Most aren't household names in Australia yet Sullivan Stapleton, Callan Mulvey, Jai Courtney, Elizabeth Debicki, Jason Clarke, Alice Englert, Sam Reid, Sarah Snook, Elizabeth Blackmore and Alex Russell are part of the latest wave of actors and actresses who are enhancing their careers internationally.

They're joining a group of Aussies that have established themselves in Hollywood films in the past few years, typified by Mia Wasikowska, Joel Edgerton, the brothers Liam and Chris Hemsworth and Bella Heathcote.

Yet while we have a highly successful export industry, regularly turning out world-class actors, directors, directors of photography and other technicians, the local production industry is anaemic, starved of funds, unhealthily reliant on Screen Australia and seemingly unable to lift its annual share of the Australian box-office from about 4 per cent.  

Alex Russell, an emerging talent who played the psychotic teenager in the low-budget US hit Chronicle and will next be seen in the Australian 3D thriller Bait, has an interesting perspective on this paradox.

"There's a vicious cycle in the Australian film industry," said the actor, who graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2008 and moved to the US last year and got his own apartment after spending three months living on a friend's couch. "We have such an incredible pool of talent and such incredible stories to tell that are specific to Australia but are also international and timeless.  

"But there's a bit of fear among the decision makers and financiers. They will fund a certain type of film but they fear funding other types of film that go into different genres. How many Australian films have you seen that are in the vein of The Bourne Identity or The Hangover?"   

I'm not sure we can blame funding decisions based on genres but there's no doubt Screen Australia's track record in picking winners has been lamentable and the 40% producer offset hasn't raised the quality or commercial appeal of Australian films. Given the scarcity of opportunities in Australia it's no surprise that many actors are seeking work overseas.

After his breakthrough performance in Animal Kingdom, Sullivan Stapleton had a supporting role in The Hunter and in TV's Underbelly Files: Infiltration, then packed his bags. The 34-year-old actor spent six months in South Africa last year shooting the US cable TV series Strike Back, then went to Los Angeles to work alongside Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone in the Warner Bros. movie The Gangster Squad.

Now he's in Cape Town shooting the second season of Strike Back. In June he heads to Bulgaria to play the lead role of Themistocles in 300: Battle of Artemisia, the sequel to Zack Snyder's 2007 blockbuster.

Asked how he feels to be part of the new wave of Antipodian talent, Sullivan told Showtime, "That brings a smile to my face. It's quite unbelievable; I never dreamt this would happen. All I wanted was to be successful enough to buy a house and look after my family."

He credits Animal Kingdom with putting his name in front of US filmmakers but cheerfully admits he went back to work on building sites after the film was released in Australia, until the offers started rolling in. He's also worked as a grip (lighting technician) on numerous productions.

He was a bundle of nerves on the first day on the set of The Gangster Squad, a 1940s-set drama about Los Angeles cops and the Mafia, in which he plays a pal of Gosling's character. He admired Gosling's ability to make acting look easy, almost effortless, and was chuffed when Penn invited him for drinks in his trailer.

Stapleton is looking forward to working again with Mulvey after they first collaborated in an episode of TV's Rush.  Mulvey is in Europe with Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain shooting Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's drama about a team of Navy Seals that track down Osama Bin Laden.

Jai Courtney graduated from All Saints and Packed to the Rafters to starring in the US TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Now he's establishing his credentials on the big screen, rubbing shoulders with Tom Cruise in Christopher McQuarrie's crime drama One Shot; playing John McClane's son Jack opposite Bruce Willis in A Good Day to Die Hard; and in Stuart Beattie's horror movie I, Frankenstein.

Elizabeth Debicki, who's 21, jumped straight from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2010 to a supporting role in the Aussie comedy A Few Best Men, then won the part of Jordan Baker, romantic interest of Tobey Maguire's Nick Carraway, in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. "I would describe working on this film as the best acting lesson possible," she said. "I was very new to working in front of the camera when I started shooting Gatsby, so I set myself the mission of gleaning as much information as possible out of the much more experienced actors. It was really an incredible shoot. The cast was astoundingly talented. Baz is a creative force to be reckoned with; he's very inspiring." 

After recurring roles in the US series Brotherhood and The Chicago Code,  Jason Clarke is on a roll,  playing  George Wilson, husband of Isla Fisher's Myrtle, in Gatsby; he's also in John Hillcoat's prohibition-era gangster drama Lawless with Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, and in Zero Dark Thirty.

Alice Englert was born in New Zealand – her mother is Oscar-nominated director Jane Campion, dad is producer-director Colin Englert- but she's based in Sydney.  The 17-year-old made her debut in Roland Joffe's romance Singularity with Josh Hartnett and Neve Campbell and followed that with  In Fear, a  psychological thriller  from English writer/director Jeremy Lovering; and Bomb, Sally Potter's  1960s-set coming-of-age tale with Christina Hendricks, Elle Fanning,  Alessandro Nivola and Annette Bening.

Now Alice has landed the lead role alongside fellow rising star Alden Ehrenreich in Beautiful Creatures, Richard LaGravenese's supernatural saga of two high school teens who confront a curse that haunted the girl's family for generations, adapted from a novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, with a cast including Viola Davis, Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons.

After his breakthrough as the Earl of Essex in Roland Emmerich's Anonymous, Sam Reid played Tolbert McCoy alongside Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton and Tom Berenger in the TV series The Hatfields & The McCoys. He's since worked with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in Susanna Bier's Depression-era drama Serena and is now in Scotland with Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and War Horse's Jeremy Irvine filming The Railway Man, Australian director Jonathan Teplitzy's drama based on the true story of a WW2 survivor who, 50 years later, seeks out the Japanese soldier who interrogated him.

Sarah Snook makes her US debut in Lionsgate's horror movie Jessabelle, directed by Kevin Greutert, (who did Saw 3D and Saw VI) after roles in Sleeping Beauty, the upcoming romantic comedy Not Suitable for Children, Packed to the Rafters, Spirited and the telemovie Blood Brothers.

Elizabeth Blackmore, who was in Teplitzy's Burning Man and has a solid background in theatre, is in New Zealand shooting the remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 classic The Evil Dead, directed by Fede Alvarez, with a cast including Jessica Lucas,  Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez and Lou Taylor Pucci.

Russell is looking forward to starring in the sequel to Chronicle, which is being scripted but has no start date yet, and later this year hopes to produce and act in Sons of Salt, an Australian crime thriller which looks at the underbelly of the surfing culture.  
 

© The Premium Movie Partnership and Donald Groves 2012