{"id":930,"date":"2010-04-27T12:22:09","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T02:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sandralee.com.au\/?p=930"},"modified":"2010-04-28T22:05:30","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T12:05:30","slug":"is-brendan-cowell-australias-newest-busiest-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/2010\/04\/is-brendan-cowell-australias-newest-busiest-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Brendan Cowell Australia&#8217;s newest busiest star?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_931\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/brendan-cowell.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-931\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-931\" title=\"brendan cowell\" src=\"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/brendan-cowell-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Critically acclaimed writer and actor Brendan Cowell photographed by Rodger Cummins for The Age newspaper\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/brendan-cowell-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/brendan-cowell.jpg 430w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-931\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Critically acclaimed writer and actor Brendan Cowell photographed by Rodger Cummins for The Age newspaper<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Crticially acclaimed Australian actor Brendan Cowell sure is a busy man. Currently starring in two Australian films \u2013 the brilliant <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beneathhill60.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\">Beneath Hill 60<\/a><\/em><\/strong> and <em>I Love You Too<\/em> \u2013 he is also working on the final draft of his first novel.<\/p>\n<p>Cowell, back in Australia for the premiere of <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/bfvVlU\" target=\"_blank\">I Love You Too<\/a><\/em><\/strong> in Sydney tonight, is racing against the clock to finish the book, which he told me recently was a dark, coming of age story about male friendship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOr, a little bit of a love letter to my upbringing in Cronulla,\u201d he said, adding that for the last few months he was \u201cbasically being a writer guy\u201d in Los Angeles where he is presently based.<\/p>\n<p>Cowell scored an advance for the unfinished manuscript on the back of his other prolific and successful career as a writer, which includes eight plays (<strong><em>Rabbit<\/em><\/strong><em> <\/em>and <strong><em>Bed<\/em><\/strong><em> <\/em>have both won awards), a critically acclaimed television series (<strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/bKnkoP\" target=\"_blank\">Love My Way<\/a><\/em><\/strong>) and a movie (<strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/bit.ly\/9MFv6d\" target=\"_blank\">Ten Empty<\/a><\/em><\/strong>).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got a publishing deal a couple of years ago and I\u2019ve been climbing the enormous mountain since,\u201d he told me during an interview for a story I wrote recently for <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/bngvsY\" target=\"_blank\">sunday magazine <\/a><\/strong><\/em>on his <em>I Love You Too <\/em>co-star <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2zIyci\" target=\"_blank\">Yvonne Strahovski<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_932\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/strahovski.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-932\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-932\" title=\"strahovski\" src=\"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/strahovski-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Yvonne Strahovski, the Sydney-born co-star of I Love You Too\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/strahovski-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/strahovski.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-932\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yvonne Strahovski, the Sydney-born co-star of I Love You Too<\/p><\/div>\n<p>BTW: the charming Aussie rom-com is the brainchild of former <em><strong>Rove<\/strong><\/em> sidekick, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/96VcMJ\" target=\"_blank\">Pete Helliar<\/a><\/strong>, who also stars in the flick with American actor <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/M6k0y\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Dinklage<\/a><\/strong> (remember him from the brilliant<em><strong> Death at a Funeral<\/strong><\/em>?) It is a lovely story and a great first effort by Helliar with good performances by the lead actors.<\/p>\n<p>But back to Cowell and his writing, which he says began as a youngster when he developed a love of books.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI read a novel every week and I\u2019m obsessed with books and I always have been. I was brought up with books and my mother was really into literature and I\u2019ve always read and I\u2019ve always seen it as the highest literary form, and the use of language.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old actor hopes to have the book published at the end of the year by <strong>Pan Macmillan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe notes that I got [back from the editor after the first draft] were actually longer than the novel itself,\u201d he said with a self-deprecating laugh. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s a good thing or a bad thing. I\u2019m battling away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Cowell will be back in Sydney later in the year to star in a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/a2tsZG\" target=\"_blank\">Sydney Theatre Company<\/a> <\/strong>production of the <strong>Sam Shepard<\/strong> play,\u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/bWDDlL\" target=\"_blank\">True West<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Oscar winner <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/bnDlFs\" target=\"_blank\">Philip Seymour Hoffman<\/a><\/strong>, who has already helmed one play for the prestigious company and acted in the same play on Broadway, will direct the piece co-starring Cowell and Wayne Blair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crticially acclaimed Australian actor Brendan Cowell sure is a busy man. Currently starring in two Australian films \u2013 the brilliant Beneath Hill 60 and I Love You Too \u2013 he is also working on the final draft of his first novel. Cowell, back in Australia for the premiere of I Love You Too in Sydney [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18,9,3,7,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrity","category-film","category-media","category-pop-culture","category-society","category-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandralee.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}