BURGESS’ ROLE FIT FOR ROYALTY
BEING the son of two local producers, actor Burgess Abernethy was destined to go in the family business.
From doing extra work on his school holidays to scoring lead roles in Beastmaster, H20: Just Add Water and iZombie, he has long been immersed in the entertainment industry.
The former Robina High School student, who is now based in Vancouver, Canada, has just starred as Prince William in the Lifetime film Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance.
“The reaction to the film has been great,” he said. “There’s a lot of diehard royals fans out there.
“I guess they were having trouble finding their Will – the British dialect can be pretty tricky for North Americans to pull off.
“When my agent called me and told he was working on getting me into the rooms to audition for Prince William, my initial reaction was ‘really?’
“But when I met the director and cast members there was an energy that felt right.
“I think that chemistry helps in engaging the viewers.
“Also, the hair team did a great job of thinning out my hair and we had a great dialogue coach, so those two things really helped in the transformation.”
With little knowledge of the royal family prior to the film, Abernethy, 31, said he prepared for the role by “cramming” episodes of The Crown.
“I had only about 24 hours from when I got the role to when we were in read throughs,” he said.
“I did my best to brush up on the British upper-class dialect and had interviews with Will on repeat.
“It was hilarious talking to the crew at the wrap party, they were like, ‘you’re Australian? I thought you were British.”
The film was shot in Vancouver with Abernethy saying they were doing 14-hour days in front of the camera, something he says he wasn’t used to.
But his hard work and effort has paid off, with viewers loving the film. He says he now gets recognised on the street.
“I get recognised in the weirdest places, I got it a lot when I was living in New York a couple of years ago,” he said.
“One of the shows I worked on out of drama school is very popular on Netflix in North America.”
Now he plans to develop a TV series that he has written based on a true crime story which took place in Perth.
“The really exciting thing about this industry is you never know what’s going to come next,” he said.
IT WAS HILARIOUS TALKING TO THE CREW ... THEY WERE LIKE, ‘YOU’RE AUSTRALIAN? I THOUGHT YOU WERE BRITISH’. BURGESS ABERNETHY