BEFORE Peak Hill local and actor Tysan Towney turns his attention to Hollywood later this year, audiences will be able to see him in a new futuristic television series Cleverman, where he will certainly turn heads.
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Prior to Tysan receiving the role of ‘hairy’ Djukara in Cleverman, he trained at the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA) with a bachelor of performance, in theatre/theatre arts management for three years, where he completed the course in 2013.
Cleverman was filmed over three months in 2015, in Sydney, and Tysan described the experience as “very fun”.
“It was really good and has a meaningful story behind it,” he said.
As Djukara, Tysan had to play a hardheaded teenager with a chip on his shoulder, although underneath the tough bravado - and crazy amount of hair -is an innocent kid with a good heart.
“The makeup guys were part of the Lord Of The Rings, so I’ve got crazy dwarf hair,” he said.
Tysan said the first screenings of Cleverman had received a positive reception and had even been shown at the Berlin Film Festival.
“That was pretty amazing,” Tysan said of episodes being shown at the Berlin Film Festival. “It’s my first big job. It’s been so amazing, I’m very lucky.”
Later this year Tysan will make his way to Hollywood to look for an agent.
The idea for Cleverman came to Ryan Griffen more than five years ago while playing one afternoon with his young son.
“We were dressing up as Ninja Turtles as both my son and I have a huge love of super heroes and comics. It got me thinking about creating something cultural that he could connect to on a superhero basis,” Ryan said.
“I wanted to bring something Aboriginal, Indigenous, to that world. As the son of a light-skinned Aboriginal man and a light-skinned Aboriginal woman, it was important for me that my son had a cultural superhero that he could look up to as a young Aboriginal person... something he could connect to that was also entertaining.”
Indigenous protocols were strictly adhered to throughout the production process.
Ryan Griffen visited Indigenous communities around the country to seek permission to tell Dreaming stories and an Indigenous advisor worked closely with the creative team.
Directors Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell are Indigenous, as is Specialist Production Designer Jacob (Jake) Nash, Dance Theatre.
Cleverman premieres on Thursday, June 2 at 9.30pm on ABC and will also be available on ABC iview, and will also air in the United States.
