My mum is a school teacher and my dad is an electrician.

I was always trying to perform, but never with some dream to be on the stage. The stage was wherever I was standing at the time. I was lucky that the department of education in Sydney had a program where you could try out for these ensembles - kind of like extra-curricular sports, but for little drama kids. I got into that system, and it took me right through high school.

I love that about filmmaking - seeing final product and getting to see everyone else that you don't necessarily engage with on set every day and getting them to showcase their talents. Whether it's effects, music, the edit, the rhythm of a film is driven by that, so it's cool to see it come together. It's great to be standing in front of something you're genuinely proud of.

There are roles out there I want to play that I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to. But I'm not going to waste time waiting for those phone calls, passing up the chance to do these sorts of things. I'm more likely to go see a smaller, darker indie film, like Felony for instance, than I am to see an Avengers or perhaps even a Terminator.

The news business is simple but it's not easy to do well. You know the story, you have to cover it, you need pictures, you need good writers, you have to get it to the screen but it's obviously not easy to do well.

When you're working with people you've seen in hundreds of films... it's a bit crazy to step outside yourself for a minute and think, 'This is surreal.' But I try not to get too bogged down in that.

I've always played sport. I played rugby, I was involved in athletics, I played cricket... I'm an outdoors kind of guy.