IGGY LAD NOW A STAR
A FORMER Townsville schoolboy once wrote in a yearbook that he “eventually wanted to travel”, but little did anyone know that he would become one of Hollywood’s leading men.
Ignatius Park College old boy Jason Clarke has risen to the top of Hollywood and starred alongside the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ryan Gosling, Tom Hardy and Johnny Depp in some of the biggest films to have hit the screen over the past decade.
From blockbuster franchises such as Planet of the Apes and Terminator to critically acclaimed flicks like Mudbound and Zero Dark Thirty, Clarke has become one of the most highly rated and versatile actors in the world.
Rubbing shoulders with A-list celebrities is now an everyday fact of life for Clarke, but there was a time when he was another Townsville school student looking towards the future.
He went to Ignatius Park College in 1985 and 1986 and is remembered fondly as a humble student who got along with his classmates.
“He was a quiet lad, he was a good student,” long-time Ignatius Park teacher John Alloway said.
“He didn’t say too much, but I remember him saying ‘you only live once, you have to make the most of it’.
“He didn’t go searching for attention, he liked to keep a low profile.”
Clarke’s films have grossed more than $500 million since he hit the big screen in 1992, with his first big success coming in the critically a c - claimed Australian film
R a b b i t P r o o f Fence in 2002.
But the Winton-born actor has stayed true to his schoolboy self and shunned the limelight outside of work, with his name still garnering blank looks from cinemagoers.
But there’s usually instant recognition when his face is shown, whether it be from seeing him from
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes or one of his early TV appearances on
Blue Heelers.
“I enjoy the craft, not the celebrity,” Clarke said recently.
“I don’t want to be in a big Marvel m o v i e where it becomes your life. Yes, you can travel on a private jet, but I’m pretty happy taking my kids to the pool on a Saturday afternoon and enjoying what I do. “I want a life outside this business. I like my time not being an actor, not worrying about chasing this role or reading that script. I like to read books because I enjoy them, rather than because there might be a film in them.”
Born and raised in Winton and the son of a shearer, Clarke’s family shifted to South Australia before returning to North Queensland in the 1980s, which was when Clarke began his time at Ignatius Park.
Clarke was a student at ‘Iggy’ in 1985 and 1986, and in his 1986 yearbook Clarke wrote that he wanted to study law “while at the same time enjoying a good social life and to eventually travel”.
He did indeed go on to study law after high school, but as fate would have it, Clarke dropped his university studies, stuck to his “only live once motto” and pursued acting instead by enrolling at Sydney’s Actors
Studio alongside another future film star, Hugh Jackman.
“I’d be a sweaty ambulance chaser if I hadn’t (gone to drama school),” Clarke said.
Clarke, who joins a long list of Iggy Park alumni such as Michael Morgan and Valentine Holmes, is starring in the upcoming film The Devil All The Time alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Pattinson. After that is a thriller titled Silk Road, which was filmed last year.
And as the moviegoing public prepares to re-enter theatres in coming months, Clarke is rem a i n i n g grounded despite his spectacular success.
“Practising the art is the art. Good or bad or monetised is up to other people,” Clarke says.
“I’d love to be one of those veteran English actors, like Sir Ian Mckellen, working on screen into my 80s and 90s. I don’t want to be put in a box and told who I can and can’t be.”