THE LAST TIME Eric Bana watched Chopper was with his kids. Don’t worry — they were both more than old enough to watch Bana’s breakthrough performance in Andrew Dominik’s blistering debut, in which he played Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, a moustachioed, tattooed real-life criminal who stabbed and shot first, and asked questions later. “I probably watched the first ten minutes and left,” he laughs, down the phone line from his Melbourne home. “It’s amazing to have people talking about it all these years later.”
Chopper, in which Bana is charismatic, terrifying, psychopathic and hilarious, often in the same scene, put him onto Hollywood’s radar and paved the way for Hulk, Troy, Star Trek and more. Now remastered for a new release, we asked Bana to break down how he got to grips with his Chopper.