On Friday Eric Bana conducted a Q&A Session as part of Palace Electric’s British Film Festival. With Simon Weaving conducting the interview, Eric chatted to the audience about his latest film, Closed Circuit.

How did you come across this film, and why did you want to do it?

It was actually researching another film. When I’m researching, I don’t read any other scripts. I as about to catch a flight when my agent rang and said “I know I’m not allowed, but I sent you a script I really think you should read on the plane. The Irish director is going to be in LA art the same time, so you can meet him.” It was the last thing I wanted to do on the flight, but I read it anyway, and I absolutely loved it.

I had a really good meeting what the director, John Crowley, the next day. As it turned out, the movie I was researching fell apart and was never made. As a result, the script was my next movie, CLOSED CIRCUIT.

You play the role of a posh English Lawyer. Was this a challenge for you? You’re known for enjoying impersonations and loving to become different characters, but tell us how you made the role of Mark Rose so convincing?

The attraction was pure selfishness. The question you have to ask when a part like this lands in your lap (although you don’t want to admit it) is, “Why isn’t Clooney doing this? Did he say no?”

I’ll never know for sure, but I think this one came straight to me. It was perfect, as it was exactly the sort of character I wanted to play at this point in my career. I love the idea of people who present really confidently, but behind the façade they are going through al sort of problems in their personal or professional lives, and I’m just really interested in that.

As for pretending being English, I’ve played Henry VIII and shot a few times in London. I really love it. You just know that you have to roll the sleeves up, do the hard work and lose the bloody Australian accent.

Do you have a voice coach? Or does your love of impersonations help with different accents?

I actually have an American accent in real life (laughter). Yeah, this is total, total put on.

I actually don’t like working with just one person. I like to change it up depending on which part of the world I’m in. Even if you’ve done the accent before, though, you still need to work really, really hard to get it right.

Playing a lawyer means you need to get an understanding of a lot of legal jargon. Aside from your family connections that can offer advice, did you immerse yourself in the British legal system to get an understanding of the way people operate?

It was really important to do that. While the character of Mark Rose is very much ‘the man behind the curtain’ and the façade, I needed to look convincing as a barrister and carry myself off in court. I spent around three weeks hanging around the courts and watching juicy trials. I met a couple of barristers, but I was more interested in their life beyond court – their offices, what sort of hours they kept. This isn’t a courtroom drama, but a drama with lawyers, so the outside world is important.

What was interested me was when you told me that in the original script there was no kissing.

That was a secret Simon!

What I loved about the script was that it was very honest. There were no moments where, on perhaps page sixty, I suddenly have karate skills to deal with evil agents. There are no car chases where I leap of giant buildings. This is not a movie with a happy, Hollywood ending.

Yeah, it’s true (about the kissing). I joked every single day with my co-star and the director that one day we would be coming back to do some kissing. It’s not uncommon these days to come back to a set six months later to pick up some shots you couldn’t get the first time, be it due to a lack off access to the set, someone being sick or simply running out of time. So we went back and shot it. That was the little flashback sequence that you saw, and it was done primarily to keep the American audience happy who unless they saw us together (puts on American accent) “couldn’t actually believe that we were in loooooove.”

Closed Circuit was shown as part of the British Film Festival. The official season commences on 5 December 2013. Click here for further information.