perfect fit.”
At the end of season four, the shambolic barrister found himself voted into the Senate based on a promise to basically achieve nothing.
The outcome left Roxburgh with a new environment to explore for his final outing in the role.
“There’s a whole other thing at play and a whole bunch of new characteristics and quirks, and a procedure and protocol and behaviour to wrap our heads around. For all of us it was kind of starting from scratch,” he said.
“It was a new world and there was a lot involved.”
Luckily, he was given some assistance by people who were pretty experienced in the workings of this new environment.
“We had a lot of help along the way. Politicians tend to be fans of Rake so that helped out quite a lot,” he said.
“I went to Canberra recently about the streaming issues that are currently on the Australian landscape a few weeks ago, and so I had a chance to meet a lot of them then and they were all very excited about the idea of Cleaver Greene being in the Senate.”
The actor did revel somewhat in his character’s new environment. The setting, alone, for this season lends another layer of comedy to the show without having to really try.
“It’s Cleaver in the Senate. So Cleaver is down in Canberra and that alone is a kind of amusing idea,” he said.
“He’s coming to grips with the new world and it’s not really the world he thought it was going to be, and there are whole other things at play that are a complete surprise to him.
“And of course, being Cleaver, he tries to get his way around things and he’s caught out and things constantly blow up in his face, literally at times this season. It’s a lot of fun and hijinks and we walk that tightrope line we always walk in Rake.”
His personal life is still a disaster, and most of the characters who’ve been as much a part of the show as Cleaver have managed to get down to Canberra as well to stir things up.
“It’s Cleaver putting out a whole lot of personal fires, all over the place. And as soon as he puts out one, there’s another one even more confronting and worse,” he said.
“And he’s obviously in financial straits as he always is. He can’t conceptualise how that might be the case, and so it’s great. It’s all that stuff people love seeing where Cleaver has to tip-toe across the embers of life.”
It is, of course, the final outing for Cleaver and Roxburgh promises there are a few plot twists towards the end to help say goodbye.
Roxburgh can also safely say that Rake is set to go out on a high.
“I think we had to kiss it goodbye and say that part of our lives was done,” Roxburgh said.
“I think it was the right time. It’s been eight years and I think we’ve done a beautiful thing, and we’re so proud of it and we loved it so much.”
Rake Tonight, 8.30pm on ABC