All Revved Up

[Leek_1988]

Credit - SUNDAY Magazine

Here is the link for behind the scenes footage of photoshoot

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/telev...i-1226341441312

MOTORBIKES, mullets and mayhem are all in a day's work for the stars of new series Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms.

Callan Mulvey couldn't look less like a bikie. He arrives at the inner-city warehouse - the location for our photoshoot - wearing checked pants with braces hanging loosely to his knees, a long-sleeved cream T-shirt and an assortment of rings and necklaces. He resembles an off-duty street performer more than the violent bikie gang leader he plays in Network Ten's upcoming miniseries Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms.

The show is a dramatisation of events surrounding the Milperra massacre, the 1984 gun battle between rival gangs the Bandidos and the Comancheros in south-west Sydney that led to seven people being shot dead, including Leanne Walters, a 14-year-old bystander.

"I worked my a--- off preparing for it," says Mulvey of his role as Bandidos leader Anthony 'Snoddy' Spencer. "In real life Snoddy was a big fella. I think he would have been around 130kg from the photos I've seen. Of course, I couldn't put on that much weight; I just ate sh*t-loads of chicken and broccoli and trained to put on some muscle."

For the clean-cut Todd Lasance, 27, the physical transformation to become Kiddo, a Comanchero, was such a novelty that on the first day in the make-up chair, he requested to have his mullet permanently "fused" on. This involved a delicate colour-matching process that turned his mullet bright green, so, in the end, he had to settle for a hairpiece.

"Once they put the hairpiece in, I was like, 'There's no way I'm wearing this permanently,' but a few of the boys had to," he says. "By the end of the shoot, they wanted to tear them out."

While filming, Lasance - who was recently seen playing a cocky, young DPP prosecutor on ABC's Crownies - had fun going out in public looking a bit rough. "The looks people gave me! You kind of appear a bit dangerous. Even among groups of three or four guys, the conversation would stop when I walked by; they'd stand upright and look cautious."

The public weren't the only ones being wary, with producers reported to have kept details about the actors and locations under wraps while filming amid fears of how the gangs depicted would react. So did the actors feel apprehensive about taking the roles?

"It was more about doing (Kiddo) justice," replies Lasance. "There's no fear. I look completely different in the show anyway; in real life he probably wouldn't even recognise me."

Mulvey, 37, who was last seen on Ten's cop drama Rush, is more concerned about what Spencer's family and friends will think about his portrayal (the gang leader hanged himself in prison in 1985, before he could stand trial). "That they believe it and think we've done a good job is most important to me," he says. "I don't know if they're the type to come up and say, 'That's a weird direction you took.' I might just cop one on the chin and lose a couple of teeth," he laughs.

Maeve Dermody, who was nominated for an AFI for her role in the 2009 film Beautiful Kate, plays Spencer's girlfriend, Lee - one of the show's few female characters. So how did she fare on a very blokey set? "I kind of liked it," she says, her eyes twinkling.

The actor - who dated Sam Worthington for three years, until 2007 - says she wasn't interested in the "biker chick" associations that come with playing such a role. "The whole point was fleshing them out as people."

The only information she had to go on for her characterisation of Lee was footage from a documentary about the massacre. "I had hair extensions put in and wore very short skirts; I guess there was a physicality to her that I tapped into immediately," the 26-year-old explains. "In photos she seemed very 'in' her body, and as a mother she seemed earthy. Her voice is very different from mine - she had a definite broad accent."

So now filming on Bikie Wars has wrapped, what's next for the trio? Mulvey has a busy year ahead, both at home and at work. He and wife Rachel welcomed a baby girl five months ago (the actor is also step-dad to Charlie, 8), and he has two Hollywood movies in the pipeline: the Kathryn Bigelow-directed drama Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, which also stars Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain, and action flick 300: Battle of Artemisia.

Former Home and Away actor Lasance is putting all his energy into work after a setback in 2009 when he pleaded guilty to cocaine possession. Since then, he's worked steadily, taking a lead role in the Nine Network telemovie The Great Mint Swindle, and recently landing the major part of Julius Caesar in hit US series Spartacus, which will see him filming in New Zealand until October. "I'm excited about working on such a big-budget series," he says. "And only a few hours away from home."

Dermody is set to star in an ABC telemovie about a Melbourne GP who campaigned for abortion rights for women in the 1970s.

Throughout the shoot, there's playful banter between the stars, with Mulvey offering styling tips when the photographer instructs them to not all look at the camera: "How about I ignore Maeve and gaze into Todd's eyes?" Later, when we sit down to chat over muffins and fruit and I warn Lasance that digging out passionfruit pulp as he talks will end up in the story, Mulvey turns his hand to storytelling: "Mulvey quipped as he downed a muffin," he suggests. "While looking hot," adds Lasance. Dermody chimes in: "You tell Cal he looks hot all the time".

Lasance and Mulvey agree the best part of their Bikie Wars experience was riding the Harley-Davidsons. Despite a head-on car crash in 2003 leaving Mulvey with serious injuries (including the loss of vision in one eye), he quickly took to riding the motorbike.

"I'd ridden a lot of trail bikes, but I was a bit apprehensive because a trail bike is 250kg lighter than a Harley. I had to concentrate on stopping, putting the thing down on its stand and not dropping it - and, you know, trying to look cool," he says with a laugh. "But as soon as I got on one, I thought, Oh, this is cool. Riding it became second nature."

Lasance excitedly recalls filming a particular scene with Mulvey. "We were hammering the bikes across an industrial site then we'd re-set and laugh and try to act tough at the other end. It was amazing." At that, Mulvey turns to Lasance: "Todd, remember I yelled to you, 'We're at work!' and you just p---ed yourself laughing?"

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