Brad boy rising puts act back into action
BRAD McMurray is one of the city’s most prolific actors, having featured alongside bigscreen royalty in 62 film and TV shows in the past 25 years.
But most people do not know his name.
“The first thing people ask is if I’ve starred in anything they know,” he says from his Parkwood home.
“It’s not until I say I’ve been on Neighbours and Home and Away people realise I’m an actor because they’ve been Australian staples for so many years.
“I get a lot of bad guy roles. I’m a bit of a clown really but I guess I’m 6ft4in and 110kg so it makes sense.”
Mr McMurray, a former chef, has starred as the moustache man in the award-winning Lambs of God; a security guard in both the upcoming Godzilla vs Kong alongside Alexander Skarsgard and Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, and San Andreas with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnston; “thug No.1” in Absolute Deception starring Cuba Gooding Jr; a barman in TV series The Lost World; the leagues club cop alongside Toni Collette in the Blue Murder sequel; a bad guy in multiple episodes of both Neighbours and Home and Away; and as Wendall Overman in Elsa Pataky’s Tidelands.
And now he is considering overseas projects after signing with UK management.
The 48-year-old moved to the Gold Coast from Sydney in 1993, starting off as an apprentice chef. Within three years he was a professional actor.
“There was a lot of American content being filmed here. I was jumping from The Lost World, BeastMaster and on to other movies. I had a really good run. It was a golden time.
“When September 11 hit a lot of the American productions packed up and went home to support their families and friends. There was a real slump in the industry.
“You sort of just have to ride the waves out. The industry really runs in cycles, especially when the Australian dollar fluctuates.
“Quite often you become really close with everyone while working together,” he said.
“That was very much the case when we did Tidelands on Netflix. Chris Hemsworth’s wife Elsa Pataky, Charlotte Best and I all hung out regularly and went out for dinner often.
“We became this really close crew. I think that’s partly because we knew it was the first time a Netflix Original Series was shot in Australia so it was something special for us.
“Every time I start a new gig it feels like I’ve formed a new family and I get a bit like ‘oh no’ when I have to say goodbye to them.”
Mr McMurray has been living at Parkwood since the early 2000s.
To keep income flowing outside of acting, he set up a studio at home for private coaching to help budding actors with their international audition tapes.
“I was shooting my own tapes and sending them overseas. I started getting casting directors saying ‘hey, we have this actor I want to audition, can you coach them?’
“All of a sudden this market opened up and I had to build a home studio.
“A few months ago I had two young guys come to me and I shot their audition for a big Disney film, Swimming For Gold, and they both booked lead roles on it.
“I get asked a lot to teach actors how to cry and sometimes my kids will come down to get breakfast and someone is crying in the main studio. You wouldn’t see that at other households.”