Lets get wasted . . .

Drugs. Suicide. Rape. Murder. Highschool just ain't what it used to be in Wasted On The Young.
Forget the teenage dream, highschool is literally a nightmare in the directorial debut from Australian filmmaker Ben C. Lucas. Wasted On The Young plays out like a Greek tragedy in a highschool setting, following outsider Darren (Oliver Ackland) as he attempts to deliver his own brand of justice after an incident at a party involving his stepbrother Zack (Alex Russell) and crush Xandrie (Adelaide Clemens).

The low budget, indie film was a hit at the Toronto International Film Festival where it screened last year and its star, Oliver Ackland (below), gave a standout performance which saw him win the first inaugural Heath Ledger Scholarship award. It's a performance that's so convincing, the audience would never guess the actor who plays the 17-year-old protagonist is actually in his thirties.
``The age difference was something that really excited me about the project straight away,'' says Ackland.
``I'm 31 and the fact that he's 17 . . . I remember seeing Matchstick Men and in a behind the scenes featurette they were interviewing the lead girl who was playing a 15-year-old in the film but was actually in her mid twenties.
``I was really impressed.
``When that opportunity came around I got excited and would go and hang out at indie nights in clubs with young kids.
``I tried to kind of immerse myself in that stuff as much as I could .'' To portray Darren's feelings of ``awkwardness and isolation'', Ackland says he watched YouTube clips and interviews of Kurt Cobain, Nick Cave and River Phoenix.
``It was more the fact that they lived by their own set of ideals despite what was going on around them,'' he says.
``I felt like that kind of mirrored the character, how he was stuck in that superficial universe which was the school, he can't relate to people and yet he finally connects with another human being in Xandrie.''

Ackland says he remembers reading the script and thinking ``this is one I really want''.
``You don't get that feeling all the time,'' he says.
``As an actor that's what you're after, you're after those dark places that make your job more interesting.'' Filmed on location on Perth, the three month shoot gave Ackland the opportunity to meet and hang out with the late Heath Ledger's family, who awarded him the Heath Ledger Scholarship award.
``It was cool to meet his parents and hang out with them, I can't say thanks enough to the people who got that up and running,'' he says.
``The scholarship gave me money to fly over and live in Los Angeles.
``It was just incredible timing.
``I was broke, then suddenly I was in LA with money people had just given me to do what I'd been struggling to do for years.
``It was my ticket to get over there.''

Ackland (below) says as a huge fan of Ledger, the award inspired him to be more ``fearless'' in his film choices.
``I was a fan and I loved the choices he made as an artist and the way he went about doing it,'' he says.
``And the fact he seemed like an artist rather than a performer, which I admired.''
``It kind of inspired me to be a bit more reckless and fearless about work. Wasted On The Young is out today. You can read my exclusive chat with Ben C. Lucas here.

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Wasted on you

With just two days until the Gold Coast Film Festival, what better time to preview the opening night film Wasted On The Young. When filmmaker Ben C. Lucas sat down to write his debut feature film, Wasted On The Young, he had a clear vision (above). He wanted a Greek Tragedy set within an Australian highschool. The result has been described as a cross between Gus Van Sant's Elephant and the hit show Gossip Girl, as the nature of morality and justice are examined within the social jungle.
``I modelled it on those classic plays that are about murdering a king and those politics, with the potential queen and the underdog,'' says Lucas.

The story is a stylised look at the distinction between the have and the have not's and follows outsider Darren (Oliver Ackland, below) as he attempts to deliver his own brand of justice after an incident at a party involving his stepbrother Zack (Alex Russell) and crush Xandrie (Adelaide Clemens). It is in the aftermath of the incident that some of the more complex themes and issues are raised, says Lucas.
``The catch phrase that we were throwing around when shooting was that society mistakes getting away with something as being okay,'' he says.
``It's not enough for it to be morally right or okay, it's getting away with it.
``Everyone relaxes as soon as we get away with it.'' After being homeschooled when he was younger, Lucas says a lot of the ideas in the film are based on his experiences when he started high school.
`` I was thrust into a very peculiar world and I had an outsiders view of how that all ran,'' he says.
``The people who get away with stuff, it's not that they're inherently evil or set out to be, it's that they're given permission to be that way.
``The characters just evolved out of figuring out the story and I'm sure some of them are people I've known, but not by design.
``I completely rejected the idea that the character of Darren was anything like me, then at end of production process one of the editors said `Darren is basically you, isn't he Ben?'
``And I was like `no, no, no, ah, well, actually . . .''


After Wasted On The Young wowed critics at its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Lucas has been tagged as one of the hottest new directors on the scene. He has been in Los Angeles for several weeks, meeting with Hollywood executives about future projects and says it has been `a very exciting experience'.
``I've been reading a lot of scripts and going to a lot of meetings,'' he says.
``I don't know what the next project is, but I know what kind of project I want it to be.
``I'm very long term and I don't want to be just some director for hire.
``I don't want to become swallowed by the Hollywood machine and be someone who after they get a lot of attention ends up doing Spiderman 8.
``I would like to build a body of work and build a reputation.'' Wasted On The Young opens the Gold Coast Film Festival on Wednesday, November 10 at 6.30pm at Birch Carroll and Coyle Cinemas Australia Fair. It has been tagged with a March 2011 release date so best to catch it here a few months earlier and whilst star Alex Russell is there to introduce it.

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