How ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ Prepared George MacKay

Before George MacKay dove into the trenches for the extraordinary shoot on the Best Picture-nominated “1917,” he was deep within the Australian wilderness for “True History of the Kelly Gang.” And it was the immersive nature of this movie that ready him for “1917.”

In an interview from his house over Zoom with TheWrap, MacKay defined that he was capable of get inside the top of Australian people legend Ned Kelly due to how deeply he was immersed on director Justin Kurzel’s WWI movie.

“The experience of making it and everything from the prep beforehand to the actual shoot was really full-on, and it’s the most immersive experience I’ve ever had on a project,” MacKay stated. “And I think being pushed physically and emotionally hard for it, it set me in a really good state to do ‘1917,’ and the kind of feeling that came by the end of Ned was actually really informative to playing Schofield, the way I could operate and the way of getting through something really difficult.”

MacKay frolicked on location each in prep and through taking pictures, and he defined he couldn’t draw back to consider house or life away from what Kelly’s life would’ve been like in 19th-century Australia.

“If you make me go there in my head and heart, I’m going to unravel, and I can’t. And that feeling was really integral to my interpretation of Schofield,” MacKay stated. “It also just made me much fit, because physically it was tough with Ned, and ‘1917,’ the physicality was less aesthetic, we were on the go the whole time.”

“True History of the Kelly Gang” is a fictionalized model of the lifetime of Ned Kelly, a real-life outlaw and gang chief within the mid-1800s who has attained people standing, with some believing him to be a Robin Hood-type hero who fought oppression and others who view him as a murderous gangster who doesn’t deserve the status he’s been given. Kurzel’s movie grapples with the concepts of fact vs. fiction because it pertains to Kelly’s legend and dissects the various sides of masculinity.

MacKay performs Kelly as a brawling and boastful badass who continues to be an mental with a poet’s coronary heart. When we first see him on display screen although, he’s wearing nothing however his underpants in entrance of an enormous Union Jack flag, flexing and stretching for a bare-knuckle brawl. MacKay stated he bought his character’s perspective from the Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor

“This kind of new breed of colonial Australians, it was a mixture of Irish, Scottish English, and he probably would’ve spoken with an Irish accent,” MacKay stated. “Conor McGregor was an insight into that bravado, that swagger.”

On the opposite facet of the coin was Nicholas Hoult enjoying the movie’s villain, Constable Fitzpatrick, a ruthless and corrupt lawman who seeks to convey Kelly to justice however does so together with his personal violent swagger and sensibility. MacKay stated he spent plenty of time with the actors enjoying the core members of Ned Kelly’s gang, however the time he bought to spend with Hoult confirmed how alike they each are.

“We enjoyed being in the soup of that world, and there’s this really sort of fluidity to their friendship in all senses. But also, you know, I really like you, because I think we’re the same, but we’re on opposite sides. I get how you are, and I despise how you are, and I can almost respect it because of that, but I can’t respect you because of that,” MacKay stated of Hoult and his character. “I really enjoyed that dance with Nick, we were really playful in finding that.”

IFC Films will launch “True History of the Kelly Gang” on digital and on-demand on April 24, and the movie can even play in choose drive-in theaters throughout the nation day-and-date.

Watch the interview with George MacKay above.