Oliver Ackland – Wasted On The Young

Oliver Ackland – Wasted On The Young BEN HARLUM caught up with Oliver to discuss the release of Wasted On The Young, which is a local film revolving around the high school hierachy. It hits cinemas on March 3rd.

Oliver Ackland – Wasted On The Young The film was originally a slasher movie but developed since you got the first script. Can you explain a bit about that?
By the time we were doing our last auditions, the script had changed dramatically. It’s kind of incredible because the writing was still great, but it was crazy how quickly and dramatically the story had changed. I guess it ended up being more of a thriller and a character study, and less focused on people getting knocked off.

Was it hard to act out a character that Ben (the director / writer) had created? Did he let you have your own input?
It was an open forum, and Ben really handed the roles over to us, which was great because some people do not allow that.

I began listening to music that Damien would listen to, and watching interviews on YouTube – seeking people out that had a certain intensity to them that kind of lived by their own set of ideals, despite a strong outside influence – people like Nick Cave and Kurt Cobain. I also began to play around with my voice because the character was younger and we all have much higher voices back at school.

What was the atmosphere like on set, you’re supposed to hate 90% of your cast yet you’re naturally going to bond during filming…
Well I met Alex because we auditioned together in Sydney. When I met Tom and TJ I started to distance myself from those guys. They’d hang out with their group on the weekend while I’d do my own thing or hang out a lot with Adelaide. It’s not something you really have to do, but we just did.

How battered did you get during filming?
We didn’t have a lot of time to shoot it, so before we started filming I punched TJ really hard in the arm, not that he needed it, so he didn’t really hold back. I copped a couple of scrapes but you aren’t really doing your job if you don’t get scrapes. I get really pissed off when they’d tell us that you couldn’t hit somebody for real – “you’d lose a fucking eye!” they’d say. [laughs]

BBM has a bunch of tickets to Wasted On The Young to give away. Visit the competitions page for your chance to win.