Pedersen a different kind of leading man
Hat, boots, holster. Furrowed brow and taciturn demeanor. The grizzled, bearded detective Jay Swan may hail from Down Under and travel in an SUV instead of on a horse, but he is an immediately recognizable archetype — straight out of a Hollywood Western.
Yet there is an important difference between him and the law-enforcing gunslingers of yore: Jay, like the man who portrays him, Aaron Pedersen, is an Aboriginal Australian — still a rarity in leading roles in a country wrestling with its history of violence against Indigenous populations.
For Pedersen, this is the crux of the character, making the successful Jay Swan franchise — which includes the award-winning TV show “Mystery Road” — about a lot more than cuffing bad guys and riding off into the sunset.
“They are without a doubt individual conversations that I’m having with the people in Australia,” Pedersen, 49, said by Zoom about the series and two movies in the “Mystery Road” universe. “We, Indigenous Australians, see the world very differently. This is our version of how we see it, how it resonates within us and how it affects us on a personal level and a professional level.”
Season 2 of “Mystery Road,” which made its U.S. debut last Monday on Acorn TV, begins as a headless body is found among the mangroves. Dispatched to investigate, Jay quickly uncovers, as usual, a thorny mess. Adding to the complications, an archaeologist (Sofia Helin) digs up as much strife as she does ancient artifacts. And as usual, Jay is called on to solve a metastasizing case while walking a precarious tightrope between cultures.
“Jay is mistrusted by the white community,” one of the show’s producers, Greer Simpkin, said in a separate Zoom interview. “He has access to the Aboriginal community, but they don’t trust him because he represents white justice.”
For an Indigenous man, playing a cop comes freighted with conflicting pressures given Australia’s brutal colonial legacy, which continues to shape race relations there.
“With every Indigenous character, there’s an underlying politic that just goes hand in hand with who they are,” said Wayne Blair, who acted in Season 1, codirected Season 2 and, like Pedersen, is Indigenous. “And that creates another layer of disorder, another layer of someone trying to solve things, of trying to do what’s fair in the world.”
It’s a responsibility Pedersen takes to heart.
“Aaron has accepted and embraced his role as a leader and role model for Indigenous people, particularly young people,” Australian actress Judy Davis, who starred in Season 1, wrote in an email. “It was not simply an acting gig for him, but a means to an end — trying to give courage and belief to the young Aboriginal kids who flocked around him constantly.
“He was like a rock star — which, in a sense, he is.”
Pedersen’s physical density and natural poise bring to mind the screen presence of a Robert Mitchum or late-period Gary Cooper — his “Mystery Road” character looks strong as an ox and immovable as chiseled granite.