Cooking up a storm

Above: (L-R) Harrison Gilbertson, Geena Davis and Harry Cook in a scene from Accidents Happen.

They say too many cooks ruin the broth, but emerging talent Harry Cook might just be the right ingredient. For any 18-year-old actor, starring alongside Geena Davis in your first movie role would be a daunting task. But Sydney based Harry Cook was more focused on stealing her best supporting actress Oscar.
“I want her Oscar, I would steal it,'' he says.

In reality, the bubbly teenager was in awe of her acting talent when he starred alongside her in Accidents Happen, a black comedy from Australian director Andrew Lancaster.
“She's amazing, one of a kind and so down to earth,'' says Cook.
“I still find it hard to believe I got to work with her.
“Everyone was so nervous working with her and we wanted to make her proud.''

Coming from a background in theatre and minor TV roles, Cook (below) cracked the big time when he auditioned for and got the part Larry Conway, one of Accidents Happen's central characters. After hearing about the project, Cook's agent at the time tried to stop him going for the part because it was a `big movie and Geena Davis is in it.' With a new agent and a new film, there is now a lot of `buzz' surrounding the teenager's performance as the troubled older brother.
“He could have been played as a real asshole in a way, but I wanted people to feel for sorry for him,'' he says.
“The kid had difficult things happen to him.
“It's so cool to have people talking about the film because we shot it all here in Australia.
“It's weird and so fun to think people all over the world are watching it.''
Premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, Accidents Happen has gone on to screen at the Sydney Film Festival, Branchage Jersey Film Festival, the Cinéma des Antipodes festival and the Sitges Film Festival. The films producer, Anthony Anderson, also produced the critically acclaimed Somersault, which helped launch Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington's careers. Cook says he would be happy to follow in their footsteps.
“I'll just wait and see,'' he says.
“If Accidents Happen goes well and Hollywood wants me, then I'm there.
“All those guys are doing so well for themselves and they're all really nice people.
“It would be awesome to do a big budget movie like Sam in Clash Of The Titans.''

In case he does make the big time, Davis gave him some quality advice about surviving in `the acting business'.
“She said just stay yourself and don't let anything get above you or freak out.
“It's such a fragile industry because you never know what your next job is, so stay grounded.''

Since Accidents Happen, Cook has been jumping from one job to the next, including ABC series My Place, a play called Citizenship and adventure film Caught Inside which filmed in the Maldives. His next projects are two dramatic Australian movies, A Father's Choice and The Birth of Anna Armstrong, which begin filming this year.
“Australian films are great and really raw,'' he says.
“You get to stop worrying about your problems for a while and worry about someone else's.
“These two are both really heavy as well.
“I would love to do comedy or an action movie next.
“I'll just wait for the right script to come along, like Die Hard 7 or something.''

Above: A scene from the film.

Accidents Happen opens today.