MICHAEL NANKIN: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE 

Michael Nankin has worn many hats in the entertainment business. He has written, directed and produced for television shows such as ‘Picket Fences’, ‘American Gothic’, ‘Matt Waters’, ‘Flipper’, ‘Chicago Hope’,’LA Doctors’, ‘Monk’, ‘The Agency’ and ‘Strong Medicine’. He has also written and produced film and co-executive produced the Australian based series ‘Roar’. AUSUS magazine spoke to Michael about casting Heath Ledger, production difficulties on ‘Roar’ and what he’s planning to work on next. 

Q: When were you in Australia? 

1997. I had a great experience. We shot ‘Roar’ down there, with Heath Ledger. I was the producer and I directed one episode. The story is set in fourth century Ireland and we had a worldwide search to find a suitable location. We looked at Ireland, Canada, America and Australia. And of course the studio is heavily involved in the decision. Once we crunched the numbers and found what was available at the time we wanted it came down to Australia. Ireland itself would have been a suitable location but it’s very difficult to shoot there because of the weather, which is terrible. We shot on the Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, and worked out of Warner Bros. Studios. The only drawback to that was that my office was next to a rollercoaster! Every time I was on the phone people would ask ‘…who’s screaming?’ But it was beautiful there. Only a half hour drive to the hinter lands,the rainforests.

Q: Who was your director of photography? 

John Stokes. I remember when I first got there and John was scouting the location with us he pointed in one direction where the sun was behind us and said ‘…that’s Australia’. Then he pointed in the other direction where the sun was in front of us and said ‘…that’s Ireland’. When you’re scouting a location you always need to ask how this place serves the story.

Q: What was the mishap that happened in pre production?

 (Laughs). There was a critical error in the planning of the show. The story basically takes place near the beginning of civilization. The Romans have conquered Ireland and the various displaced people have come together to begin to form the beginning of a new civilization. This all takes place in a huge meadow, so we built this gigantic stage on the Warner Bros. lot. We said ‘…ok. This’ll be our standing set, the meadow. They start here and they come back here and this will be like the Enterprise, Star Trek. At great expense,  basically spending our entire budget for a year, we built this giant set. Cliffs, river running through it, waterfalls. The first day the dailies came back, I was sitting with the other producer, Ron Koslow, watching the night scenes. After watching for a while I turned to him and said ‘…it looks like they live in hell!’ It looked like just rocks and firelight. So every week from then on there was a renovation to the set, a new approach to lighting. And the daytimes looked like Sesame Street. Every director would walk on to the set, think about a shot and say’…let’s shoot it outside’.  So that gigantic, expensive set sat virtually unused. And the budget was already spent for set construction. A million American dollars. We had some outdoor sets nearby so we got a lot of mileage out of them. Plus we used miniatures, extending sets digitally and so on. It became like poverty road productions on an expensive show because we’d like, blown our wad.

 Q: How did you find Heath Ledger?

I think he was doing an Australian soap opera at the time. We did casting in the US, London and Sydney. We held our sessions here in LA and then were sent the tapes from the other countries. Literally, at the last minute, this tape with Heath Ledger came on and we all looked at it and said ‘…that’s a star’. He was amazing, so we brought him over for a screen test. He got on a seventeen hour plane flight and then was whisked off to Universal Studios, where we put him on a set of another show we were shooting at the time and said ‘…okay, here’s the scene’. He just went right into it. He didn’t even blink. He was pretty good but he just had this presence which was unmistakable. He has this surprisingly deep voice for his looks. He’s this, you know, blond pretty boy. And that was riveting. He also had a very economical way of moving. He moved with authority for someone of such a young age. The role was for this kid who had to unite Ireland after his family was killed. He had to become a leader.  Think of act one of  Star Wars. He fit that perfectly. Apparently, after the audition, the head of casting closed her doors and said ‘…oh my god, he’s only seventeen.’

Q: What nationality were the rest of the actors in the show?

Most of the main actors were American. The guest stars and day players were all Australian. One of the critical tests in casting was whether or not the actor could pull off the Irish accent. To an American ear, the Australians are halfway there already. Maura Fay, our Sydney casting director, helped us with this. Most of the locals we hired came from Sydney.

Q: What happened to ‘Roar?’

Well the series got cancelled. I was disappointed because I loved doing the show. Of  the fifteen episodes we shot, only eight of them ever aired. I directed one of the episodes which we filmed at the Marriot. It was shown on the sci-fi channel but Fox over there pulled the plug.

Q: Do you have any plans to shoot in Australia in the future?

