{"id":1036,"date":"2025-02-25T11:09:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2025-02-25T11:09:29","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:09:29","slug":"spit-is-back-balding-mullet-and-all-but-is-he-a-better-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/spit-is-back-balding-mullet-and-all-but-is-he-a-better-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Spit is back \u2026 balding mullet and all, but is he a better man?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We first met Johnny Spitieri in the 2003 film\u00a0Gettin\u2019 Square \u2013\u00a0<\/em>and now David Wenham is reprising his role as the small-time crim, complete with balding mullet and wily ways.<\/p>\n

Back in 2003, a modest Queensland film called\u00a0Gettin\u2019 Square\u00a0<\/em>was released with little fanfare and ended up becoming a cult classic. This was largely due to David Wenham\u2019s brilliantly funny portrayal of small-time criminal Johnny Spitieri. (Check out the film\u2019s court scene to find out why:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/shorturl.at\/Haepg )<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, in 2025, Johnny gets to take the lead in his own film, simply titled\u00a0Spit.<\/em>\u00a0So, is the wait worth it? Judging by the preview audience\u2019s reaction, the answer is a big \u201cYes\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just comedy. Gold Coast lawyer and writer Chris Nyst, along with Wenham and director Jonathan Teplitzky, have given Johnny several more layers, making him a thoroughly worthy lead. What could have descended into caricature is, instead, a deep dive into what has made Spit who he is today.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s fair to think of\u00a0Spit<\/em>\u00a0as a\u00a0Gettin\u2019 Square<\/em>\u00a0sequel, the filmmakers are at pains to say that it\u2019s more a \u201creimagining\u201d of the Spit character, with several new dimensions. Some of the characters from the original film are back, such as the corrupt cop played by David Field and Gary Sweet\u2019s menacing meth dealer \u2013 both still big threats to Spit\u2019s safety and freedom.<\/p>\n

I asked Wenham if he had any doubts about taking on the role of Johnny Spitieri again, especially after such a long break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never considered playing this character again,\u201d Wenham says. \u201cGettin\u2019 Square<\/em>\u00a0initially didn\u2019t do very well at the box office, but it found this subsequent life via VHS and then DVD, and over the years it\u2019s become a really heavy cult classic. It\u2019s the character I get asked about more than any other I\u2019ve played, which is incredible because (a), it\u2019s that long ago, and (b), he\u2019s only a supporting character in that first film. But he resonated with people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never thought of bringing him back until about 10 years ago. A good friend, the filmmaker Robert Connolly, who I\u2019ve worked with, and I started riffing about all the situations that you could drop Johnny Spitieri into and the hilarity that would ensue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenham phoned Chris Nyst to talk about it and was told that he and Teplitzky had also been working on something.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris pulled it out of his bottom drawer and sent it to me. His concept for how he brought the character back and why he brought him back just resonated with me,\u201d Wenham says. \u201cIt explored a bigger issue in a really interesting way. I thought it was inspired. And it took us the next 10 years to get the film going.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s referring to the fact that Johnny, after arriving in Australia and getting caught with a fake passport, is immediately sent to a detention centre. There, he shows his endearing side when he offers to help refugees with their English skills, despite having a sometimes-tenuous grasp on the language himself. There are several young and inexperienced actors on screen, with most of them either former refugees or from refugee families. Wenham felt a responsibility to be a \u201cbig brother\u201d to them on set.<\/p>\n

\u201cArlo Green was the very first screen test we saw and we knew instantly he would play the refugee character Jihad,\u201d Wenham says. \u201cI was mesmerised. I thought, \u2018Oh my God, this film is going to work\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a very funny scene, Spit advises Jihad that he definitely should not use that name in his Visa application, and he assigns others more acceptable Aussie-sounding names.<\/p>\n

The actors playing the refugees loved that the film was a comedy, despite some of the subject matter dealing with a serious topic for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey loved the humour,\u201d Wenham smiles. \u201c\u2018They actually fought over who could be the most ridiculous. They said, \u2018We\u2019re just like everyone else. Some of us are smart, some of us are not, some of us are complete fools\u2019. So, showing them the way we have humanises them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Johnny Spitieri, you couldn\u2019t want a better mate \u2026<\/h2>\n

Johnny\u2019s kind attitude towards his fellow detainees is at the heart of the story. Wenham says that it\u2019s about what it means to be Australian.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about mateship a lot,\u201d Wenham says. \u201cThis does explore what it is to be a mate. And with Johnny Spitieri, you couldn\u2019t want a better mate, with all his quirks and idiosyncrasies. He\u2019s the least judgmental person you\u2019ll ever come across and he\u2019ll always have your back. You\u2019d want to be Johnny\u2019s mate.\u2019<\/p>\n

Part of the appeal of the original film was the authenticity of the shady characters \u2013 their nastiness and comedic qualities. In both films, as you watch Johnny make the prosecuting parties turn themselves in knots as he employs delaying tactics, you wonder if he\u2019s really as hopeless as he appears or if he\u2019s playing them.<\/p>\n

As well as being a successful crime novelist and screenwriter, Nyst works as a criminal lawyer on the Gold Coast. Wenham says that the Spit character came from a real-life situation Nyst experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018He saw a person in court like that and he couldn\u2019t work out if what he was seeing was deliberate or happenstance,\u201d Wenham says. \u201cChris works with these people. Things happen to people through their life and they can end up doing horrendous things, but he represents some people at the extreme end of the justice system so he has to believe that everybody has got some good in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a lot of depressing events going on in the world right now, Wenham says he\u2019s not really interested in making bleak films.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s enough that celebrates the better side of humanity,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the one great thing about this film. One person who was at the film\u2019s premiere said to me,\u00a0 \u2018At the end, I felt like I just wanted to hug the person next to me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Queensland producer of\u00a0Gettin\u2019 Square<\/em>, Trish Lake, was on board again for\u00a0Spit.\u00a0<\/em>The film was written by a Queenslander and shot in various Queensland locations and has many local cast and crew. And Wenham himself is now a resident of Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Chris has written this with his local knowledge of the Gold Coast and those characters,\u201d Wenham says. \u201cPeople from the Goldie and Brisbane just love it, and they love very specific jokes. The mention of Forest Lake is obviously going to get the biggest laughs on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, but that line will still resonate elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenham, who in 2022 was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for Services to Acting and Producing, is serious about working hard to make\u00a0Spit<\/em>\u00a0a success in the cinemas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve put aside all my time just to work on the release of this film for the next few weeks,\u201d he says. \u201cOur artistic policy is bums on seats. We get one chance at it. If this film works, everyone in the business benefits and it means it will be easier next time. For the whole Australian film industry, we want this to be a commercial success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We first met Johnny Spitieri in the 2003 film\u00a0Gettin\u2019 Square \u2013\u00a0and now David Wenham is reprising his role as the small-time crim, complete with balding mullet and wily ways. Back in 2003, a modest Queensland film called\u00a0Gettin\u2019 Square\u00a0was released with little fanfare and ended up becoming a cult classic. This was largely due to David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,6],"tags":[19,45],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-brush-with","category-podcasts","tag-featured","tag-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futuredesignteam.in\/client\/politicus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}