Striking back at the telly screens

Known best for his role in the film 300: Rise of an Empire, Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton has been working hard at bringing the most action-filled and adrenaline-driving sequences to  telly through the show Strike Back. In the series, Sullivan plays the role of Damien Scott, a former Delta Force commando, who gets discharged from the US Army during the Iraq War — due to his questioning of the validity of the weapons of mass destruction. Now, Sullivan speaks about living the life of a soldier through the show.

Have you ever been a soldier?
No, I’ve never been a soldier but one of the great things about the show is that we get a taste of what these men and women are asked to do. We get to do most of the fun stuff and then we get to go home and sleep in a comfortable bed and eat nice food. And we don’t get killed when we get shot, which is, of course, a huge difference and the nice part of just playing a soldier. But my family all served in the military — my dad, my grandfather and uncles were all in the army.

Do you get any
feedback from people in the military?
I love to go home and talk to a few of the boys that I know who served with my dad. They think that we do a good job, but we are just actors — it’s not real. But if they get a kick out of what we do, then that would make me happy.

Has Scott changed over the three seasons of the show?
Scott was kind of the angry one at the start, but as the series progressed things have changed and Stonebridge goes through some stuff and it’s kind of a swap over. It’s fun to watch and play the changes in these guys. The dynamic between those two characters is very true to life.

It’s a very physical role. How much time do you spend
preparing for the show?
Well, we always try to stay in shape, but we didn’t have to do as much of the weapons training this year (for season three) because we’ve done so much in the past. We went to the range and shot a few different guns. The first two years were hell but it was fun, too. It was boot camp, which is great but it was hard. We would get up at six in the morning and go for a run, then go to the gym and from there we would go to a shooting range and we would fire guns and learn how to work as a team and work on tactical moves.

Your career includes both films and TV. Which do you prefer?
I just like to work. This show is like making movies — like making little films one after the other. Maybe the movies have more money. One of the things I like about Strike Back is that you get the chance to develop a character over a big arc. I’m looking forward to more acting within the action.

You filmed 300: Rise of An Empire in between seasons two and three of Strike Back. What was that like?
That was hard-core because I went straight from Strike Back (season two) to 300: Rise of An Empire and I was training for that while I was doing this. It was brutal. But this show made me fit enough and strong enough to get through it. I literally finished Strike Back and got on a plane and went to Bulgaria to start filming 300:Rise of An Empire. The longest day was 18 hours and that’s a long day!

(Strike Back airs Monday to Friday at 9 pm on Star World)