LLIAM MURPHY
Drawn to acting at an early age due to a love of storytelling and a family full of Theatre actors, Lliam has been involved in Theatre, Film and Television since the age of six.
Having trained extensively at 16th Street Actors Studio based in Melbourne and having worked with Howard Fine in his Masterclasses he has honed his craft and love for character development over more than a decade.
Most recently Lliam has landed lead and guest roles on Netflix's Rostered On Season's One and Two, 'Channel 10's longest running soap Neighbours and Matchbox Pictures Feature Film Ali's Wedding.
Lliam is based in Australia, developing multiple Film & Television projects for the International market with his wife Dana Marie Newell-Murphy who is a Queensland born Director & Producer.
More from Lliam:
1. How have you been keeping up with your acting during isolation?
When the first lockdown began I really struggled to adjust to remaining creative as I was so used to collaborating with others. I saw everyone else doing Acting classes online or doing Tik Tok videos and just found that it wasn’t my thing.
Instead I ended up writing short sketches of my own and delving into how I felt about the evolving COVID-19 world around me. I do a lot of videography and have a lot of my own gear from years of making films behind the scenes as well, so I chose to film myself doing comedic sketches that I’ve been releasing through Facebook. Having found that I get great responses to them I’m creating one a week at the moment and changing up the content each time to also allow me to use the various accents that I’ve built up over time.
It’s been a great way to keep building content and also showing it to Casting Directors in my network when they ask me what I’ve been up to. Always a big believer in making your own work.
2. Your side hustle is a headshot and showreel business. What is a common mistake actors make when they rock up to get their headshots done?
Indeed. I created my Headshot Business in 2011 and it’s mostly been a great way to stay connected to the Actors around me and help them on their way. One of the most common mistakes I find Actors make is they don’t think about the range of looks or character archetypes they s`hould try and cover.
When I first started taking Headshots for Actors I used to have them rock up and they had outfits that didn’t really make them stand out or work with their skin tone, eye colour, hair colour etc. they just brought stuff they liked, but didn’t necessary translate well on camera.
These days I spend a lot of time with my Actors asking them what characters they want to play, learning more about them as a person so we can capture their personality and also help them plan what archetypes would suit them best at this stage in their career.
If there’s one thing I can’t stress more for any Actor wanting to get a great headshot it’s make sure you keep it simple. No crazy patterned or striped outfits, no wild colourful out there tops, just find the simple stuff, block colours and really make it about making your eyes pop and show that there’s something behind them. If a Casting Director looks at your headshot and you look like you’re blank behind they eyes they will tune out to you as an Actor.
3. Who (or what) motivates you?
I’ll be completely honest here I’m usually a self motivator. But the person who pushes me the most is my beautiful wife Dana, she’s really supportive and wholeheartedly believes in what it is that I’m trying to do, which is bring joy and emotions to people through the power of story.
I’m definitely inspired by other Actors like Hugh Jackman and Charlie Hunnam. I dig Actors that can balance creativity, family, fitness, humility and also create their own opportunities.
I do believe it’s really important to build resilience though and make sure you can create habits that allow you to motivate yourself when the chips are down, it’s not easy, but every actor is going to have to back themselves through hard times.
4. Casting Directors, Agents and many other industry professionals mention that actors should 'create their own work', what does this mean to you?
Oh man I harp on about this all the time to my Actors, they must be sick of me saying it by now. But here’s the thing:
It’s a trend that isn’t going away.
Now more than ever with Social Media and the Internet, Actors have so many tools at their disposal to get their ideas and stories in front of millions of people.
Some people are quite afraid of putting themselves out there but you have to overcome that somehow, because Actors have to put themselves out there every day on set, so why would it be any different on Social Media. It doesn’t mean you have to become a Tik Tok star, in fact I’d highly advise against it - but that’s a whole other story.
Even things like short films are great. If you can come up with an idea or find someone in your circle that loves writing and wants to flesh out an idea, then grab a solid creative team around you and pull this idea into a concept and film it. There are so many film festivals out there now to help you get creative exposure that all it takes is one solid idea to do well and it can open up huge doors for you.
One of the TV Shows I had the pleasure of being a part of Rostered On, which is currently the most popular Australian TV Show on Netflix, is a great example of this. The Director Ryan Chamley put out the casting call for it on StarNow almost four years ago now and we all did the Pilot Episode for super low budget. It’s a show about working in Retail so Ryan marketed these video memes he grabbed from the First Ep and put it on Facebook and YouTube and they literally got millions of views, it was crazy.
Ryan ended up self funding the first season and then he ended up signing a deal with Netflix to air it on their streaming service. The rest is history from there, but it’s been watched by over 100 million people world wide now and it’s been a great Aussie underdog story. The point is, you never know where backing yourself to make something new and unique can lead to.
For me I’ll never stop making my own work. When you look at the Actors who are at the top of their game and are A-Listers, even they have their own Production Companies and create their own films, if they’re doing it why wouldn’t we do it right from the start.
5. If you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you started your acting journey, what would it be?
Honestly the single best piece of advice I was every given when it comes to this business was actually from my Dad. He’s a old Theatre Actor from way back and he’s got this great sense of humour and zest for life.
I came home from an Acting class once in tears and he asked me what was wrong. I told him that the teacher had ripped through me for not being connected to my truth enough and that I should go home and perhaps think if this was really the right career for me (Disclaimer: It was not whilst at TAFTA! That person also no longer teaches at this other Acting school thankfully).
What my Dad said to me was this:
“It’s just Acting. It’s supposed to be fun. The moment it stops being fun go live a little and then come back it when you find the joy in it again.”
I think that’s so true. Sometimes as Actors we think we’re curing cancer or something but honestly it’s just grown ups playing around like we were when we’re little kids. It gets all consuming sometimes so I think it’s really important to make sure you spend time really living, go spend time with those you love, with your family. Travel the world, find yourself a bit and spend time growing as a person outside of Acting. Ultimately it’s all going to feed you creatively anyway so it’s always a great investment to live life to the fullest.
