A year after hitting the silver screen as a victim of crime in an Underbelly production, former Deniliquin man Dylan Hare has landed another role in an Aussie crime drama ... this time as a criminal.
In Last King of the Cross, Dylan plays Anton, who he described as “part of the rat bag bunch who gets up to shenanigans”.
Airing on Paramount, Last King of the Cross is a fictional story inspired by John Ibrahim's best-selling autobiography, ‘Last King of The Cross’.
It tracks the rise of Ibrahim (and his brother Sam) from poverty-stricken immigrant with no education, no money, and no prospects, to Australia's most infamous nightclub mogul in Sydney's Kings Cross — a mini-Atlantic City, barely half a mile long with every form of criminality on offer.
Episode one of the 10 episode mini series dropped last Friday.
For Dylan, a highlight of the production was delving back into history and seeing the detail that went in to making that step back in time as accurate as possible.
“They built Kings Cross as it was in the 1980s and 1990s at Prospect, a suburb of Sydney, and it was incredible,” Dylan said.
“There were hundreds of extras in costume and it was so surreal - it really was like stepping back in time.
“The detail they went to was quite incredible too.
“I wandered into the pharmacy on set to have a look around and picked up one of the pill bottles on the shelf. They went in to detail enough that it had the descriptions on the bottle.”
Because the show was held in a different time period, Dylan said he found it a little easier to slip into character.
“I was playing a criminal with Bryl creamed hair and a clean shaven face, driving old cars down the strip.
“It felt very different to my world, and so I was just able to fall into it.”
Dylan originally auditioned for a different character in the series who he admitted was not really suited to his range, but he wanted to give it a go anyway.
When the team behind the production called him back for another audition they had him read for Anton instead.
Auditions were held early last year as Dylan was preparing to start film school.
When he landed the job, he left the school and delved into five months of continuous work.
And during shooting, Dylan had the chance to learn more about the time period from the inspiration behind the show himself.
“John (Ibrahim) was on set and I would chat with him and have lunch with him,” he said.
“He was a really nice guy - a normal guy.
“I took an opportunity to ask him if my character was based on any one in real life, but he was a completely fictional character.”
While filming Last King of the Cross, Dylan also landed a short role on the hit TV program Home & Away, where he got to act opposite his real-life girlfriend Maleeka Gasbarri.
Maleeka had been on the show for five months but her story line was coming to an end, with Dylan brought it to aid her exit from Summer Bay.
He played her personal training client, and the normally fit actor said it was a challenge because of his role on Last King of the Cross.
“On Last King the catering was so amazing and I played a rough looking bloke, so it was chance to let go,” Dylan laughed.
“I was the heaviest I have ever been, and I was sweating it up a bit.
“My character hits on and ends up winning over my girlfriend’s character which causes her to cheat on her boyfriend, and that is her exit.”
The stint was Dylan’s second appearance in Home & Away, playing a completely different temporary role on the program in 2004.
Straight after finishing up on Last King of the Cross, Dylan teamed up with Maleeka again - and other friends - and has just finished shooting a film he wrote and directed.
Editing of the short film started this week.
“I wanted to take the reigns a little, rather than just working on other peoples’ sets,” Dylan said.
“It is a dark comedy, which is completely fictional but based on a story I heard on the radio.
“It is about a bloke who moves to the big smoke and the series of unfortunate events that follow.
“I play the main character and Maleeka is involved on the production side, along with a few others.
“We were going to make it straight after we finished with Home & Away and Last King, but the friends I met on set (of Last King) asked me to wait until early this year so they could come on board.
“We had a good team of people and we are kind of learning as we go, but once it is edited we’ll start looking at entering short film festivals.
“Hopefully we can win something, which helps with getting funding for future projects.
“Maleeka and I self-funding this one with a lot of volunteer help from friends.”
In the meantime, Dylan is auditioning for other roles.
But he said he is also “very excited” about continuing to work on his own projects.
“I have a few things in mind, but there is nothing firm yet,” he said.
“I know I would love to come back to Deni one day and shoot something - I just don’t know what or when.”