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Eric Bana is an Australian actor, director, producer, who began his career as a stand-up comedian, and gained recognition for his portrayal of Mark Chopper Read in the movie “Chopper.” Here are 50 facts about the actor:
- For his performance in the biographical movie “Chopper,” sketch comedy series “Full Frontal,” and drama film “Romulus, My Father,” Bana has been awarded the Australia's highest film and television awards.
- He was the second Australian actor to play a superhero from Marvel comics, following Hugh Jackman.
- His performance as Mark “Chopper” Read in the 2000 movie “Chopper,” was praised by most of the critics with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times saying, “He has a quality no acting school can teach and few actors can match.”
- In the year 1996, he was voted as Australia's Most Eligible Bachelor by Cleo Magazine.
- He was named as the Sexiest Actor in Victoria's Secret’s 2008 “What Is Sexy?” list in January 2008.
- In 2006, Bana was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
- He was ranked as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in the World by Empire Magazine in 2007.
- He has featured the cover of GQ magazine twice in July 2003 and March 2008.
- He is an ambassador for Father Chris Riley's charity for homeless young people, Youth off the Streets and have also been actively involved in the campaigns with the Australian Childhood Foundation and the Bone Marrow Donor Institute.
- He was born as Eric Banadinovic on August 9, 1968 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to Ivan Banadinovic, a logistics manager for Caterpillar, and Eleanor Banadinovic, a hairdresser.
- He along with his older brother Anthony Banadinovic, grew up in Melbourne's Tullamarine, a suburban area near Melbourne's international airport.
- He went to Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School and he often used to mimic his teachers. He even wanted to quit schooling to become a motor mechanic, during his interest in motor racing.
- He decided to take up the career of acting, after watching the Mel Gibson film Mad Max of 1979. However, he did not seriously consider it till 1991.
- His first job, before becoming a stand-up comedian, was washing cars at a service station, pushing trolleys at Coles New World, barman at Melbourne's Castle Hotel.
- His first car was a 1974 XB Ford Falcon coupé, which he purchased for A$1100, at the age of 15. He made his motor sport racing debut driving this car in the 1996's Targa Tasmania.
- His first appearance in television was in the Steve Vizard's late night talk show, “Tonight Live” in the year 1993.
- Following this, he was invited to join as a writer as well as performer of the sketch comedy series, “Full Frontal.” His performance in the series, including his impressions of Columbo, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Tom Cruise, gained him wide popularity.
- The success he achieved with “Full Frontal,” paved way to the 1994 comedy album “Out of Bounds,” and the sketch comedy series “The Eric Bana Show,” which was cancelled after just 8 episodes. He even received the Logie Award for “Most Popular Comedy Personality” in 1997.
- While working on the series “Full Frontal,” he started dating Rebecca Gleeson, a publicist with the Seven Network. Gleeson is the daughter of Murray Gleeson, Chief Justice of Australia.
- His performance in the “Full Frontal” show landed him the chance to portray the character of Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read in the biographical movie “Chopper,” based on the infamous Australian criminal Chopper Read. In fact, it was Mark Brandon Read who suggested that Bana play the role as he was impressed with his performance in “Full Frontal.”
- In preparation for his role in the movie “Chopper,” he spent two days living with Mark Brandon Read to have a better understanding of how to play his character in the film.
- He had to eat junk foods for four weeks to put on the extra weight of 30 pounds required for his role in “Chopper.”
- During the filming of the movie “Chopper,” he used to go to the set at four in the morning and spend nearly five hours for getting all of Read’s trademark tattoos.
- His performance in the movie was also praised by Read himself on the 20 to 1 episode Great Aussie Films, where “Chopper” came at 17th. Bana also won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor.
- He married Gleeson and lives together in Melbourne with their two kids – Klaus, a son and Sophia, a daughter.
- In the year 2001, he was cast as SFC Norm “Hoot” Gibson in the movie “Black Hawk Down,” without auditioning for the role. Director Ridley Scott casted him in the role due to the recommendation from Russell Crowe who was impressed with Bana’s performance in “Chopper.”
- For his role as Hoot, he underwent training with Delta Force operators at Fort Bragg and even learnt to fire weapons.
