{"id":328572,"date":"2026-03-14T01:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328572\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T01:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:14:07","slug":"david-wenham-we-are-a-stupid-species-we-really-dont-learn-david-wenham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328572\/","title":{"rendered":"David Wenham: \u2018We are a stupid species. We really don\u2019t learn\u2019 | David Wenham"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOh my God \u2026 that\u2019s me!\u201d David Wenham<\/a> stops in his tracks, eyes wide, as we walk past the hoardings around the construction site that used to be the Stables theatre in Darlinghurst. They\u2019re decorated with giant production photos from the theatre\u2019s illustrious past: a very young Cate Blanchett; the late Penny Cook; John Bell in full flight \u2026 and a 25-year-old Wenham violently squeezing fellow actor David Field\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

Wenham\u2019s playing of a violent ex-con in The Boys launched his career. The play, based on the 1986 rape and murder of Anita Cobby, had audiences queueing around the block in 1991.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so weird for me, so weird,\u201d says the now 60-year-old actor, surveying the enormous hole where the theatre had stood since 1970. Wenham has been coming here since he was a teenager. A new building is slated to open in 2027.<\/p>\n

Wenham remembers The Boys vividly. \u201cWe were very different actors back then,\u201d he says. \u201cWe drank real beer on stage. We walked on stage with a slab of cans. We would psych ourselves into those characters every night. It was raw and it was dangerous, and the audience felt that. But I was young and I didn\u2019t know how to cleanse myself of the anger at the end of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenham leaning against a poster featuring a picture of him starring in The Boys, the play based on the rape and murder of Anita Cobby which launched his career. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

He smiles, exhales. \u201cI\u2019d never put myself in that headspace now, and I don\u2019t really want to play characters like that ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a heavy, humid late afternoon a few days after Mardi Gras. There\u2019s thunder in the air and a police emergency playing out up the road in Potts Point. As we stroll, pedestrians push past towards Kings Cross station. He\u2019s a \u201cterrible jaywalker\u201d, impatient at the lights.<\/p>\n

On the other side, Uber Eats bikes wobble along the footpath. An elderly man walks his two greyhounds. Overhead, a flock of corellas is screeching and wheeling. Wenham pauses to watch them, hands in his pockets.<\/p>\n

Wenham lives in Queensland now, with his partner Kate Agnew (also an actor) and their two daughters, but he lived in Kings Cross for 25 years. When he first arrived, fresh out of drama school, the Cross was still Sydney\u2019s nightlife and underworld hub: bars and clubs stayed open late. Wenham and his actor colleagues would unwind over cheap beers, sometimes until dawn \u2013 or later.<\/p>\n

In the redeveloped Kings Cross of 2026, the energy is very different, but some colourful characters are still around. Walking past the Wayside Chapel, a local does a double take. \u201cG\u2019day David!\u201d he calls.<\/p>\n

Wenham \u2013 who is an ambassador for the Wayside, the Uniting Church mission founded by Father Ted Noffs in 1964 \u2013 grins and raises a hand in greeting. A few minutes later another bloke slows down, squints and asks: \u201cWere you in Lord of the Rings<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Wenham says, nodding easily. \u201cYes, I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor is involved with Wayside, a church initiative that helps people affected by homelessness. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The question \u2013 which he must have fielded hundreds of times over the past 20 years after his appearance in the trilogy \u2013 doesn\u2019t seem to bother him. If anything he looks slightly amused by it, like a man who knows that no matter what, he will always be Faramir, the brother of Boromir and the second son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor.<\/p>\n

Or Diver Dan, from Seachange, maybe.<\/p>\n

Wenham\u2019s Wayside ambassadorship isn\u2019t something he takes lightly. He stops to yarn with people milling around on the footpath. He laughs easily with them all.<\/p>\n

