Roy Billing: from Under the Mountain to Underbelly...

Interview – 2010

Actor Roy Billing talked of becoming "an overnight sensation in my early 60s", after playing 'Aussie Bob' Trimbole in hit Australian drama Underbelly. Before that he had a successful 30 year acting career in both Australia (Rabbit Proof Fence, The Dish, Rake) and New Zealand (Inside Straight, Gliding On, Skin and Bone).

In this ScreenTalk, Billing talks about:

His one-line debut in Beyond Reasonable Doubt, the movie about the Arthur Allan Thomas case
Being mistaken for a taxi driver on the set of Inside Straight
Getting a taste of fame after marrying Beryl on Gliding On
Being accused of impersonating a pilot, during the making of miniseries Erebus: The Aftermath
Basing the character of Tupper on his father in Skin and Bone
Playing a cross-dresser in Mirror Mirror and looking like his mother-in-law, Dame Cath Tizard
Working with Sam Neill in the Australian film The Dish
Trying to make the audience love drug dealer 'Aussie Bob' Trimbole in TV's Underbelly
How Underbelly became Australia's highest rating show to date, and made his career

This video was first uploaded on 26 July 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Tupper is still one of my favourite roles. He's based on my father, who was so much like Tupper it wasn't funny. He came and saw the play once . . . and there's a fair bit of language in the play. And my father sort of stood there. He swears like a trooper himself, and he said 'Jesus f***ing Christ Roy, there's a lot of bloody swearing in that play'...
– Roy Billing on his father inspiring Billing's portrayal of Tupper in classic play Foreskin's Lament, and its TV adaptation Skin and Bone

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