Not right now. I’d love to though. It depends on economics and also the story itself. It’s difficult to shoot an American story outdoors down there because you have to change everything around. The street signs, the way the traffic travels and so on. But if it’s shot indoors or it’s an Australian project then that’s different.

Q: Michael, you’ve worn many hats in this business. Do you have a preference?

My first love is directing but I haven’t done it for a while. I took six months off because I was a little burned out. I had two projects last year that were very difficult and time consuming and did not go. The networks are taking pitches right now so I’m focusing on the producing and directing. If I can get that going I’ll have a stronger power base and therefore better choices as a director. If you can create a show and get it going then doors fly open. In February the networks make their decisions about which pilots they’re going to shoot. Only a very small percentage of scripts actually get made. Pilots are shot and finished by May. After this they take more pitches. You pitch the story, the characters, where the series will eventually go. I’m currently working on three different stories. You just don’t want them to ask the question you can’t answer. ‘What happens to that character?’…’…oh, I don’t know!’

Q: Do you pitch alone or with a partner?

I’ve done it both ways.  Two of the projects I’m working on now I have a partner. One of the projects is designed specifically for the WB. It’s sort of a Jekyll and Hyde story set in a high school. If the WB doesn’t take it then we can take it somewhere else.

Q: You’ve done a lot of different ‘types’ of projects. Is that a conscious choice or has it just evolved that way?

I like to change as often as possible. I don’t want to be classified as just a comedy guy, or just a horror guy. If I start repeating myself I just want to jump out a window. I take on a variety of projects but sometimes I have to make choices based on hard commerce. I need to make the money. But that’s why I’m attracted to directing. It’s never the same twice.

Q: How did you learn to direct?

I started directing when I was ten. My grandfather gave me a standard eight camera. I would play with it all the time. It’s funny, my filmmaking partner from junior high up till about the age of nineteen or twenty, called me recently and we watched some of the stuff that we’d shot. Some of it was very primitive but there was a certain joy that we had about making it that was infectious. It was in the product. Two kids that really loved directing and making films. They were mostly comedies too.

Q: After high school you went to UCLA?

Yes. I went to art school there as I also loved to draw and paint. I never thought I could actually make a living as a filmmaker but it’s funny because my frustration with the art department there led me to say ‘…well,I gotta try the film’. So I made a student film which got some attention. All through this time I was making films and submitting them to festivals. The first film of mine that really broke out was called ‘Gravity’. It was a parody of 1960’s science films. It was nine minutes long and had a little animated character. It was all about gravity and it was surreal. It just took off on the festival circuit. Then the next student film that got me started was called ‘Junior High School’. It was a musical starring Paula Abdul. She was fourteen at the time. I was out of college by this time. The film was made for about three hundred dollars and we rented out the Directors Guild theatre for another three hundred dollars and just called everybody we knew. Anybody who had a connection in the movie industry. We had a screening and we just got lucky. We got a deal with Disney. The guy who saw it was the head of animation over there. His name, believe it or not, was Donald Duchwald! He called his bosses and said ‘…you’ve got to see this film’. We thought it would be hard!

Q: Do you have any plans to go back to filmmaking?

 Yes. One thing I did in my six months off was write two movies, which I’m now shopping around. One is a very nasty thriller. Very low budget. Around two million dollars. The other one is an incredibly sweet and life affirming romantic comedy. I guess I was preparing for the Jekyll and Hyde story! I plan to direct these as well.

Q: Does your success in television help you in the film industry?

A little bit. But they’re really two different businesses. I had a pretty good career going at one point as a feature film writer. But I wasn’t getting close to directing. A friend of mine who directed a movie that I wrote had directed a pilot called ‘Life Goes On’. He called me up and said ‘…you’ve got to come see this thing’. I loved it and I loved the people working there so I said ‘…sign me up’. That’s how I first got into TV.

Q: Does  your overall success in the business guarantee you continual work?

No. I’m terrified every time a project ends that I’ll never work again. Taking that six months off I was scared people would just forget me.

Q: Do you like working with same actors over and over?

Absolutely. If I click with an actor then that’s amazing. That has happened and there are a core group of actors I try to call in on every project.

Q: Do you have a certain directing ‘style’?

 I try to make my enjoyment of the job infectious. When I direct actors, unless I’m telling them the story, I try to say less than ten words. If I haven’t made my point by then then I’m lost. I also like to be the one to think of the idea the actors haven’t thought of. And I love working with the composition and the color of the piece.

Q: Are you involved in the casting of your shows?

Yes. I think the director John Huston said that if you cast your show right then ninety per cent of your work as a director is done. Then it’s just finesse.

Q: At the end of your career what would you like people to say about your body of work?