Philip
Barantini plays the youthful Steve Hart, the fourth
member of the Kelly Gang and Dan Kelly's best friend.
Born in Liverpool in 1980, Barantini became
involved in drama while still at school in England. The
young actor has been in HBO/BBC's miniseries "Band Of
Brothers" and the feature film "The
Escapist".
From his first reading of the
script Barantini was attracted to the story of the Kelly
Gang.
"I just loved the whole story, because
basically it's like four young lads playing cowboys and
Indians really. Every young lad's dream is to do that."
Coming from England, Barantini didn't know much
about the Australian outlaws, but after some research he
became hooked on the role of Steve Hart. "Especially
because he is the cool one, I think," he says with a
laugh.
"Steve always loved Ned Kelly from a
really young age. He used to sneak around and follow
Ned, because he just wanted to be with him. He was in
awe of him," he says.
One of Barantini's biggest
challenges in portraying Steve Hart was the extensive
horseriding involved. While he met the challenge of an
Irish accent with little trouble, riding horses at high
speed posed a few more problems.
"I was terrified
of horses. I went to Dublin to do some horse riding with
Laurence (Kinlan, who plays Dan Kelly) and this guy got
me on a horse bareback with no stirrups, no reigns and
he had me going around in a circle and cantering. He was
mad! It was my first time on a horse and I fell off
three times. Eventually I got my balance, so the guy
really did help - but I wanted to kill him at the
time!"
For Barantini, the chance to work with
Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom was exciting and he and
the other members of the Kelly gang became good friends
during filming.
Away from the set, Barantini and
Kinlan became close, mirroring the relationship of their
characters. "When I found out that I got the part
Laurence rang me up and suggested I come to Dublin
before we headed to Australia. We clicked, so when we
came over we flew together and we lived next door to
each other while shooting in Australia. That was good,
because our characters, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, were
best friends. We were always out together: Orlando,
Heath, Laurence and myself. It was like a gang, I
suppose." | |
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The Glenrowan shootout, the most
complicated scene in the film, involved 350 cast and
crew |
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Philip Barantini as Steve Hart |
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