This interview with David from Cinema Australia is such a fantastic read. I love what he says about Rob’s performance & obviously I could not agree more. Have included some excerpts below & you can read the full interview here at the source.

You’ve worked together with Guy Pearce on both The Rover and Animal Kingdom. How did your relationship with him begin and can you see yourself working with him again in the future?
I can absolutely see myself working with him again. I love working with Guy because he’s an incredibly talented actor with an extraordinary skill set. When we made Animal Kingdom we offered Guy the role about a year before we shot because he was always my first choice to play the character he played. I didn’t know him before then and he said yes very quickly and very enthusiastically. At that point in my career that was a very reassuring vote of confidence. When it came time to make the film I had a great experience with him. I love that experience of working with an incredibly professional and meticulous actor with whom I could create a character in fine detail.

Was Guy just as keen to jump on board for The Rover?
It didn’t take a huge amount of convincing. I wrote the character with him in mind.

Was he aware that you were writing this character for him?
I very frequently write characters with actors voices in my head but I never tell the actors about that because who knows, circumstances change and characters change. I never like to tell an actor that I want them to do something until I’m ready to make an offer. In this particular instance, when I sent the script to him, he and I really wanted to work together again but, as you know, the character he plays in The Rover is very taciturn and emotionally closed and damaged character so there were conversations we needed to have about what I was asking him to do before he would fully commit. Once we had had those conversations and he came on board there was still a hell of a lot more talking to be done. Right up until we started shooting we would be doing that work that we needed to do to create that kind of monstrous creature that he plays in The Rover.

How exciting was it for you to get Robert onboard. There’s a huge commercial element and a built in audience that comes with Robert, so was that a factor in your excitement?
It remains to be seen because I never know what the commercial results of having an actor in your movie might be but there is certainly a thrill to be had in knowing that you’ll be working with someone who is as profoundly famous as Robert is and giving them an opportunity to demonstrate a skill set that people possibly don’t even know he has. I think Robert is extraordinary in this movie. I’ve obviously seen it a thousand times and I just love losing myself in his performance and I love watching him and Guy bounce off each other. Two wildly different characters having to figure each other out performed by wonderful actors. This is what the thrill of directing is all about.

Did they get along off screen?
Totally. They’re both really beautiful human beings and given the nature of the shoot and that we were out in the middle of nowhere in really challenging conditions meant that after a days work was done we really bonded in a warm and special way.

If we could just go back for a second. What happened to Nash Edgerton’s involvement in the film?
Joel, Nash and I didn’t really know what we were doing. Joel and I talked about this thing for a week or two then I went away to start writing and I pretty quickly worked out that what I was doing was writing a screenplay for myself. We have all worked quite intimately with one another over the years so when it came to make The Rover,Nash was intimately involved with me pre-visualising some of the action sequences and he was on set in a stunt capacity.

How important is Australian cinema to you and how do you see yourself fitting into this world in the near future?
Australian cinema is incredibly important to me because it’s my cinema. It’s where I’m from and it’s the language that I speak. I love writing Australian characters because I love writing in a vernacular that I’m completely familiar with and I love exploring the wild and strange Australian experience. The more I travel the more I realise what a totally unusual country this place is and the opportunity it presents for creating strange and unusual drama are almost endless.