{"id":919941,"date":"2026-10-07T23:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919941\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T23:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:10:20","slug":"launceston-actor-turns-hair-loss-into-a-feature-film-with-400-tasmanians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919941\/","title":{"rendered":"Launceston actor turns hair loss into a feature film with 400 Tasmanians"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Launceston actor has turned his hair loss journey into a feature film starring a former premier and a Home and Away actor, with more than 400 people involved in its production across Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Michael Ballard is the producer, director, writer and lead actor of Balding, which took seven years to make.<\/p>\n

The film, made with his wife Emma, will premiere at Launceston\u2019s Star Theatre on October 29.<\/p>\n

Ballard said the project started at the end of 2019 as a short film, after he was diagnosed with skin conditions including psoriasis and was \u201cpretty much losing my hair\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Balding will premiere at Launceston\u2019s Star Theatre on October 29. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

He said there was \u201ctoo much stigma around it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I was just like, \u2018You know what?\u2019, I\u2019m going to claim it. I\u2019m going to do the Dwayne The Rock Johnson and just be proud to be bald,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"More than 400 Tasmanians appear in the film including former newsreader Peter Gee. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The project grew as more people agreed to take part. Filming slowed during COVID-19 lockdowns and the final shoot was in 2024.<\/p>\n

The cast includes former premier Peter Gutwein, local MP Michael Ferguson, Launceston mayor Matthew Garwood and former ABC newsreader Peter Gee.<\/p>\n

Actor John X, Home and Away\u2019s Lisa Gormley, Australian Idol winner Damien Leith and Beaconsfield mine survivor Brant Webb also appear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want it to be a community film where it was made for Tasmanians,\u201d Ballard said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lisa Gormley from Home and Away is among the cast of Balding. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an idea and then I thought, \u2018This person would be great. I\u2019ll just message them\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Tassie, so you\u2019ll know someone who knows them or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballard said Gutwein was \u201cmore chilled\u201d about appearing in the film than he expected and agreed to perform a dance that made it into the final cut.<\/p>\n

He also messaged every former prime minister. Julia Gillard replied that she was busy, while Paul Keating declined in a letter.<\/p>\n

\"\"Launceston mayor Matthew Garwood joined the cast of the Tasmanian film. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The comedy-drama follows a successful local theatre actor and hairdresser who is diagnosed with aggressive psoriasis and loses his acting roles as he goes bald.<\/p>\n

It includes a Bollywood sequence filmed in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and a hallucination scene in which a doctor turns into a giant panda.<\/p>\n

Ballard said the story also follows the character\u2019s efforts to be a good son to a neglectful father.<\/p>\n

While the premiere is a private event, Ballard said companies that place films on streaming services had approached him. There is no release date yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Launceston actor has turned his hair loss journey into a feature film starring a former premier and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-919941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}