Ditch Davey
Ditch Davey is an Australian actor known for portraying Constable Evan 'Jonsey' Jones in the hit crime drama Blue Heelers (2001-2006), Nemetes in Steven S. DeKnight's epic swords and sandals series Spartacus (2012-2013), and Dr. Ian Bickman in ABC's fantastic drama Black Box (2014). He has also appeared in other films and television series such as Water Rats (2000), Under a Red Moon (2008), Sea Patrol (2008-2011) and John Doe: Vigilante (2014), among others.
We at Screen Nut had the great opportunity of speaking with Ditch to learn more about his life and career.
SN: Welcome to Screen Nut, Ditch. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. I'm always interested to know how actors/directors (etc) first started out. Tell us about your early life growing up in Australia and what circumstances led you towards your chosen career path.
Ditch: There's two parts to this, and they were both pretty defining to me. I was 11 and had just started high school, my older sister was then involved in an amateur Musical Theatre company, and she said to me one day that I should come along and audition and she thought it'd be fun for me. I was terribly shy and to some degree still am, so it was something that I just didn't understand. Somehow she managed to get me there and once I was there I never left. I was involved in a lot of sports activities when I was growing up so I found that I was confident on the sporting field with my team mates, but walking on stage by yourself was like knowingly and willingly putting your face in a fire to me. It was incredibly challenging and because I am who I am, I wanted to conquer that feeling. The second part is that I was involved in a street fight when I was 16 and was badly hurt. It happened at the beach I grew up on and surfed at. I sold my surf board within a month, and jumped straight into the theatre. That was where I felt at home, and I never left.
SN: How easy do you find it to switch off and become a completely different character, and what is it that excites you the most about being an actor?
Ditch: I've always felt at home building a character and exploring their life. It excites me when I am entrusted with the lives of the characters I've played. That kind of sounds like I have a god complex or something, but I don't really see it like that. When you have just words on the page your job is to give those characters the richest life that you can. Let them breathe, laugh, feel pain, fight for their beliefs (even if they differ from your own), find love that may also differ from your own. Give them a history, a family, things that excite them and/or fuck them off. Find the things that make them tick! You do this by drawing on your past experiences whether they be literal or parallel experiences to your character or spending time with your imagination which to me is like a meditation.
All of this takes time, and yes it can get easier with practice but usually what works for one character doesn't resonate with another. You have to start at the beginning every time and use your experiences and tools to solve the problems that are in front of you. There are so many nuances to acting, and like you do in life, you keep learning and exploring and finding new things, so when you spend the time building your characters' life, then acting does become easy because you don't have to act.
SN: Tell me about your first ever on-screen acting role. How did it feel to to see yourself on-screen for the first time?
Ditch: My first onscreen job was for a chewing gum ad (I'm not going to tell you the name) but I was the dude that had to put the gum in his mouth and react like the world was suddenly a much better place to be! It was straight out of drama school so I'd been working on wonderful scripts and building great characters for the last 3 yrs and then I was thrust into the beast of our industry. ADVERTISING! It was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was part of the business and my ego needed to play second fiddle to my bills. This is the harsh reality of our glamorous industry. After that Ad campaign, I was lucky enough to be in fairly regular work, but I really didn't get used to watching myself for many years after that.
It always reminded me of when we were young, we used to tape ourselves talking or singing and then listen back. Everyone without fail says "I don't sound like that!" It takes a lot of time and consistency to get over what you look like or sound like, and get to the point of portraying your character truly. That's when my ego fell away, and I was able to be objective to what I was watching.
SN: In 2001 you joined the cast of the successful Australian drama series Blue Heelers as Constable Evan Jones. Tell me about your experiences on joining the cast and working on that show. What impact did that have on your career?
