It's been a long time between kicks for Jack Thompson. The acting icon takes full advantage in Australian Rules Football film Blinder, some three decades after he last played a coach in the big-screen adaptation of David Williamson's The Club.
“It’s been 30 years since I played a coach – I thought I’m going to have to get myself into condition," the 72 year-old tells IF Magazine. "But then I read the script and realised that it wasn’t really a reprise of The Club. The Club was originally a play and every scene is an argument, a comedy really about the administration of football more than the game itself. This is a lot about the game and there’s some great football in it. It’s about a younger generation and a different aspect of football."
Blinder centres on one-time Torquay Tigers legend Tom Dunn (Oliver Ackland) who returns to his home town after ten years to face his demons and pull the club back together after a sex scandal.
“What happened was relatively innocent – it’s not like the scandals we see in sport now. This isn’t performance-enhancing drugs, this is someone putting something like ecstasy into someone’s drink at a party and the consequent results – a scandal.”
Thompson plays the tough-but-fair Coach Chang – a characterisation he partly drew from former Collingwood coach Tom Hafey while preparing for The Club.
“The work I did with Tom Hafey back then gave me a real insight into people who make it their life and see it as: this is what life’s about. In football all things are reflected: honour, and courage, and their obligation to the community and all of that.”
Blinder is released on more than 110 cinema screens from March 7 by Backlot Studios. Find out more information at www.blinderthemovie.com.