The Australian Women's Weekly

WHAT’S ON:

Actor turned director Simon Baker speaks to Michael Sheather about his latest film Breath, the movie of author Tim Winton’s blockbuste­r novel.

- EDITED by N I CO L E H I C KS O N

the diary, plus our pick of the month’s best TV and movies

BREATH Opens MAY 3

When Simon Baker (above, left) was growing up in Lennox Head on the NSW north coast, he was a tanned, tousle-headed surfie kid with a board under one arm and a burning desire for big wave adventure. As such, it was almost inevitable that Simon, the Aussie actor who took US TV audiences by storm as Patrick Jane in The Mentalist, should one day make a film like Breath.

The movie, directed by Simon, who also plays the male lead Bill “Sando” Sanderson, brings Tim Winton’s hugely successful 2008 novel Breath to the screen with a surge of emotional power that is irresistib­le and all the more remarkable for it being Simon’s first outing as a director.

“There have been aspects of this film that have been gestating in me for more than 30 years,” says Simon, 48. “Growing up, there were so many fascinatin­g characters in that little world and later I always thought I’d one day make a film about that aspect of growing up. But there was no Tim Winton in that, and no ocean. That came much later when I read Breath. And what I saw was something I could relate to, a part of my life that connected me to the two teenagers and their relationsh­ips and the love affairs you have at that age.”

Breath tells the tale of Pikelet and Loonie, growing up in a small coastal town. They fall in with “Sando” Sanderson, a former champion surfer searching for both relevance and an adrenalin high in conquering ever more dangerous waves. At its heart, Breath is about coming of age, consequenc­e and responsibi­lity.

Simon worked side by side with Tim Winton. “Working with an author who is so revered and a book that is so well regarded is a little dangerous because in a lot of ways you are just setting yourself up to fail, but I think Tim was happy with the way it turned out,” says Simon.

Breath also stars Elizabeth Debicki Richard Roxburgh and Rachael Blake.

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