Ditch: Blue Heelers was a great opportunity for me, and it came at a really good time. It's very rare to get those opportunities as an actor so I have been very grateful for that show. I started on Heelers 2yrs after graduating from WAAP, so I had the time to gig around on different shows and get a foothold into the industry, which was important for me. The show was well and truly part of the Australian landscape when I started, so there were a number of pressures that came with it, but again with time to gig around I felt I was in the best position I could be in. I had always used that show as my apprenticeship, because I was surrounded by industry leaders on the #1 drama in the country. It was a very intense place to learn the craft of TV drama, because we were shooting unbelievably fast and because of the calibre of cast and crew the expectations were always there to rise to each challenge.
Shooting a short character arc is something that most actors have experienced, and I had too by that point, and that carries with it certain demands, but what you have to adapt to as a lead actor is the discipline of running a marathon and not a sprint. After 6 months of "sprinting" I suffered exhaustion and needed to find another way to be able to back up at work day after day after day! We were filming 42 x 1hr eps per year so the schedule was demanding to say the least, (I shot 200 eps over 5 1/2 yrs). With the help of other cast members I was able to make the shift and that helped give me longevity within that role and show. It was a very important lesson in my career and one I am constantly referring back to. We were also given the chance and challenge of producing a live to air episode which was one of the most brutal experiences I've had in this industry!
SN: Following on from that, tell me about the challenges of the live experience.
Ditch: Where to start? I'm breaking out in a sweat just thinking about it! The nuts and bolts of doing a 1hrTV drama or that one at least, was 1 day of rehearsal, 2 days location then 2 days studio per week. The live show had 4 days rehearsal and then we had 2 run through a before going live. Also bare in mind that a theatre production would normally have 4 weeks rehearsal before an audience of 300 or so would see it. We went live to around 2 million if my memory serves me. The challenges were huge for everyone. We had 6 sets built in 2 different studios and 1 location scene (which was my flashback. So in the middle of me telling a story, I had to exit the studio and run down the lane way to appear in my own flash back, then run back in to finish off the story). Normally we would shoot 1 or 2 cameras, but here we were using 3 or more which means your blocking is very precise. Normally you would shoot the scene in 3 or 4 different sizes. Wide shot (shows your setting), mid shot (will show your relationship with other characters and objects), close ups (your emotional connections), and inserts (computer screens, photos, letters etc).
This is a very base outline, but essentially that's the nuts an bolts. In the live ep we were achieving all 4 sizes in the 1 take, so cameras had to be pin point accurate as well as the boom swinger (sound dept) as well as the actors, the lighting cues, and most importantly the editor who was editing the show live! She was f&@king amazing!! On a normal shoot day you would achieve a 1 minute scene every 30-40 mins depending on how many characters we involved in the scene, so shooting live was vastly different. Anyway, because of all the people involved there was obviously MORE PEOPLE, MORE EQUIPMENT, MORE CABLES TO MANAGE AND TRIP OVER. As I said we had 2 studios, which actors and crew were running between over the entire hour, then we had competition winners watching on and network execs and staff. Then we had to make sure that everyone was quiet! We had multiple wardrobe changes, fight scenes etc and the adrenaline to deal with. It was a very cool thing to do, and achieve! Only a good team that trusted each other could even attempt to do it, and I was very privileged to be apart of that family. I hope that gives you some idea of what went into making it.
SN: What are some of the most enjoyable roles you have played to date?
Ditch: Obviously there is something about any character that I've played, that draws me to them in the first place. There are different reasons and different times that contribute to this. The ones that really stand out to me are Michael in the play Feston. He was the youngest son, in a very powerful Danish family. What I loved about him was his need for acceptance within his own family. In the play there is a dark secret that the rest of the children know, but he doesn't. He feels excluded and has lived his life to gain the attention and love of his family, which in this play is like walking face first into the fire.
A great character and wonderful play. In Spartacus, Nemetes was a complex character and I had a lot of room to move when creating him. He wasn't the biggest of the rebels so had to find his own way of surviving the times. There were constant status shifts with him, which is really fun to play. It allows you to find different ways of getting what you want, which creates a more complex character. Allowing him to smile and laugh went against the grain of the show, but that allowed him to be more cunning and disarming. I made sure that even in his death scene, Nemetes tried to disarm Caesar with a smile and laugh. I had a lot of fun shooting that series.
