While Underbelly: Razor premiered last Sunday to over 2 million viewers, one of its stars is busy preparing for his next role. Guy Edmonds is taking on both a producing and starring role in the drag action caper, The Silver Stiletto.
But moving from Greg “the Gunman” Gaffney to a drag queen vigilante has not been an easy transition “The two characters can’t be further from each other, although they both have a degree of blood lust” says Guy Edmonds.
Guy is rapidly gaining a reputation for his ability to give extremely intense and physical performances. His rough edge was first evident in Home and Away when he played Riverboy, Brodie Upton. But Guy has also played paramedic, Stuart Mapleton, in All Saints and a variety of comedy characters in skit show, Double Take. In fact, Guy’s comedy talent has recently been recognized internationally with the acceptance of his short film, It’s a Treat, into the Burbank and NYC Film Festival which he produced alongside Stiletto Director, Luke Mayze,.
“I don’t think being versatile as an actor is necessarily what I aim to be, it’s just that I am interested in good parts, learning new skills, and pushing the skills I have in new directions”, says Guy.
And The Silver Stiletto promises to do just that. When friend and collaborator, Luke Mayze, sent Guy the script of the short film, he knew right away he had to do it. “It was just such a powerful idea, well written, and the characters so intriguing”, he says.
The role of a cross-dressing anti-hero, however, carries some unique challenges. Apart from elaborate make-up, wigs, hairdressing and costume changes, the script calls for a musical fight scene.
“There were elaborate fights scenes required in Underbelly and the skills I honed in that role have been useful for The Silver Stiletto, but there are some things it couldn’t prepare me for.” says Guy. Firstly, the Silver Stiletto comes from a martial arts discipline while Underbelly tended to use street fighting. And then of course, there is fighting in a dress and in high heels.
In order to prepare for the role Guy has undertaken 13 weeks of fight training, with the last 6 weeks being done in his stilettos. “The heels wreak havoc with your balance and there’s a greater chance of injury, for me and I guess for the other actors” Guy relates with a grimace.
In addition to playing the main role in the film, Guy has also came on board as a producer.
“I’ve been in front of the camera enough times now that I have a fairly good idea about how a good set is managed. But I am one of three producers, so the workload is pretty evenly spread. As I said, it’s all about finding good roles and sometimes producing can be a good role too”. Guy’s last producing (and acting) project, It’s a Treat, has been accepted in the NYC Film Festival, Burbank International Film Festival, and also the Brisbane International Film Festival.
A part of the producer’s role is to raise the production budget and the producers have registered the Silver Stiletto project with the Australian Cultural Fund and has Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) Status. This makes any donation over $2 tax deductible. Anyone interested in donating can do so at www.silverstilettomovie.com