INTERVIEW: Eric Bana Talks Australian Crime Films, “Brutal” Sets, and Finally Using His Real Accent

Eric Bana has a hit on his hands. Force of Nature: The Dry 2 is the sequel to one of Australia's highest-grossing murder-mysteries in years.

Based on a novel by Jane Harper, Force of Nature: The Dry 2 follows Aaron Falk (Eric Bana), a federal agent tasked with locating a woman who goes missing during a company hiking retreat.

To celebrate its release in theaters and video-on-demand on May 10, Bana chats to us about why Australian-set thrillers are so effective, the unique challenges of filming there, and the difficulty of hiding his accent for 25 years (“My God, there are so many British and American actors who have no idea how lucky they are.”)

Plus, watch an exclusive clip from the film at the end of the interview.

Eric Bana interview

Men’s Journal:

We’ve had some amazing crime thrillers set in Australia, like The Stranger, The Gift and, of course, The Dry. What do you think makes Australian thrillers so effective?

Eric Bana:

“I haven't seen them all but one of the things that attracted us to the source material was Jane Harper's incorporation of landscape and location as part of the character is really essential, and was a big motivating factor for us to do the adaptations, because we felt like we could really justify a kind of cinematic version.

I think there's something a bit magical and mysterious and intimidating about the vastness of Australia that may add to the drama. And whilst it's beautiful, there's also something a little bit overwhelming and intimidating about it and I think that feeds into the narrative a bit.”

Men’s Journal:

Do you think this could become a long-running series? Could this be Eric Bana’s John Wick?

Eric Bana:

“No, we never really thought about even the second film whilst we were doing the first one. To be honest, it's a completely different sort of release, the second film to the first, in terms of The Dry was during a holiday period and so forth, so we had a completely different release for this film. It did really well.

The second book wasn't as huge as the first book, so in terms of comparatives it's probably done very, very well in Australia. But The Dry, the book, was a monster. The Force of Nature, the follow-up was popular, but not in the same kind of realm. So our expectations were pretty realistic. It did really really well back home and commensurate, I think, to the popularity of the book. But no, we're just still pinching ourselves that we got a chance to do a follow-up and it's so hard getting original material off the ground. So to do it, you know, for two films is a pretty special opportunity.”

Men’s Journal:

Every film has its own set of challenges, of course, but have there been any unique challenges on this film that you've never encountered before?

Eric Bana:

“Yeah, I mean we knew it going in. We deliberately chased a really tough location and we knew it would be physically really hard, particularly on the crew. I mean it was absolutely brutal. The great side of it was that we got into locations that literally no other film production has been allowed access to, and that was a combination of factors, us being local filmmakers, us having a great relationship with the relative authorities and they knew we would do the right thing.

And also, as a cast, we were prepared to sacrifice all our creature comforts to get what we needed on film. It was physically pretty tough and we were in the middle of winter in a rainforest in Victoria and there are leeches and there's no respite during the filming day whatsoever. We would hike in, hike out, so it was pretty special, but yeah, it was no doubt very different to a normal shoot.”

Men’s Journal:

What’s the unique place that you've been to that no other film has gone to. Did you say it was Victoria?

Eric Bana:

“Yeah, a lot of the national parks and forest that we filmed in. No one's been allowed in there, and that's basically because the physical footprint of most productions is such that there's no room for a base camp. There's not enough room for trailers and the vehicles that you need. So we ran a really lean operation and had contingency plans for those locations to guarantee that we could hike in and get the shots that we wanted.”

Men’s Journal:

You're reprising your role. Are there any other roles in your career that you would like to return to?

Eric Bana:

“It's such a rare thing, even just working with the same director more than once. It's not something I've ever done, so getting a chance, I mean, it's my third or fourth film with Rob, who's a dear friend, but yeah, it's not something I've had the joy of doing in my career I would dearly love.

There's so many directors that I've worked with that I'd love to work with a second time, so many of them, because obviously I've worked with some of the greatest, but it's not an opportunity that happens that often. But in this case, getting to do it with a mate was obviously a lot of fun.”

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Men’s Journal:

You've mastered a few accents in your time. How good has it been to be able to use your native accent on this film?

Eric Bana:

“Well, it just makes me realise how easy 99% of actors have it. I mean, people have no idea how easy most actors have it just being able to talk in their native tongue every time they go to work. We almost never can. As Australian actors, we're always having to hide our accents because Australians, apparently, whilst we're all over the world, we never appear in cinema. Go figure, there are no Australians in the world.

As far as world cinema is concerned, there's just never an Australian character with an Australian accent. So it's only when we get to do local productions that we get to sound like ourselves. And so, yeah, it's a bit of an advantage or one less thing to have to deal with. But I did think to myself, my God, there are so many British and American actors who have no idea how lucky they are.”

Men’s Journal:

We need more Australians in cinema, I think.

Eric Bana:

“Yeah, I mean, I only got to do it once on Funny People, so I guess it might take me another 25 years to find another role that's Australian in international cinema.”

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 exclusive clip