I have also had the pleasure of playing Tilden in Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winning play Buried Child. If you haven't read it, do! It's so fucking good!! Tilden was in his hay day, a high school sports hero. The big fish in a small pond, and he was the toast of the town. When the play opens, he is now a shadow of his former self and has a brain disability, which wasn't caused by a physical trauma but more a psychological one. He was a real challenge to play, but one character I will always remember because of the depth we went to, to create him. He, like all the good roles, has a very strong backstory (which anchors him) and a powerful need that he is striving to reach.
SN: So, I must talk about Spartacus. Nemetes was indeed such an awesome character, what was it like to work with such a spectacular cast? Tell me about some of your fondest memories of working on the series.
Ditch Davey as Nemetes in Starz’ swords and sandals series Spartacus: War of the Damned.
Ditch: Spartacus was a lot of fun, and really hard work. Firstly, when I auditioned they were very secretive about the project so i didn't know too much about the character. My audition was entirely in German (which I don't speak), and I was offered a different role to the one I read for, so wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into! We had a really gruelling schedule, with Boot Camp for 4 weeks at the beginning of production, which really bonded the cast and stunt team together. Relationships are always key to a successful show, because out of that comes trust. If you trust the people around you, you are going to go outside your comfort zone. That time was really special, it set the tone for the series, but it also gave you a rehearsal period in which we all started developing our characters or building our characters In front of each other. You could see where everyone was heading, and trying new things to see if that's something they wanted to continue with once shooting began. That time is very rarely given in TV land, so to get that time was special.
Preparation is the key to everything, so without it you feel as though you're playing catch up. With it, you are in control. The cast were great, and we had lots of fun shooting the series. It was always emotional when we would read of one of the characters deaths. You'd think we would've been used to it, with the amount of carnage on the show, but it always hit us, and we were constantly having to say goodbye.
SN: You've recently been filming in the Australian outback. What can you tell us about that?
Ditch: Unfortunately I can't really talk too much about it at this stage. I can say that it was an American production that was using the Australian outback for Texas. It was a really interesting little project and something that I really enjoyed doing. They're still in post-production at the moment.
SN: In 2014, you starred as Chief of Neurosurgery, Dr. Ian Bickmann in the ABC drama series Black Box. What was it like working with the wonderful Kelly Reilly, and how did you feel when ABC announced that they would not be renewing the series for a second season?
Ditch Davey as Dr. Ian Bickman in Black Box, alongside co-stars Kelly Reilly and David Ajala.
Ditch: The cast on BLACK BOX was fantastic. A real mix of youth and experience, and I thought Kelly did a great job steering the ship. It was a real pleasure to be working with that cast, crew and producers that were involved. Kelly and I worked very well together and leaned on each other when we needed to, but it was a really fun and dynamic partnership that we had. It’s very difficult sometimes working with a level of intimacy when you don’t have the trust or just personal connection with your fellow cast member, but Kelly and I had that from the first time we read together and we were very excited to be able to bring these characters to life together, and thought there was a great opportunity to give them a life beyond just 1 season.
Unfortunately ABC didn’t renew the series, but these things happen. The hardest thing about that decision, was losing the relationships that you develop along the way. We work in a very intense and condensed way, so very strong relationships are built in a short space of time. This is not only with the cast, but the producers, directors, and all departments of the crew. They become fast friends, and it is always hard to say goodbye, but as I said these things happen, and you hope to catch up with these great people on the next one!
SN: What do you think the contributing factors were for the shows cancellation, and do you think that the requirements of success for series longevity is much tougher these days than it used to be?
Ditch: Firstly, I’m not a producer. There are many factors that go into this machine, including things that are intangible such as timing. When the show was made, when it was aired etc. These things you really can’t control. If the show was made a year before of after, would that’ve made a difference to the life of the show? Maybe, but we’ll never know and it’s really counterproductive to even think about it. Also, I should point out that the show wasn’t cancelled, it just wasn’t renewed. This might seem pedantic, but there are many shows out there that are being made that get pulled off the air after 2 eps. We made and aired the entire first series, so there is a difference between the two.
