Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a solitary surfer with a troubled past, is searching for peace on the Gold Coast when she’s abducted by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a shark-obsessed serial killer. Trapped on his boat, she must find a way to survive — battling both her captor and the dangers lurking in the water below.
Shot on the Gold Coast and set against the wild beauty of the Australian coastline, Dangerous Animals is a gripping survival thriller from director Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones), with stunning visuals, a sharp script, and relentless tension, it’s perfect for fans of Wolf Creek and The Shallows.
As Dangerous Animals swims in to Australian cinemas this week, Nick L’Barrow spoke with one of the film’s stars, Liam Greinke, about acting opposite the unhinged energy of Jai Courtney, and making unlikeable characters likeable.
Nick: I had the chance to chat with Sean Byrne [director of Dangerous Animals] earlier and tell him how much of a fan of his work I am…
Liam Greinke: What a guy, right? He delivers some ripper films in The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy. But, he takes his time to pick his projects. And for him to do a project like this where he’s not the writer, for me, that said a lot because he is very particular about what he chooses to do. And he decided to take this one on for a reason.
Nick: I’m glad he did because this film is also great. But horror is a genre that has, for better and worse, so many iconic tropes and stereotypes, and I loved the way Sean plays with those tropes, while also honouring them. I’m curious to know whether that same feeling transferred over in your acting process, and how do you find the balance of playing a character that honours the stereotypes of the genre, but also allows you to put your own spin on it?
Liam Greinke: I remember going to Sean and him saying he wanted me to ground this guy and make him as real as possible. And you know, you do have those tropes exist in the back of your mind. Like, I’m the first kill of the movie! But there were ways that Ella and I wanted to set it up, and set this relationship up to feel a bit like a rom-com almost.
For me, with all the characters I play, I try to find an element of myself in them. I really like playing those stereotypically masculine characters. I like playing characters that aren’t necessarily liked, and despite that perception, trying to find a likable quality. All of that put together really helped me to try and find a real element to the character.
Nick: Was making him Canadian a part of finding that likability?
Liam Greinke: [laughs] Honestly, it’s so funny you bring that up because there’s a story to that. I got the tape for this and had to turn it in around in like 12 hours. But it was very specific – if you couldn’t do a Canadian accent, don’t bother. And one of my best mates was Canadian, and I was with him, but he’s been living in Australia for a while, so he couldn’t do the accent. So, he got one of his buddy’s, Jeff, in Vancouver, who was probably just chilling and watching hockey or something, to record the lines for me.
Then, I kind of listened to it, remembered the dialect. And they told me the accent was good! And I didn’t want to depict the Canadian accent like something from Letterkenny or Trailer Park Boys, so I really tried to work hard on understanding Canada through my mate and feel like at its core what it’s like to be mistaken for an American.
Nick: I love opening scenes of films, especially horror opening scenes. You have a great one acting opposite Jai Courtney, who is insanely unhinged in this film. What does acting opposite that sort of energy do to assist your performance?
Liam Greinke: I think what Jai brought to the character is this unpredictable nature about him. So, when you’re acting opposite him, it helps as an actor to stay present, because at any point he can shift using all these different tactics.
From an authenticity standpoint, Jai is one of the best blokes you’ll ever meet. He’s the type of bloke you want to hang around and have a beer with. And I think Tucker is that, too. He really found that aspect of Tucker in himself, and then he added these textures and layers in there.
I think of actors from Australia when I started my career that I wanted to work with, and Jai was one of them. So, to actually do it was an unbelievable opportunity. His energy on set, when he flipped into character, you had these moments of, “Yeah, this guy is a scary dude!” But I’m glad I’m on Jai’s good side [laughs].
Nick: How much of the opening scene was filmed on location, on the boat?
Liam Greinke: All of it! Honestly, mate, like straight up, I was so seasick! I think all of us shared that. I’ve been boating a fair bit because my dad’s a boaty. But we were in this boat in the middle of nowhere, and then you had this floating marquee, which was unlike any other one I’ve seen, for the cast and crew. It was basically the set floating right next to the boat with all the cameras and stuff. If there’s a behind the scenes thing for this, you’d be gobsmacked!
The more real the actual environment is, the easier our job is. And I think it couldn’t have been shot any other way. The fact that the team was able to pull that together… I would’ve hated to be the workplace health and safety guy on this film!
Thank you to Liam for his time, and to Think Tank Communications and Kismet Movies for organising the chat. Dangerous Animals is in cinemas now.
