Aden Young stars in Mao’s Last Dancer

The incredibly talented Aden Young, one of this country’s most under-utilised and under-rated actors, was on the red carpet last night at the Australian premiere of Mao’s Last Dancer.

The 37-year-old Canadian-born Sydney transplant has a small but strong role in the Bruce Beresford epic based on the best-selling autobiography of the same name by Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin, who defected to the United States in 1981, and is played by another incredible dancer Chi Cao in the film.

Young was worried that his characterisation of the Texan oil tycoon Dilworth – who helped Cunxin defect – was “too big”.

It’s not. Young recently told me it was the first time he had played a real life character in his two-decade long career that includes 30 films not to mention work behind-the-scenes.

“The great bonus of being involved in something like this is being face to face with Li and meeting him and being able to, I guess, come face to face with somebody of such exquisite talent,” Young told me.

I met Young at the 1991 Toronto Film Festival when he made his feature film debut in another Beresford epic, Black Robe. Back then, Young was touted as “the next big thing” but he determinedly took a low-key route and by-passed Hollywood where he was dubbed “Dr No” because he turned down roles that didn’t appeal to him.

He admitted the decision had taken a financial toll.

But after his partner of seven-year, Loene Carmen, fell pregnant with their son Dutch – who is now almost three years old – he threw himself back into the picture, so to speak.

Mao’s Last Dancer – which I loved  – is the third film in which he has teamed up with Beresford.

“What I like about him [Beresford] is that his irreverence to the craft is married to such a wealth of cinematic language. He knows what he wants and allows you to find it. I am always quite amazed,” Young says of working on the $25 million film with the director. “He [says] essentially ‘what would you do?’ and you might suggest a particular range of objectives and actions and he’ll say, ‘can it fit within this physical structure?’ and away you go.

“There’s not an extraordinary lot of discussion, at least there wasn’t from my point of view. Whereas with other directors you really nut [the role] down to every single word and syllable. What I love about acting is how every single project is completely different. You meet a first time director who is absolutely assured it’s going to work this way, whereas you’ve worked in five different processes where it’s never worked that way and then you’re amazed that it does work that way because he’s coming at it from a different perspective.”

Young is about to embark on another Australian-made film, Beneath Hill 60 and has just finished working with Charlotte Gainsborough in Queensland on a film helmed by Julie Bertucelli (Since Otar Left).

Also at the premiere were fellow actors Jack Thompson (who also has a small role as a judge in the film), Michael Caton (The Castle), and a chorus line of ballet stars including the debonair artistic director of the Australian Ballet David McAllister and Graham Murphy. Sarah Murdoch was a towering presence, The Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic worked the mezzanine with aplomb, Ros Packer was spied chatting to friends, and John and Caroline Laws held court. Other guests included magazine maven and Australian Women’s Weekly heavyweight Deborah Thomas and her husband, Vitek, former sports reporter Mary-Anne Dibbs (who now looks after media and communications for the luxury resort Pinctada at Cable Beach in Western Australia), Sydney businesswoman Glenn-Marie Frost, and Jane Fraser, one of the smartest columnists at The Australian.