I do think, however, there were some areas that could’ve been capitalized on, that weren't. We weren’t given the advertising or publicity push that other series enjoy. It’s very important to invest in your product, and if you don’t, why should anyone else? I think about the advertising campaign of a new toothpaste. Why the fuck do we need another toothpaste in our lives? What can this toothpaste do that others can’t? But when we see how important the producers/manufacturers believe their product is, we start to believe them, and buy the product. The same goes for the entertainment business. If a network sees the importance and value of their product, they should take it to the people to show them. It is a little lazy to expect that an audience will organically find them, particularly since there are about 3000 (or whatever) channels to choose from, not to mention that people generally have lives beyond the weekly TV schedule. Black Box could've been publicized a little better I think, and might’ve reached more people, which gets people talking about the show, which starts the momentum and convert into ratings. More importantly, Black Box, although was a “prime time medical drama”, was about bringing a very real but almost taboo topic to the screen.
Mental illness is something that needs to be talked about and made “normal”, so that we can ALL reach our full potential in our lives. We have all known and have been touched by someone that has suffered in the shadows. I personally have lost very dear friends to this beast. We all wish we could’ve done more, but it’s hard when we don’t know what that “more” is. A show like Black Box gave some of those people a voice, which I feel is important. Don’t get me wrong, I know that it was a TV show and we aren't actually saving lives, but there were many people that felt like they could almost be proud of their situation after seeing a character on the show that was dealing with a similar suffering. This is where I think we could’ve done more. We had a major network behind us, an unbelievable list of Emmy award winning producers and writers, a great cast of Internationally award winning actors as well as an Oscar winner, and a message that is important. But it all means nothing if the public don’t know about it. As an actor, it has always been important to me to know the reason why we are telling a particular story. Was Spartacus about fighting and sex? No, it was about standing up against injustice. Giving a voice to the oppressed. Saying to the audience, “You can stand up for what you believe in, for what is right and just!” All art has a message, and Black Box is no different. So the fact that this message wasn't taken to the public, was an opportunity missed.
As for what makes a successful series in the current market, yes it’s a bit different. I was talking to someone the other night about another show that I used to do, Blue Heelers (which was the most successful police drama in Australian history). The show was made in a time (which was not that long ago) where the family would sit and watch a show together. BH was made for a very wide demographic so that everyone was able to connect in their own way to the same story. Today, we have various screens in our homes, so entertainment is being made for a more specific demo. Not only are the adults and children being separated, but the sexes too. In my house, this would take 4 potential viewers down to 1. On top of that, there are many more platforms on which to get your favorite shows, so there is much more competition with many more shows being produced. We are also in a time when our concentration span is shorter I think. Things move so quickly, so we essentially want to “eat and run”. If we can’t provide the viewer with the entire season to watch back to back, or at their own leisure, then they may move on to something else or pirate the show illegally (which in itself can ruin a show or film, despite being watched by millions worldwide).
SN: If you coud go back to the start of your career and give your younger self advice, what would it be?
Ditch: Probably, read more! There are many things that I've learned over the years, but I’m not sure if I would've had the same career and enjoyment if I had’ve known it all at the start. I look back, and although there are some things that I wish to never see again, it has all played a part in who I am and where I am. I'm not sure I’d want to fuck too much with that, because it’s been a great ride so far!!
SN: Finally, is there anything that you would like to say about or tell us about that we haven't already mentioned?
Ditch: That’s probably the hardest question that you've asked! I hope to be doing this for many years to come, and I hope that the stories I'm involved in create many conversations. Who knows where it will take me….that’s the fun of it all!!
SN: That's great. Ditch thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, and I wish you all the success and very best for the future. Thank you.
DD: Thank you, Mike!. It’s been great chatting and doing this interview, and likewise I wish you every success for the future. Take care mate, and I’ll speak to you soon.
You can check out Ditch’s full list of credits by heading on over to IMDb and checking out his page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1004206/