Rise to Fame
The career break came via a CIA interrogation room. In Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, he played Dan, a CIA operative waterboarding suspects in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The role launched him out of the supporting-actor orbit he'd been circling since his Showtime run on Brotherhood. Before that, he was an Australian TV workhorse who'd dropped out of law school for drama school in Melbourne. Zero Dark Thirty changed what kind of calls he was getting.
In the Spotlight
Directors call him when they need someone credible in a role that could easily tip into caricature. Playing Ted Kennedy in Chappaquiddick, he earned an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics crediting him personally with making the film work. In Winning Time, his Jerry West was convincing enough that West's lawyers demanded HBO issue a retraction, calling the depiction "deliberately false." His reunion with Bigelow on Netflix's A House of Dynamite is the kind of return engagement that only happens when the first one meant something.
Side Notes
Growing up in Winton, Queensland with a father who sheared sheep isn't the typical backstory for Hollywood's go-to character actor. He started law school in 1987, dropped it before finishing, then trained at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. He reportedly spends hours listening to recordings of real people to absorb accents and mannerisms, which explains how an Australian keeps landing distinctly American roles without anyone noticing. He's married to French actress Cecile Breccia and keeps his personal life unusually quiet for someone who appears in this many high-profile films.