Hunter Page-Lochard made his stage debut at six months of age. By eight, he was on screen in Water Rats. His father, Stephen Page, was the artistic direct of Bangarra Dance Theatre for 31 years, and his mother, Cynthia Lochard, danced with the New York City Ballet, so he grew up in a world that fostered creative expression. But it was a clandestine viewing of Alfonso Cuarón’s adaptation of Great Expectations at the age of eight that showed him the power of film and television.
Hunter has since built an impressive career, bringing charm and emotional weight to roles in Cleverman and The Newsreader, among others. He’s also a loving father to Mila, six, and Evara, three, who he shares with wife Laura. A writer, director and performer, Hunter will next appear opposite Tasma Walton in Reckless, a four-part series about feuding siblings June and Charlie whose attempt to cover-up a hit and run in their hometown of Fremantle spins out of control. Hunter spoke with The Weekly about building a creative life.
Your latest project features a very dysfunctional family. Tell me about playing Charlie in Reckless.
Charlie’s a great example of a character that is Indigenous but very much urban. I see a lot of myself in Charlie. A lot of my dopiness, I guess, is in Charlie and his knack for trusting and loving people and being loyal to people to the point where it backfires on him. That’s very much me. Charlie wears his heart on his sleeve, and I wear my heart of my sleeve. There was a lot that I could relate to with Charlie.
You have great chemistry with Tasma Walton, who plays your sister June. This isn’t your first collaboration, is it?
We had a fight scene in Cleverman. She got stitches from my tooth. She had to do a stunt where she had to crash me to the floor. We were supposed to go side-to-side but because we were just in the moment, we just *smack* noggin. And she’s on top of me bleeding, and I was like, ‘Cut, cut, cut! She’s bleeding.’
We worked on that together, and Kid Snow, but we didn’t see each other because our characters never met. This is the first time we’re [together] in mostly every scene. I love Tasma.
Did you always want to be a storyteller?
Yes, I think because I grew up with dancers and theatre people. I grew up with Deborah Mailman, and Luke Carroll and Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell and Aaron Pedersen, and so I kind of knew the performing arts and what it was.
I remember my Dad saying to Aaron Pedersen, ‘My son wants to act, he doesn’t want to dance. Can you put him in something?’ So Aaron put me in Water Rats. I think I was still too young to be like, this is what I want to do. Then when I was eight, I watched Alfonso Cuarón’s Great Expectations. There was something about that film that made me feel love and it wasn’t between Ethan and Gwyneth, it was between Ethan and Robert de Niro.
I felt something for the first time by watching something. It was that time [I realised] I want to do that. I want to make people feel something whether it’s fear love anger joy. I think that’s such a magic and I want to be able to do that.
Who are your professional heroes and mentors?
My Dad is one of my biggest mentors. Stephen Page. He’s only made one short film and one feature film but him being an artist in general, and a leader in the arts, he’s always been very inspiring.
[Other] big supporters in my upbringing are definitely Aaron Pedersen, Leah Purcell and Wayne Blair. I’ve always looked up to the way that they’ve paved their own way.
Do you have any big, future goals you can you share?
Having a US agent, and trying to break out internationally, I’ve realised, being Indigenous they’ll try to market you as Hispanic or Middle Eastern, or something, and that doesn’t really work these days because you’ve got Hispanic and Middle Eastern actors. You’ve got to establish yourself as an Indigenous actor and just be that within international projects.
A lot of the stuff I’m trying to do in the next couple of years is inserting myself into very global, fun and commercial kinds of stories. I grew up on Tom Cruise. I want to be able to be an action star but with depth and range. There’s a lot coming.
Reckless premieres Wednesday November 12 at 8:30pm on SBS, NITV and SBS On Demand
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