Actor Roy Billing has become “an overnight sensation in my early 60s” playing ‘Aussie Bob’ Trimbole in the hit Australasian TV drama Underbelly.

But before that he had a successful 30 year acting career in both Australia (Rabbit Proof Fence, The Dish and Siam Sunset) and New Zealand (Under the Mountain, Inside Straight, Gliding On and Skin and Bone).

In this ScreenTalk interview, Billing talks about:

• His one-line debut in the movie about the Arthur Allan Thomas case – Beyond Reasonable Doubt

• Being mistaken for a taxi driver on the set of Inside Straight

• Getting a taste of fame after marrying Beryl on Gliding On

• Being accused of impersonating a pilot in a bar while shooting Erebus: The Aftermath

• Basing the character of Tupper on his father in Skin and Bone

• Playing a cross-dresser in Mirror Mirror and looking like his mother-in-law Dame Cath Tizard

• Working with Sam Neill in the Australian film The Dish

• Trying to make the audience love drug dealer ‘Aussie Bob’ Trimbole  in Underbelly

• How the drama became the highest rating show ever in Australia and made his career

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

NZ On Screen: Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside