An Interview with Bryan Brown from ‘Darby and Joan’

Actor Bryan Brown has basically done it all. He’s been on stage, on the small and big screen and earned an Emmy nomination along the way. Currently, he’s starring in the new Acorn TV series, Darby and Joan, and we here at NTG were fortunate enough to sit down with Bryan to discuss his new role as Jack Darby.
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John Betancourt: What was it that attracted you to this project?

Bryan Brown: Well, I think the nuts and bolts of it got to me when they said look… it’s got an English woman coming out to Australia to look for her dead husband, and a cop who's decided that he's just run away from the world. And they crash in the Outback and have share a car together and I went, “Well, that's a very good, that's a very good premise.” Because you've set up two people that are carrying garbage, carrying stuff that they have to deal with. And they're being forced to be together and neither knows the other. So, I thought that's a great premise. Now the point is, you got to, how do you make them ally? And where do we go with it? But they got me, they got me on that on that initial idea, I thought was a very good, good idea. And particularly for the age range too, you know? Pete Berman's going around in in vans all over the world now. You know, it's a legitimate and a very popular form of enjoying life with the boomer and so I thought you know, it had a relevance.

John Betancourt: What was it that attracted you to the role of Jack Darby?

Bryan Brown: Well, I like cops. You know, I like cops. I like cops because they deal with the dirty end of town. We we all sit around going, “Oh bloody cops. Look at them.” But if they weren't there, keeping it, keeping the crap away from us, then we'd really be in trouble. So, I like that the world that they have to deal with because it's bloody hard. And I remember going out with a cop in LA. I was doing a show there. And I went out to South Central LA for the night with this cop and he said to me, said, “You gotta retire after about 20 years.” He said, “Because if you keep mixing with the shit, you become the shit.”  I remember thinking, wow, “What other game, is that that obvious that a bloke has to say something.?”

So, you know, I wasn't going to get into it too deep with him. I thought, that's what you have to carry, mate. You're carrying a darkness that eventually will envelop you if you don't get out of it. You're carrying all the darkness that we avoid. So, I've always found them interesting. Their world very interesting and very difficult. So, and I’ve played a few cops. But this was a cop who… who's running away from the force. So, what's going on? And you know, takes two or three episodes for you start to get into where, what he's dealing with. But so, you know, like, it's a main character and also the age, you know, you're carrying stuff, can you get it resolved, do you want to get it resolved, you're in the shadow of life, all that sort of stuff. All those things are interesting to me.

John Betancourt: Now you bring up an interesting angle there. In that, as an actor how do you get into the mindset of carrying that kind of weight?

Bryan Brown: Yeah, I just say the words.

John Betancourt: (laughs) See! You’re that good!

Bryan Brown: No, you know, you allow the script to take you to places, your job is to try and emotionally connect in your own way with whatever those moments are. And where those moments aren't there… you know, whatever, the script allows you to play, some humor or some back chatter or whatever, but you know, you're not someone who's massively effusive all the time, you know, you're carrying stuff.

John Betancourt: Now I noticed this series is loaded with themes, the pilot alone has so much to say about loss and grief. What’s the one that resonated with you the most?

Bryan Brown: Trying to escape life. You can’t. I find that thing with this thing is like, you've got one character… the lady… whose traveling looking for answers. And you've got the cop, who's traveling to avoid questions. And they're thrown together. Because, you know, he doesn't want anybody asking, and he doesn't want to know about his life. He’s getting away from it. She's going, “I want to know about my life. Has it all been a lie? What is it?”

John Betancourt: So, to dig a little deeper into your character, what is it you’d say Jack is searching for in this series?

Bryan Brown: Peace. Peace and he thinks he can get it by running away. Which obviously, is it moves along, he can’t. He has to… he has to answer some questions.

John Betancourt: What are you hoping the audience takes away from Jack’s journey in this tale?

Bryan Brown: With all the things, you just hope an audience understands the character and sort of roots for him, you know? And hopes they find what they're looking for. You hope they get involved with the character. If you watch anything, and you like somebody, you don't walk around the living room going, “I hope he’s alright.” But you know, if you're connected, you go out, you know, you're subconsciously going to hope things work out for that character. I hope they basically, they warm to him and hope the best for him.

John Betancourt: Do you think solving crimes again is helping Jack to heal?

Bryan Brown: Yeah, I think so. I think that's what she leads him to. I always said that this show, each of them is the other’s rescue dog. They’re both damaged in a way. And the other is the rescue dog. The other one's there to go, “It’s okay. I’m here.” Woof.

John Betancourt: (laughs) I cannot wait, to put that to print. So, what did you enjoy most about working on this show?

Bryan Brown: Well, I love working with Greta, right? We did a movie together about four years ago. I've known her for 30 years. You know, I've always known her, we’ve been in different situations. We had a chance to do a play together a few years ago, and she hurt her back and couldn't continue. And then we did the movie together. And I just enjoy working with Greta. She's great to work with. She's a really terrific actress. You know, when I can eventually get her to shut up, you know, like, stop talking to me, you know, she loves to chat! (Laughter from Bryan and John) But we you know; we get on great. She puts up with me, which is very good. So, I really enjoyed her, and I enjoy her because I really trust her as an actress. You know, she's really bloody good. She's always right there. And then there was a whole lot of areas of Australia that we're shooting in, in Queensland, that I've never been to. Oh, so I've very I was very keen to and very taken by a lot of the locations that we went to.

John Betancourt: That makes sense because you guys have incredible chemistry on screen. Now was that something you need to work to get back into? Or was it just two old friends reuniting?

Bryan Brown: A bit like that? I mean, we had done this movie about four years before. One thing we had to deal with though, was the borders were shut on Queensland and New South Wales with COVID. So, I couldn't go back on weekends to see the family, or you know, I was stuck there, everyone was stuck on one side of the border for 17 weeks. I had to do two weeks isolation before we even started, and so those little things added to added to the difficulty that not just the actors had but production had everyone had, you know, dealing with COVID.

John Betancourt: What would you say you’re most proud of when it comes to your time on this show?

Bryan Brown: Getting through it? (Laughter from Bryan and John) Everyone was in lockdown. You know, I produce as well. But I wouldn't want to be producing during COVID. Because you have no idea if suddenly a lead actor goes, a director goes down. So, and I talked to the producers and like 90%, it's hard enough producing a movie. It's hard enough. But 90% of their work was all the stuff to do with COVID, the tests that had to go on, the stuff to send to the government, all that sort of stuff. So quite truthfully, and in a funny way, yes, getting through it. I think everyone was like that because at any time you could go, “we got to stop for two weeks, that actor has gone down or that director’s gone down” all that. So, I think it was one of those things of, even with COVID, life has to go on. Like, yeah, it is the time of COVID. Let's get it right.

John Betancourt: No, it really is. It’s been two years, and here we are, still talking about it! So, I get that, you made it and well… I only have one question left for you today. What are you most looking forward to audiences experiencing when they watch the show?

Bryan Brown: Well, I think one of the things is, they’ll get to experience some fabulous parts of Australia. It's a very beautiful journey for an audience. And then I hope they just sort of, I hope what they do is they, enjoy how these two characters need to restart their life. You know, how they go on the journey with them on that.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

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