- He worked hard with an exercise regimen and shed the extra 30 pounds he gained for his role as Read in “Chopper,” months before the filming of “Black Hawk Down” began.
- He was the first choice for the role of Xander Cage in the 2002 movie “xXx” directed by Rob Cohen, but he had to turn it down as he was working on “The Nugget.”
- After his success with “Chopper,” he went to star as the Marvel superhero in the 2003 movie “Hulk.” He signed a deal to star in Hulk and two other sequels of the movie, with substantial salary raises for each film.
- It is reported that, he agreed to take up the offer only after knowing the involvement of director Ang Lee in the movie, as he was a huge fan of Lee’s previous work “The Ice Storm.”
- Though he accepted the role, he was not a fan of the Hulk comics, on which the entire movie was based one. However, he was a big fan of the 1978 “The Incredible Hulk,” which was the base for the sequel that had Edward Norton in the lead role.
- He was not the initial choice for the movie as director Lee’s first choice was Billy Crudup, who declined the offer. Tom Cruise, Steve Buscemi, David Duchovny, Jeff Goldblum, and Edward Norton were also considered for the role before Bana was cast.
- In order to prepare for the role of Bruce Banner / Hulk, in the movie “Hulk,” director Lee took Bana to watch a bare-knuckled boxing match, so that he could prepare for the brutality of his role.
- Since he was in actual perfect shape during the filming of “Hulk,” costume designer Marit Allen had difficulty in coming up with unflattering, nerdy clothes for his character, to disguise it. Following the completion of “Hulk” filming, he spent more than nine months at home with his family.
- He purchased a Porsche 944 and took part in the Australia's Porsche Challenge, throughout 2004 and often finished in top ten.
- In the year 2004, he was offered a role in the big-budget film “Troy,” alongside Brad Pitt. It was actually Brad Pitt, a huge fan of the movie “Chopper,” who personally requested Bana as a co-star for the movie.
- Initially, he was offered an option of playing several different characters in the project “Troy,” but he chose Hector, as he felt the character to be “such a great bloke.”
- While filming the movie “Troy,” he and Pitt had a gentlemen’s agreement and did not use stunt doubles for their epic duel. The duo chose to pay for every accidental hit on the basis of - $50 for each light blow and $100 for each hard blow. Once the filming was completed, Pitt had to pay Bana $750, while Bana owed nothing in return.
- For his role as Hector, he had to learn riding a horse from the scratch as he had never ridden a horse before the movie “Troy.”
- He also underwent severe weight training as well as fight training in preparation for his character as Hector in the movie.
- The next year, he starred as Avner, alongside Daniel Craig and Geoffrey Rush in the Steven Spielberg's movie “Munich.” It is reported that the role of Avner was actually written with Bana in mind.
- His performance as Avner was well received and even The Los Angeles Times praised him saying that he in the role of Avner “projects a combination of sensitivity and ruthlessness and ... knows how to present a face for which worry is a new experience.”
- In the year 2007, he had another breakthrough with his Australian drama “Romulus, My Father,” based on Raimond Gaita's memoir of the same name.
- About his experience in filming the drama, he once said in an interview that during the filming of “Romulus, My Father,” he remembered much of his own family's struggles and as a result, it felt a bit like his own history.
- His role as Romulus Gaita earned him his second Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor.
- He was surprised when he was offered the role of Henry VIII of England in the 2008 historical drama “The Other Boleyn Girl,” alongside Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. He even admitted that he would have probably just “passed it on without even opening it,” if it had a different title when presented to him.
- Being a huge fan of the original Star Trek (1966) series, he starred in the 2009 “Star Trek,” as the villain Nero. It is reported that J.J Abrams had only two choices for the role of Nero – Russell Crowe and Bana.
- As a part of his work on the movie, he improvised Nero’s speech patterns. However, he shot all of his scenes only toward the end of the filming of the movie.
- He self-produced and directed a documentary named “Love the Beast,” that is based on his relationship with his first car, a 1974 XB Ford Falcon coupé, in the year 2009. The movie was listed as one of the best automotive documentaries by The News Wheel in 2015.
