Kick Gurry reads a story he last performed 25 years ago — and it still hits hard.
Violence, Vulnerability, Yellow Pages Commercials, Sean Penn, and what it takes to be an actor.

Rule of Thumb is split into two parts. This is Part 1.

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Detailed Music Credits

"Far and Wide" by Soundlab Music, "Texas Plains" by Arcadian Sounds, "Brer Krille", "Ballast", "Stipple", "Golden Grass", "Collecting Samples" and "Pintle" by Blue Dot Sessions "Tense Drums" by Philip Okerstrom and Damian Mason, "Vengeful" by Blue Dot Sessions, "New PJ Harvey" by Philip Okerstrom and Damian Mason, "Deranged" by Matthew Creid,  "An Oldly Formal Dance" by Blue Dot Sessions, "Ambient Rhythmic" by Damian Mason, "Sole Companion" by Blue Dot Sessions, "Minimalist Touch" by Ali Goldstein, "Intro" and "Heartless" by Philip Okerstrom, "Landscape" by Matthew Creid

Subject Matter Key Words: Violence aganist women, alcohol abuse, masculinity, Apprehended Violence Order, guns.

Note: This episode contains a lot of swear words.

Detailed Episode Description:
This episode of Real Made Up Stories blends fiction and reflection, pairing a raw short story about domestic violence with a candid conversation. The conversation starts with exploring how the Real Made Up Story came to be, moves on to how Kick came to be involved in the creation of the story: what things were on his mind when he decided to work on the story and then delivers some reflections about pain, masculinity and violence.

The Rule of Thumb fictional story detailed description:
Tom wakes up on the side of the road near an intersection, not sure how he got there. Living in a small rural town, Tom is a young man whose days are a haze of alcohol and frustration. In his pocket he has an apprehended violence order (AVO) taken out against him by his ex girlfriend Danielle. He hitches a ride back into town and goes to the pub where catches up with his mate Callum, whose casual misogyny feeds Tom’s bitterness. Tom shows Callum the AVO. And when Callum asks him what he is going to do about it, Tom reacts with "I will blow her f**ken head off. The mention of a gun plants a seed in Tom’s mind — an idea that festers as the bourbon flows. That night, he visits his father, lying to his father about wanting to borrow a rifle for a weekend hunt. He wants to know how to get the gun from the gun safe. When he has the information he needs he starts to go. But his father stops him with a gift: a bullet on a leather necklace, passed down through generations as a superstition against death. Tom is surprised by the gift but when he leaves he keeps on with his mission and goes to retrieve the rifle. He goes to Danielle’s house. He waits in the shadows, waiting for Danielle to come home. But suddenly memories push through the alcoholic fog. He remembers the incident that lead Danielle to take an apprehended violece order out against him, how he dragged her from the door when she wouldn't let him come into the house and choked her on the hard driveway.  When Danielle arrives home Tom has come to some sort of sense. He let's Danielle get safely inside and then runs off into the fields behind the houses, unsure of where he is going but knowing he needs to get far away. (The story will continue in the next episode: Rule of Thumb (part 2)


Kick's conversation with host Phil covers these stories:

Early hustle, say-yes-to-everything phase Kick recalls his first scrappy jobs: “a couple of commercials for McCains potato cubes and a Mars [bar],” and even being “an extra in a Yellow Pages commercial where you only saw my feet,” because he wanted to “do anything and everything… just to learn.” That open-door mindset led him to VCA student films: “somehow I got connected with all these short films at the VCA.” The director who told him to “find pain” He describes being cast in a short film by Jo Kennedy (of Starstruck) who had a big influence on him. After the shoot, Jo told Kick he could have “a really great career as an Australian actor… a career like Ben Mendelsohn.”  “But," she said, "you don’t have any pain baked into you. You can tell that you’ve had a really good life.” To be a great actor, “you need to find that pain.” This was part of Kick's motivation to join the Rule of Thumb project as a way to try and find that pain.  How he ended up on The Thin Red Line — and met Sean Penn. On holiday in Port Douglas, he wandered into the production office, gushed about Malick and the cast, and was asked the classic question: “So… are you an actor?” He admits he “revved it up,” telling them he was “about to shoot a movie down in Melbourne.” The "movie" he revved up was Jo Kennedy's short film.  The next day he was invited to be an extra: “They just shaved [my hair] off, slapped blood on me.” Midday, word came that Malick wanted someone to “break down and cry” when the soldiers return from battle. The office vouched for him as “an established Australian actor.” He thought he’d been sprung: “I thought I’d been caught out sort of faking my way onto the set.” Instead, they asked, “Do you think you could break down [and] cry?” He was driven out “in a Tarago with Sean Penn and John Cusack,” did the scene, and remembers: “Sean Penn… clapped at the end of it.” “24 years later, Sean Penn came down to Australia and acted in the TV show that I wrote,” referring to C*A*U*G*H*T, the show Kick not only wrote but also directed, produced and starred in. More about Sean Penn and C*A*U*G*H*T will come up in the next episode: Rule of Thumb Part 2. The community project: Kick brought friends up to work on the community project and mentor disadvantaged young people in some country towns. One of those friends was Callan Mulvey, who’d been [Drazic] on Heartbreak High.” Kick and Cal both found that the subject matter and the reality of those young people's lives soon outweighed the buzz. Kick felt overwhealmed, realising that he and Cal could get away when it became too much, but for those young people "there is no going away… It’s their actual life. We were just pretending.” Models of masculinity and a mentor he adored When considering the masculinity being portrayed in the story Kick identifies nurturing versions of masculinity he has known, spotlighting the actor “Bill Paxton" who Kick met on the Tom Cruise film "Edge of Tomorrow". Bill was kind and generous and a leader - he showed the kind of manhood Kick calls “really, wildly impressive… to be aspired to.” Kick also tells a confronting story - a memory of another actor (a “blunt instrument” type) who told him about a friend’s son punching his girlfriend. The father’s first response to the girl: “You need to stop making him so angry.” Kick says the masculine actor was “hysterically crying” as he told it, because he felt his friends reaction was such “a betrayal of that young girl.” To Kick, that moment felt like a turning point—a realisation that many in society agreed that we should not condone violence against women anymore.

In Rule of Thumb part 2, we will find out more about Kick's experience on the project, whether he found the pain he needs to be a great Australian actor, and how Sean Penn comes back into his circle.


Real Made Up Stories has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body."