Actor Callan Colley regards working on screen as like catching lightning in a bottle, while theatre is more like fireworks.
“Screen allows you to capture this magic with beauty, and theatre is like fireworks because it’s different from every angle, depending on where you sit and which night you go,” Colley says from his home in Sydney.
“My granddad told me that art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. I think it’s a big mantle to kind of sit on, but it is a privilege to be able to do so.”
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWRaised in Fremantle before his family moved to Armadale, where he attended Carey Baptist College, the 29-year-old has experience in both screen and stage since graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2016, including roles with Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company.
“STC was a really big one for me, because when I moved there I didn’t have very much money and the only seats that I could afford were the ones right up in the heavens of the Roslyn Packer Theatre, which is just under 1000 seats,” he recounts.
“Whenever I’d go and sit up there, I’d think ‘One day I’m going to be on that stage, and when I perform, I’m going to perform for the people who are up in these seats, who want to be here but can’t afford it’. I was fortunate enough to take the stage for Death of a Salesman (as Happy Loman) there and it was just an absolute privilege to every night throw my performance 40m to the back.”
Recent years have seen Colley turn his attention to film and TV, featuring in 2023 series Paper Dolls, while having just wrapped a stint on season two of Colin From Accounts ahead of an episode of BBC Death In Paradise spin-off Return To Paradise.
After role in last year’s Hallmark film When Love Springs with Australian director Jo-Anne Brechin, the pair reunited just months later on another romance movie, One Perfect Match. Both were produced by Steve Jaggi of Jaggi Entertainment.
Filmed in Brisbane to look like Seattle, One Perfect Match follows matchmaker business owner Lucy Marks (Merritt Patterson) who has a meet-cute with handsome stranger Finn Grayson (Joshua Sasse) only to discover the following day he is her newest client.
Colley plays Grayson’s work colleague Landon, and says his day on the set filming with Sasse was a fun one, as Brechin would let them “go rogue” before pulling the pair back when required.
“There was one scene where I had to ask if we could we go again because I got lost listening to Josh and I was like, ‘Man, I’m falling for you!’,” Colley laughs.
“I’m sure audiences will fall head-over-heels for him, and I hope Australia gets to make more stuff like this. It’s a really cool thing that we are seeing a lot of great Aussie talent, both in front and behind the camera.
“You don’t necessarily have to go overseas. I’ve got a lot of friends who’ve gone ‘Actually, the work is overseas’ and I’ve gone ‘No, the work is great, stay.’
“There just feels like there’s some edge and some substance coming through, and I think it’s going to continue going that way. I also really hope that more rom-coms are made here. I’m a sucker for rom-coms.”
With his parents now living back in Fremantle, Colley says he looks forward to the time when he can come home to work in WA.
“The weather, the people, the beaches — everything just moves at a pace that feels right for my soul,” he says.