McQUARRIE: And how did that work out?

COURTNEY: They were really lovely. It turned out you needed representation. I didn’t know what the fuck that meant. They were sweet enough to mail me a list of theatrical agents in Sydney. I cold-called a few of them, and they all gave me the same spiel about their books being closed right now. I totally get it now. I can’t imagine taking a risk with some dude that rings up. So I gave up for a sec. It all sounded too intimidating to me. A couple more months went by and I still wanted to get back in the theater. So I tried out for a bunch of the great drama schools in Australia. They’re all classical theater institutions. And I was fortunate enough to get into one, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. So I moved cross-country to Perth at 18. I got there and was fucking terrified. I thought I’d made a huge mistake because I felt like this kind of brute, this blokey suburban dude who didn’t really know what the fuck it all meant. And the first few months there were more about figuring out that that was okay. I could be honest with myself and not try to fit the mold for something else, and that I actually had something to offer. And once I got comfortable with the fact that I was training to be an actor, I loved it. I’ve always been clear about the fact that I was going to make it happen. It’s funny, because in Australia we’re not necessarily taught to have that attitude. And in the acting world, it’s tough everywhere. Something like 80 percent of us are unemployed. You get out of drama school and it’s really fucking hard to get work. The best thing you can hope for is a commercial or a guest role on some TV stuff. I just decided, “No, I want to go to L.A. somehow and be in movies and make money and have a career.” That was the only fucking choice.

McQUARRIE: And then Spartacus: Blood and Sand [on Starz] was a big deal for you.

COURTNEY: I’d been out, like, a year, and after drama school I still didn’t know how the L.A. thing happened. I was waiting for a sign or some stepping-stones. And Spartacus was that. It really changed shit. I met people who obviously had been back and forth from L.A., Americans, people who lived over there. I became very close with Andy Whitfield, who was the lead on the show at the time.

McQUARRIE: He was a very important figure for you.

COURTNEY: He really was. We only worked together for nine months on that show, but we became like brothers. He was in his mid-thirties at the time and had done pilot seasons year after year, and gotten close on these big things. He knew that sense of anticipation, and also the immense disappointment that comes with this film world. He had been the next big thing for a second, and he kind of prepared me for it, told me about how you get out there—who you need to meet, how you spend that time. That next year happened super fast, and I got used to the L.A. thing and was coming back and forth. And Andy got really sick, and it was fucked up because his dream hadn’t been fully realized at that point. He got the show, which he was a lead on, but then it was about taking it to the next level. We’re never satisfied, and he was gearing up for the second season and looking at film roles. And then it was all put in jeopardy so rapidly. The last time I spoke to him was the day you offered me the job on Jack Reacher. I called him, because he’s my best mate and he’s an actor, and I said, “Man, I got a movie.” And he was thrilled, he was laughing, but he was literally hobbling around the fucking kitchen, because at that point he couldn’t walk. He died in the time between that phone call and me getting out to shoot. Fucking crazy. And I didn’t make his funeral because I was in Pittsburg with you.