Guy Pearce on The Innocents, partying with Kylie, and Kate Bush fandom: 'I own one of her old dresses'

Actor Guy Pearce talks to Catherine Gee about his new Netflix series, accidentally offending Graham Norton at Kylie Minogue’s birthday party, and having a 'shadow baby' with a Game of Thrones star

“I’ve twinged my back,” explains Guy Pearce, as he tries to manoeuvre himself into a comfortable position on an orange armchair, seconds after we’ve shaken hands. “I was running and I did my achilles and now it's gone up into my back. It's slightly weird.”

Dressed in faded black jeans and a dark T-shirt, his feet bare, the 50-year-old is in a central London hotel to promote his latest TV series, Netflix’s teenage coming-of-age/fantasy hybrid The Innocents. But despite his pain, which he tells me he’s remedying with ice and occasionally lying on the floor of the hotel room, he’s in cheerful, laidback spirits.

It’s almost 30 years since Pearce left Neighbours and became the first Australian soap star to crack Hollywood. He’s an actor that has evaded any typecasting, who can easily play a drag queen, a comic book villain, a romantic lead, a by-the-book detective, a British 20th-century king or a colonial-era Outback criminal.

Now he’s starring as a mysterious doctor who, ensconced in the rolling hills outside Bergen, Norway, is running a retreat to help three women with a paranormal problem, while in England, a teenage girl with burgeoning supernatural powers has run away from home with her boyfriend.

How did you get involved with this particular project?
They came to me actually. Sally, my English agent – I've got an American agent and an English agent and an Australian agent so things always float around between the three –  she had come to me and said, “Look there's this Netflix series they're interested in talking to you about this character, would you have a look, it sounds really interesting.”

I spoke to our director Farren Blackburn, who gave me a clear picture of the tone that he wanted to set. Because the majority of the story is a drama about a group of people but obviously there is this one element that you can't ignore, called shapeshifting, which is completely fantastical. But the way that Farren explained it to me was that he wanted the entire thing to feel real and feasible, even though it's unusual and weird – for it to be treated in a very human way. That made it even more appealing to me.

It does have a very different tone. It's not your classic fantasy series.
No and I'm never really drawn to that sort of stuff. There's a part of me that goes what's the point? Aren't we interesting enough as it is? But I get for a lot of other people they want things to be otherworldly, whereas I'm much more interested in a courtroom drama than I am in a fantasy piece about goblins and magic and time travel... I mean I've done a time travel movie but you know. I'm always interested in the emotional core of something.

Where did you film the series?
So I started in Norway. They'd already done a couple of months up north, in the UK [in and around Skipton, in North Yorkshire]. Then we all went to Norway, did four or five weeks there, then we went to London and did the interiors of Norway in the studio. It was the old Gillette Building on the A4 – so every four and a half minutes we had to stop filming as another plane went over.

You were definitely the most famous person on this set.
And that's what I reminded everybody.

Did you get to be a diva?
No. I’m happy not to be a diva.

You must have experienced a few in your time.
Yeah, I've come across a few divas but most people are not actually. Funnily enough it's never usually the most famous people who are the divas. People who are extremely experienced and fantastic at what they do just get on with it.

What do members of the public tend to recognise you for these days?
It depends where I am. Here in England, it's Neighbours still. "Are you going to do anything else after Neighbours? Have you done any acting since Neighbours? Are you going to go back on the show?" That's fine. It's funny but it's weird.

In America I suppose it's... actually for a lot of people The Count of Monte Cristo is one that comes up far more... I guess that film was just really popular. So you kind of realise it's not so much about you in the film but how popular the film was. So Memento, LA Confidential and Priscilla [Queen of the Desert, Pearce's breakout film after Neighbours] come up a lot. If any kids recognise me it's through Iron Man 3.

Do you have any of your old movie memorabilia?
I don't usually take something from a film, to be honest. Chris Nolan [the director of Memento] gave me one of those Polaroid cameras that folds out. Not the one that we use in the film, he's got that. But a new one... I do own a dress that Kate Bush wore in a video. From The Sensual World. I bought it at a charity auction. Capital Radio were doing a charity auction and I'm a huge Kate Bush fan. And my friend, who runs the Kate Bush fan magazine said to me, "You should buy it". So we rang up and bought it.

Where do you keep it?
Well for some years my ex-girlfriend had it, because she was a huge Kate Bush fan as well, but I've now got it back. So it's just hanging up in the cupboard. It needs to be out on one of these [he gestures to a dressmakers' dummy that happens to be in the corner of the room]. It is pretty amazing. I remember Shaney, my old girlfriend, getting hold of it and there was a little sweat mark in the armpit and Shaney was [excitedly] going "Ohhh it's Kate Bush's sweat!"

When when it comes to Neighbours, people will often ask if you still see Kylie Minogue or Jason Donovan, but you are actually still friends with them.
Very much so.

