Legendary Australian filmmaker Bill Bennett had no idea why he was walking the famed 800-kilometre-long Camino de Santiago trail in Spain, but it changed the course of his life. After the adventure ended, he quickly wrote a book – which became a best-seller – and almost 10 years later began shooting its big screen adaptation: The Way, My Way.
“There’s a lot of people looking for deeper meaning in their lives at the moment when there’s so much uncertainty and so much push and pull from different factions,” Bennett says. “You go on to the Camino and what you find is that largely everyone is equal. They all wear the same clothes – no kind of status – you could be walking next to a billionaire on the Camino and not even know it. This sense of unity in a world that is becoming really polarized is attractive to a lot of people.”
Bennett’s own creative journey is still going strong after four decades – a path which began with documentaries and grew to include AACTA-Award winning films, a Hollywood feature, and several books.
The Way, My Way is a true big screen feature but also draws heavily on those documentary skills, with Chris Haywood – who skilfully plays Bennett in the film – one of the few professional actors.
“The only way I could write the screenplay, was to not see myself as myself. ‘Bill Bennett’ was someone outside of me which was kind of interesting because he was so self-absorbed and totally unaware that he was really quite a pain. That became interesting to me just from a dramatic point of view, because I thought I could do something with this, and the fact that the story did have its own inherent transformational arc. So I started looking at it absolutely technically – I took the personal out of it.”
Bennett’s actual wife (and producing partner) Jennifer Cluff plays herself in the film, while most of Haywood’s co-stars are the actual pilgrims Bennett walked the Camino with a decade ago. Their personal stories bring a raw honesty and sense of camaraderie to the film, reflecting the experience of the Camino itself.
“I had to set up scenes and sequences so that they didn’t feel at all compelled to act because as soon as they felt compelled to act, artifice would come in. You would be able to see them faltering. In the end, I had to negate their sense of obligation to please me. I just wanted to see them simply being and so a lot of my work as a director was creating an environment where they were allowed to just simply be.”
The “actuals” (as opposed to actors) signed off on the director’s cut to ensure they were comfortable with their scenes. Some made personal revelations such as world-leading Camino authority Johnnie Walker, who opened up about his childhood abuse for the first time in one scene.
Johnnie Walker has written 19 books on the Camino and played a role in the film’s promotion, which has initially targeted the huge Camino community in Australia. He appeared at a series of national Q&A events alongside Bennett and the filmmakers throughout April, which helped the film post a strong box office opening the following month.
“Johnnie Walker is sort of a legendary figure amongst the Camino community – very well known and highly respected. He helped enormously with the Q&A as well and with press and media.”
The Camino is still exerting its influence on Bennett, whose creative journey shows no signs of slowing down.
“I really wanted to make this film how I made my early films like A Street to Die and to that extent, I want to go back to my roots. I’ve learnt so much in the intervening 40 years, so I was able to bring all of that experience to this production.”
The Way, My Way is currently in cinemas. For more information go to: https://thewaymywaymovie.com.