The Henry VIII that we see in “The Other Boleyn Girl” is a pretty piggy chap. Wed to Catherine, who can’t deliver a male heir, the king of England struts around in search of a mistress. Enter Mary Boleyn, a nobleman’s daughter. The monarch and the mistress bed, and a child is born.
And at the very moment Mary is in labor, along comes her saucy sister, Anne, who has been teasing and toying with the king’s affections all along. Then and there, she offers herself to the Tudor titan.
“When you read this stuff on the page, you think, My God, how can he do this?” says Eric Bana, who had to figure out how — because, in “The Other Boleyn Girl,” he is Henry.
“You know, it’s very melodramatic, and trying to make all of that stuff believable is a challenge,” says the Australian, who stars opposite a couple of other non-Brits — Scarlett Johansson (as Mary) and Natalie Portman (Anne) — in the Justin Chadwick- directed period drama that opened Feb. 29.
“It just takes a lot of commitment on the day,” he explains. “To make it believable that right at that point in time he’s going to walk away from his son who’s just being born, given the opportunity to be with this other woman. . . . You’ve got to really know your character.”
Bana, 39, read the Philippa Gregory novel “The Other Boleyn Girl,” which he deems “pretty accurate” in its history. But he also took on a good number of nonfiction tomes about Henry, his life and times. What the actor didn’t do was watch other films featuring King Henry.
Richard Burton in “Anne of the Thousand Days”? No, thanks. Robert Shaw’s “A Man for All Seasons”? Ignored. Charles Laughton’s Henry in “Young Bess”? Pass.
“I was bombarded by friends calling and saying, ‘Oh, you’ve got to check out this version and that version,’ ” he says. “But I found the historical works far more useful than looking at other pictures, other people’s interpretations. I always find that very dangerous.”
Bana, of German and Croatian heritage, lives in Melbourne and has a small Australian film, “Romulus, My Father,” slated for spring. The story of a couple (Franka Potente plays the wife) struggling to raise their son, “Romulus” won best picture at the Australian Film Institute awards last year, and won Bana best actor.
Known for his work with Ridley Scott (“Black Hawk Down”) and Wolfgang Petersen (“Troy”), Bana has made a couple of films since shooting “The Other Boleyn Girl” in the U.K. in late 2006. He stars opposite Rachel McAdams in the adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s best seller “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” about a librarian whose ability to toggle back and forth through centuries puts a strain on his marriage. (Gee, what’s the problem?) And he’s the villain, Nero, in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek,” now slated for a 2009 release.
It was “Chopper,” a fierce little Aussie number based on the autobiography of convict Mark “Chopper” Read, that first brought Bana to Hollywood’s attention. Since its release in 2000, Bana has worked nonstop. He says he turns down “a lot” of material, and only really has time to do two films a year.
“If you’re doing cameo pieces, you can do a bunch, but most of the films I’ve done I’ve been there every day of shooting. And that can take it out of you.”
