Eric Bana's Next Act

The Australian actor and King Arthur star—who got his unlikely start in comedy—has carved out a niche in Hollywood by playing haunted characters and never forgetting where he came from.

- Mitch Moxley

IN 2000, ERIC BANA STARRED IN AN 

Australian movie based on the life of a notorious criminal and folk hero named Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read, a goateed, silver-grilled biker who boasted of murdering almost 20 people in Melbourne in the 1970s and ’80s. Bana brought to life Read’s unique brand of charisma and psychopathy in a way that somehow evoked both revulsion and sympathy. The performance was career-making and anyone who saw it knew Bana was put on Earth to be a movie star.

Since Chopper, Bana has spent nearly two decades in Hollywood playing tortured souls—think Avner in Munich, Hector in Troy, and King Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl—all while conveying an affability and genuineness that makes him seem like a guy you’d want to have a beer with. Now 48, Bana never moved away from his hometown of Melbourne, where he lives with his wife and two teenage children, surrounded by friends he grew up with. Despite a few early miscalculations on the path to leading man (namely, Hulk), Bana has defined his career on his own terms. These days you’ll find him in smaller but pivotal parts in big-budget blockbusters—the villain Nero in 2009’s Star Trek and as Uther Pendragon in this summer’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, directed by Guy Ritchie—and in meaty leading roles in brainy indie films, such as the upcoming The Forgiven, opposite Forest Whitaker.

Perhaps surprising to those only familiar with his Hollywood work, Bana started his career in stand-up comedy, touring from venue to venue across Australia in a Tarago van. He didn’t begin acting until he landed a spot on the sketch-comedy show Full Frontal, Australia’s version of SNL, and later on his eponymous show,