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A brush with fame
Thursday, 6th September, 2012
By Kurtis J Eichler
Vernon Wells made a name for himself as Mad Max 2's villainous Wes.
The leather-clad brute was the mohawked arch-nemesis of Mel Gibson's 'Mad' Max Rockatansky in the 1981 film, shot in and around Silverton and Broken Hill.
With a budget of $4 million, the film took $33 million worldwide and shot the then 37-year-old to stardom.
"Mad Max was my first major film," the now 68- year-old said.
"It was a unique experience. It was one of those movies where the editing was brilliant, the writing was brilliant, the direction was brilliant - it was an ensemble that worked.
"(Director George Miller) directs it like an orchestra . He has these peaks and valleys and he makes it work so that when you're doing it you know you're doing all this amazing stuff."
Wells has never returned to Silverton since filming wrapped in mid 1981 - until yesterday.
The LA-based actor started off a trip across Australia from Silverton yesterday to show his wife where it all began.
As luck would have it, co-star and Mel Gibson's stunt double Dennis Williams was also in the area.
The pair met up and shared stories at the newly-built Mad Max 2 Museum.
Since Mad Max 2, Wells again played a villain in Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1985 film Commando.
He then started alongside Dennis Quaid and Martin Short in Innerspace and John Hughes' Weird Science during the 1980s.
Out of all the stars he's shared the silver screen with, Mel Gibson was still his favourite.
"Mel was great to work with because he's like a big kid.
"I have this great memory of Mel standing in my motel room in Broken Hill in his little bunny slippers and his tatty old robe on the phone to his wife for the birth of his first child.
"And I remember how lucky he was. He was scary to be around because you'd go to the casino and he would come in and I'd be playing and losing money and he'd just stand beside me and put 20 bucks in and pull the handle and talk to me and all the bells and whistles would go off."
He liked Arnie as well, however he liked to have his own posse follow him around.
"He'd do funny things as well, like upstage you and that, which was really cool."
He admits he's enjoyed working with everyone - barring two actors - but he won't name them.
Wells said he was repeatedly cast as the villain, something that eventually grew painful for the actor.
"When I went overseas to America... I became pigeonholed. I became the villain of choice.
"As I got older I've matured more for what they wanted and now I'd say I play good guys 70 per cent of the time and bad guys 30 per cent of the time."
And even though his latest movies have him in the role of the protagonist, he still relishes playing without the rules.
"Villains have no rules. They can do whatever the hell they like and it's a whole lot easier and fun to play."
At present, Wells is doing voice over work for the Darksiders video game series as another villain - a project that's been his most profitable to date.
And he owes it all to Mad Max 2, and mainly its director George Miller.
He knew back then he would never work with someone that good again.
"People say to me 'you're wonderful in the movie' and I say 'no George Miller was'."
"I did what George Miller wanted."
