Ryan Kwanten : EW

True Blood fans hoping to see more of Ryan Kwanten (with his native Australian accent and his shirt on), are in luck: This Friday, his new movie, the modern-day Western Red Hill, opens in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin, with additional markets to follow. Kwanten stars as a young police officer named Shane Cooper who relocates to the remote Aussie outpost Red Hill with his pregnant wife (Claire van der Boom) for a less stressful life. Cue Jimmy Conway (Tom E. Lewis), a convicted wife killer, escaping from prison on Shane’s first day with one goal in mind: Swift revenge on those who put him away. There’s a twist that Kwanten admits he didn’t seem coming until late in the script: “I pride myself on picking those endings, and I did not pick it. I like to think that I’m remotely in the world of intelligent, so if I can make that mistake, I’m hoping other people could and it gets them actually thinking for a change at the end of a film, which would be nice.” We caught up with Kwanten last week in New York, before news broke that he’s set to star as Charles Manson in writer-director Scott Kosar’s adaptation of the Ed Sanders’ book The Family. (A rep for Kosar tells EW they’re hoping to shoot in early July, after Kwanten wraps season 4 ofTrue Blood, which begins production in early December.) We chatted with Kwanten about Red Hill, playing True Blood’s Jason Stackhouse, and our burning question after reading his November 2010 Men’s Heath cover story. (What alcohol does one drink to still perform well in a triathlon drunk?) 

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Red Hill writer/director Patrick Hughes says he loves Westerns because there’s no subtext to a bullet. There’s right and there’s wrong, and if you wronged someone, you’re going to pay for it. Is that what drew you to the movie?
RYAN KWANTEN: I’m a huge fan of the Western genre. At least half of my DVD collection is Westerns, everything from John Ford and Sergio Leone to Clint Eastwood. My favorite film of all time is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It’s not the classic Western, but the chemistry between Redford and Newman, that story, the comedy, the drama, the tension, so many memorable scenes. Beyond that, I thought it was really interesting to see this character, my character, pitted as being the hero of the film, yet from the very first frame of the film, he had an abundance of flaws. He’s forgotten his gun. He has to pick himself up off the floor every time he gets knocked down, and that to me was really unusual to have this so-called hero have all this fallibility to him. You’re so used to the Clint Eastwood/John Wayne style where you feel like no matter how big the posse is that they’re up against, they’re gonna be okay. I never got that feeling with Shane. That was far more intriguing for me to play.

The character Jason Stackhouse has a certain dichotomy to him, as well. He’s more brawn than brains, and yet, every now and then, he’ll say something almost brilliant in its truth and simplicity. I’m always surprised, and yet, it’s happened enough now that I shouldn’t be. Do you have a favorite of those kind of moments?
I never cease to be amazed with the lines that they give me. In terms of a favorite, my favorite scene is probably the one at the end of season 2, when Jason and Andy are sitting in his pickup truck concocting a plan. Jason’s trying to fire up Andy to go in and face the maenad, and Jason says, “This town might be full of crazy rednecks and dumbasses, but they’re still Americans.” And Andy says, “Yeah, and that used to mean something.” And Jason looks at him and says, “And it still does.” To me, that says a lot about who Jason is. He really is a patriotic American. He loves his country. That’s a really special quality. As ignorant or dumb or naive as he may seem at times, there’s a good person underneath it all.

I assume we’ll be seeing that more of that in season 4, when Jason leads Crystal’s kin in Hotshot. What can you tell me about season 4?
Nothin’. I pride myself on being one of the last to know [what'll happen next] because I almost feel like it hinders my performance to know too much, ’cause Jason very rarely knows what’s happening in the next minute, let alone the next episode. So I like playing it with that kind of spontaneity… You’re looking at me like I’m lying, but I’m honestly not. It’s the absolute truth. It’s why I stopped reading the [Charlaine Harris] books at book 2. I felt like it was getting in the way, I knew too much.

When will you actually read the first script?
A week before we start filming… You’re just gonna have to wait, Mandi.

I’d love to see more scenes between Jason and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), who I think can be amused by Jason’s Rambo-ness.
There are so many characters on there that are unbelievably interesting. Jason is always sort of off doing his own thing in his own storyline. I very rarely get to see all those guys. I see them once a week at the table read. And at that table read, I’m always like, “What have you been doing? What have you been up to? What have you been shooting?” And they’re the same with me … I would have liked to have had a scene with Denis O’Hare [who plays Russell]. I thought he was one of our best villains. I thought Jason and Russell would have been an interesting kind of predicament. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. I don’t know how he would have dealt with Jason.
He just would have been scratching his head. “These humans…” Jason is probably the worst of what Russell thinks humans represent — no brains, all that kind of thing. Jason would have looked at him like, “You’re the king? You’re what everyone looks up to?”

Okay, let’s get to questions you can answer. I read in a 2009 Men’s Health interview that you were on a bowling team. I’ve always wondered what your team name was, and what’s your average.
I was the worst bowler on my team, but our team was actually pretty good… They’d be happy that I said that we were pretty good. Our team name was… god, we had to change it, because the first one was a little too racy for the league.

Excellent. What was it?
It was like Balls Deep or something. I think it’s The Untouchables or something now, something innocuous.

You’re no longer on the team?
It’s easier for me to be in the league when I’m shooting True Blood, because I’m basically [in Los Angeles] for six months of the year. But when I’m not, I’m wherever a film dictates that I should be, so it’s hard for me to give loyalty to the team.

Your current Men’s Health cover story mentions that you’ve shown up drunk to compete in a triathlon before. New burning question: What alcohol should one drink before competing in a triathlon?
What’s the fuel? I don’t think there’s a specific type of concoction. They always say “Never mix,” but I think that’s probably something you should do if you want to go and do something that involves as much pain as a triathlon could involve. It definitely numbs the pain while you’re racing. So, no sleep. Lots of alcohol. And then just have your drunk friends on the side supporting you, pushing you through.

We’ve also read how when you first came to L.A., you convinced a hotel owner to let you stay three months, and you’d pay him at the end of that time. Is that a common story for young actors?
Are you saying I plagiarized that story? [Laughs] How did you find out? No! Stop the recorder!

No, I mean, I’m wondering if you have friends who did something similar. How did you think of that and make it work?
When you talk about life-changing moments, it was that moment when I was sitting up in the hotel room. The executive producer of the film that I was [in L.A.] to promote called me and said, “You might want to think about sticking around. Because we got a good response for the film.” I said to her, with all honesty, ” I don’t have any money. I have just enough money to last through today, and I’m leaving today.” And she said, “Well, are you gonna regret it if you leave?” And I said, “Well, I really don’t have a choice. I’ve got no money.” That’s how we left the conversation. I sat on the edge of the bed wondering, “Am I gonna regret it? How can I make this work?” I came up with the ridiculous idea, I thought, of going to the manager, and then saying, “Can I speak to the owner, please?” He looked at me like I was crazy, which I probably was. I had a meeting with the owner and looked him firmly in the eyes. He saw something in my conviction that convinced him that I was trustworthy. And I’ve paid him back in more ways than one. He’s now getting mentioned in a lot of interviews.

Would you like to name the hotel?
[Smiles] The Cadillac Hotel in Venice.-