Ewen Leslie

Ewen Leslie (born 27 July 1980) is an Australian stage, film and television actor.

Early life

He was born in Fremantle and attended South Terrace Elementary School. He gained a scholarship to study theatre at John Curtin College of the Arts and at age 12 was cast in the TV series Ship to Shore after his mum saw an ad in the newspaper calling for auditions. He was accepted into the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts straight out of high school and graduated in 2000.

Career

Theatre

His first work on Sydney stages was performing at the Old Fitzroy Hotel theatre in Woolloomooloo. In 2007 he was cast by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Riflemind, a play by Andrew Upton which premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company. He was offered a place in the STC Actors Company by Robyn Nevin, and in 2009 won a Helpmann Award and a Sydney Theatre Award for his performance as Prince Hal/Henry V opposite Cate Blanchett in The War of the Roses (directed by Benedict Andrews). In 2010 he played Richard III at the Melbourne Theatre Company directed by Simon Philips. Alison Croggon in The Australian wrote: 'This is a deeply intelligent performance, physically and emotionally unafraid. It marks the ascension of a remarkable actor'. He won his second Helpmann Award and a Green Room Award for this performance. The following year he played Hamlet in a sellout season at the Melbourne Theatre Company (a role he would reprise in 2013 in Sydney for Belvoir St Theatre). He played one of the lead roles in The Wild Duck (directed by Simon Stone) which had successful seasons in Sydney, Melbourne and Oslo for The Ibsen Festival. In 2013 he was The Player in STC's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead opposite Toby Schmitz and Tim Minchin. In 2015 he travelled to Paris to perform in Simon Stone's production of Thyestes, and played the title role in Belvoir's award-winning production of Ivanov.

Film and television

His first break came when he was cast as the lead role in Jewboy, a film that screened at the Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival for which he was nominated for an AACTA Award. He spent the next few years doing short films with David Michod, Garth Davis, Leon Ford, Luke Doolan, Ben Briand and appearing in various TV shows. In 2008 he played one of the leads in Matthew Newton's Three Blind Mice which won the FIPRESCI International Critics Award at the London Film Festival. In 2011 he played an alcoholic shut-in named Birdmann in Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty which played in Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year he was cast as the lead role in Dead Europe, a film directed by Tony Krawitz and based on Christos Tsiolkas' novel of the same name. He received AACTA Award, FCCA Award and Australian Film Critics Association nominations for his work in the film. Following this he played barrister Bryan Keon-Cohen in Mabo, journalist Matt Peacock in Devil's Dust and Detective Les Paris in The Mule opposite Hugo Weaving and Angus Sampson. In 2015 he played Keith Murdoch in Deadline Gallipoli alongside Sam Worthington, Hugh Dancy and Joel Jackson. He then played the role of Oliver in The Daughter, an adaptation of Ibsen's The Wild Duck, directed by Simon Stone, co-starring Geoffrey Rush, Paul Schneider, Miranda Otto, Odessa Young and Sam Neill.

Credits

Feature films

Television

Short films

Theatre

Awards

References

External links

• Ewen Leslie at the Internet Movie Database
• Theaustralian.com.au
• Variety.com
• Variety.com

Interviews

• 'Screen was the Obvious Next Stage' Interview with Michael Bodey for The Australian 2016
• 'Australian Theatre's Bold Standard' Interview with Andrew Taylor for Sydney Morning Herald 2013
• 'Dark Star' Interview with John Bailey for The Sunday Age 2011
• Interview with Art Nation ABC TV 2010
• 'He that plays the King' Interview with Alison Croggon for The Australian 2010
• 'From Villain to Victim' Interview with Raymond Gill for The Age 2010
• 'Hue and Cry about Ewen' Interview with Stephen Bevis for The West Australian 2010
• Interview with Frank Hatherley for Stage Whispers 2010