And you went to her 50th birthday party in May, which had quite an unusual mix of people [among the guests were Jason Donovan, Alan Carr, David Walliams, Mel C, Cara Delevigne, Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears, Chrissie Hynde, BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty, Rhys Ifans and Coronation Street's Anthony Cotton, while Rick Astley made a surprise appearance and performed live].
It was so much fun. I think I offended Graham Norton. Well, I tapped him on shoulder and said "Do you mind if I be a real fan?" and he sort of gave me a sneering look and turned away. I thought, “Oh OK, he either knows who I am and he just doesn't want me to be a fan, or he didn't know who I was.” I really love him. I'm such a fan of his but I f----d it up.

It is surprising that you've not been on his show before. How late did the party go on for?
Well not as late as I wanted it to go on for because I had to work the next day so I had to get out of there at a reasonable time. We had some texting afterwards but I don't know if she told me how late she stayed. I love seeing her, it's so lovely.

Have you seen her since?
Er, did I see her? I think I might have seen her one more time while I was still filming that film [Pearce plays Sir William Cecil in a forthcoming biopic of Mary Queen of Scots]. And Jason I obviously saw that night as well, we always catch up together.

You previously said it's not often the three of you are in a room together.
No, I don't think we had for many many years. She looks amazing and the two of us look kind of, you know, well I'll speak for myself, I look pretty old.

You made the film Swinging Safari with Kylie as well last year [an incredibly kitsch Seventies-set film about swinging suburban couples made with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert's Stephan Elliott]. What was that like to film?
It was pretty mad. Just back in the world of Stephan Elliott, with him saying "I just want you to bring as much Seventies memories as you possibly can to this", so we all had homework to do. It was great to head down that road with him again and with Kylie again. We played such a pair of d--kheads. Well, I played a d--khead. She was just married to a d--khead.

Was that a fake moustache?
Why do you presume it was a fake moustache?

Well, unless they dyed your own moustache blond?
Yeah, they did. They dyed my hair and dyed my moustache. I could have stuck one on probably because it looks all a bit fake anyway but no, it was real. Kylie is in a wig.

Where do you live at the moment?
That is a very good question. I sort of live between Melbourne, Amsterdam, and wherever I'm working. A lot of my stuff is in Melbourne. Half my stuff is in Amsterdam. I have a place in LA as well but I haven't really spent time there in the last couple of years. [Amsterdam is the home of Pearce's partner Carice Van Houten, who plays Melisandre in Game of Thrones. They have a two-year-old son.]

We share a place there and I try to get her out to Australia whenever I can with Monte.

Did you name your son Monte after the Count of Monte Cristo?
No. It's spelt the same way. That was probably one of the reasons why I thought about not calling him Monte. Also I'm called Monty in Mildred Pierce [the TV series he starred in alongside Kate Winslet] but we just went "Ah well, it's a great name".

Have you still not watched Game of Thrones yet?
No. I've watched bits and pieces but I'm not a big television watcher.

Were you tempted to ask if you can take on a role in Game of Thrones?
No. Again, it's probably a bit too fantasy orientated for me.

Have you become tired of shadow baby jokes now [in a particularly famous Game of Thrones scene, Melisandre gives birth to a murderous shadow demon]?
We got a lot of those around the time but we haven't had any for a while. It'll be funny when he asks if he's a demon shadow baby. I have watched that scene. But I haven't just sat down and watched the show. It's just too much to take on.

You do have a lot on at the moment. Are you going to appear in Bloodshot? [It has been reported that Pearce is in talks to replace Michael Sheen, who has had to leave due to scheduling conflicts, in the first live-action film from Valiant Comics, which will star Vin Diesel.]
Yes.

So has your initial reluctance to appear in comic book films eased a bit now that you’ve been in Iron Man 3?
I just was never brought up on comics, so it's just not like I'm drawn to them. But if a character is good, than I'm interested in it.

You've said that you were given Daredevil to look at [the part was eventually played by Ben Affleck]. Comic book films have changed a lot since then.
I just didn't believe myself in that role. If I don't believe myself in a role then I just can't do it. But it wasn't like I chose not to do Daredevil because I had a thing against comic book films.

You're directing your first film now.
Hopefully next year. If we can raise the money then it's happening. It's called Poor Boy and I was in it as a play about 10 years ago [in Melbourne]. And Matt [Cameron], who wrote the play, has also written the screenplay. He and I are very good friends now.

What lessons have you learnt from being directed about what not to do as a director yourself?
Well I wouldn't act something out for another actor while directing. Lesson number one for directors: don't act for actors. Having said that, if you can act and if that's your only way of explaining something then by all means show me. But don't get into a habit of it. Also to be a good director you need to be a good listener as well. The best directors are aware of what this actor needs to be inspired and that actor needs to be inspired.

As a good director, you need to understand that perhaps you're not the one to inspire the actor. There's nothing worse than a director coming and explaining your motivation to you as if you haven't even read the script. That's really condescending and tedious. Hopefully I won't do that.

The Innocents launches on Netflix on August 24