Wenham\u2019s been with the place through thick and thin. \u201cWhen I came aboard Wayside was not in a good way,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe building nearly had a condemned notice put on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a place, he says, that people can go to be listened to. \u201cThey\u2019ll always find somebody there to listen \u2013 not to judge, not even to \u2018help\u2019, but just to listen to them. It\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

We start walking down the hill deeper into Kings Cross. Wenham moves with the relaxed confidence of someone who still knows every corner of the neighbourhood. He seems happy to be back in his old stomping ground, which is good given he\u2019s here for an extended stay. He\u2019s now rehearsing a Sydney Theatre Company production, An Iliad, an adaptation of Homer\u2019s Trojan war epic. Wenham plays a wandering poet, a witness to the conflict who has spent the millennia since telling the tale to anyone who will listen \u2013 in the vain hope that humanity might learn from it. \u201cWe are a stupid species. We really don\u2019t learn,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Wenham is often approached because of his role as Faramir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Though An Iliad has its roots in ancient times, its references are tuned to the contemporary and the personal, explains Wenham. \u201cIt\u2019s more about how we live our lives and little incidents and occasions that people can relate to; things that trigger anger or rage. We all think, when we look at wars around the world, that it wouldn\u2019t be possible for us to be in that situation, or to be like that. But we all share exactly the same makeup; we all have the same trigger points for rage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that something he recognises in himself? \u201cWithout doubt,\u201d Wenham says. \u201cYeah, I can be short-tempered, and I\u2019m aware of it. I try to channel it into positive outcomes. Maybe it\u2019s just me getting older. I think before I jump into situations. When I was younger, I used to just open my mouth and then think about it later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenham calls Brisbane home these days (\u201cI\u2019ve become a flag-waver for Brisbane\u201d), but he\u2019s a Marrickville boy at heart, the youngest of seven kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe grew up in a little house on Illawarra Road, which \u2013 interestingly \u2013 I saw online the other day in an article about all the restaurants there. There were no restaurants when I grew up. But it was great. Ours was a very small house; I didn\u2019t have a bedroom. I had a bed next to the dining room table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenham remembers a childhood powered largely by imagination. The back yard was only a few metres wide but he would invent entire worlds there, then disappear into the back lane with the neighbour\u2019s kid to make up elaborate games. \u201cI suppose that\u2019s what acting is,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just creating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor grew up in Marrickville, before it was known for its restaurant scene, and grew up in a house where he slept by the dining table. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

He was a \u201cnaughty boy\u201d at school, he adds. \u201cI was a laughter junkie. I used to do impressions. I could do a very good Gough Whitlam.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was craving attention, he thinks. \u201cAs the last of seven kids, you\u2019re always fighting for attention. One of the Brothers [he went to a Catholic school] told my parents that he couldn\u2019t control the class because of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was suggested that young David might consider acting classes and learn some self-control. \u201cMy parents didn\u2019t have much money at all, not for that kind of thing,\u201d Wenham smiles. \u201cBut my birthday and Christmas presents were always tickets to the theatre. My dad used to go up to Sydney University when they had a book fair and buy all the play scripts for $1 or $2 each, and he took me to the Stables to see the Sunday matinee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, he realises how formative those trips were. \u201cThat theatre meant a lot to me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt probably planted the seed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019s delighted to be returning to the stage with An Iliad. \u201cThis is where I came from, this is what I do. Somebody once described me as a creature of the stage, and I\u2019ll grab that, I want that.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve drifted back towards the corner of Victoria Street. Fat drops of rain are slapping the pavement. A clap of thunder rolls across the harbour. It seems like a good time to go our separate ways. Wenham pauses and looks back down the street towards the Cross, slings his backpack over his shoulder and jaywalks across the street like a true local.<\/p>\n

An Iliad<\/a> plays at the Sydney Theatre Company from 13 April to 14 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOh my God \u2026 that\u2019s me!\u201d David Wenham stops in his tracks, eyes wide, as we walk past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-328572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}