It’s not often that an actor can work for 35 years and suddenly become a serious household name. But that’s exactly what happened to Murray Bartlett. The Australian actor started in 1987 and although he has had a lot of projects in his career, he says, “I didn’t really have many options along the way.” then it came white lotus. And Bartlett, played by the shaken and tortured Hotel Armond, transformed him from a working actor into a celebrity inspiring Halloween costumes and street selfies.
He never expected this new rebirth in his career, much less in the midst of a global blockade. Getting the role in the first place was “a very strange experience, particularly a pandemic,” he says. After a self-portrait, Mike White, the show’s creator, writer, and director invited him to a filming location in Hawaii. Bartlett thought, why not jump someone with Mike White? While reading the scripts left on the plane, he discovered Armond’s entire story arc, which he found “jaw-dropping, perfect,” he says. Probably an unexpected reaction, as Armond manages not only to turn on the sex scene by raising eyebrows, but also to defecate the celebrity (spoiler warning) in the suitcase of the contagious guest.
Nightmares in Armond’s life, demanding and dysfunctional guests white lotus Little by little the spas break his soul and charge his vigilance. He has met Connie Britton’s horrifying mother, Fluencer, Jake Lacey’s honeymoon whims, evil Sydney Sweeney and Brittany O’Grady, drug addict teenagers and the crazy Taniaolife. After five years of abstinence, Armond falls off the carriage spectacularly, and who blames him? “This is a well-written character,” says Bartlett, “because his role as a hotel manager is to maintain that public image.” This public face masks the inner struggle of a person who tries to stay awake in conditions of impossible coercion.
The pandemic also provided a unique opportunity to shoot at Maui’s Four Seasons resort, which closed when production began. “They took us out of the Covid caves and into this amazing beachside TV field,” Bartlett said. “It was a unique experience”. But then, when the hotel partially reopened midway through production, they were forced to shoot the scenes out of sequence. Bartlett felt it was important to capture the moments of Armonday’s drug journey and how that would affect his behavior, which was difficult given the schedule. But luckily, White was always there. “Being there as a creator, writer and director with you is a fantastic experience because you are the source of the material.”
Together they were able to keep track of Armond’s deadlines while they were still playing at the time and remembered their most important goal: to keep him going on a downward spiral. “He’s a fantastic character and I wanted to take that approach, but I also wanted to make sure he felt human and vulnerable, not cartoonish,” Bartlett said.
That’s not to say they didn’t want to go a little crazy for some scenes, hence the infamous suitcase scenario. Bartlett calls this particular scene a testament to the brilliance of white. Mike pushes everything to the absolute limit and gives the characters the right to pursue their intentions and I think that’s the brilliance of this scene. and the characteristic sign white lotus In a way it is laughing and at the same time creating discomfort. “It’s a really clever balance of comedy and tragedy that contrasts with the less attractive aspects of our human nature,” Bartlett said.
This balance of comedy and tragedy is what Bartlett loves about acting. From a young age he was guided by this craft, something that came from a dubious source: he received speech therapy after his brother accidentally gritted his front teeth by hitting a spider. Bartlett had a hard time pronouncing the letter “s” after his permanent teeth grew out, so the therapist gave him poems and monologues to read aloud. For a child fascinated by fantasy, Bartlett immediately fell in love with acting. “He Lived in my imagination,” he says. “I dressed in strange clothes and walked around the courtyard as if I were in an imaginary world”. This inspiration forced him to be with the therapist for years, which intensified his passion for the stage.
After the acting camp and acting club in high school, she landed her first guest role in an Australian television series. flying doctors. “I don’t think she did very well,” she admits. “I was scared when I started watching television; It was a very busy time. “He always felt more comfortable acting in the theater, but in a moment of optimism he decided to drop it and go to acting school. But the isolated nature of performing at home didn’t always give him self-confidence. “Australia feels like a small industry when you work there and there can be a lot of time between jobs,” he said. But Bartlett resisted. “I didn’t think I’d give up because we all have existential crises coming up, but acting seemed natural to me.”
At some point in the crisis, he decided to take a break and gave himself two options: take a 10-day nature walk in New Zealand or move to New York City and take classes. “I chose New York and fell in love with the stimulating environment,” she says. And it wasn’t long before he booked the role. Through a friend of his he managed to audition for one of the most important television programs of the time. sex and city. The role was played by Oliver Spencer, a shoe dealer, a somewhat moody man in town, and a new friend, the main character Kerry.
“I got a call one night and two days later I was in the room with Sarah Jessica Parker. It was my first job in the US, it was shocking and exciting, but I found it incredible and dreamlike. “
given the times sex and city In concert, it seems fitting that HBO has been involved in relaunching its current career, which has already paid off. “I think acting was what I would always do, I fell in love with it,” Bartlett said. white lotus“Something wonderful has occurred to me.”
a year later white lotus Packed up, Bartlett starred in the second season of the Apple TV + show PhysicistWith Australian colleague Rose Byrne.
Like Armond, his Physicist The character has a public face that hides the complexity that lies beneath. As Winnie Green, the health and fitness guru, it all seems to revolve around the frustrated life of 1980s housewife Sheila (Byrne). “She acts like Sheila’s colleague who has such a public face, but she has an inner voice that curses him, and Winnie has a childhood trauma that she carries with her,” Bartlett explains. “It’s great, because all of this is still relevant today. “We are packaged differently, but there is still a similar struggle between what’s going on inside and what you’re showing to the outside world.”
Bartlett has also finished filming another HBO Max series. შორის You are the last among them, which is based on the popular video game and will be released next year. He admits he didn’t know much about this story before working on the show, but he knew it was something special when he read the first script. “I’m not a gamer,” she says, “but if you’re a gamer, then you know what a fantastic world it is and people are really connected to this game in such a powerful way.” Adapting to a video game series can be very difficult, but he says they did a great job of “making the character’s relationship in the big world painful and powerful.”
He is currently on the set of the Hulu Limited Series. ᲘMigrant, which tells the origins of a group of Chippendales strippers. Along with Kumail Nanjian, Andrew Ranell, Dan Stevens and Juliet Lewis, Bartlett plays Nick de Noya, a New York-based choreographer who helps us take the show to the next level. “There is a fantastic balance between this fun world of these male burlesque dancers and these really dark insides, which are quite contrasting and intense,” he says.
So it requires nuanced duality, serious courage, and the right acting? This, of course, sounds like a job for a bartender.
Source: Deadline
