Eric Bana Trivia
Eric Bana, the lead of Spielberg’s film Munich, did such a fantastic job of playing Avner, the head of an Israeli assassination team assigned to get rid of the Palestinians who spearheaded the death of 11 Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympics, that I wanted to know more about him.
He graduated from the same school that Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth), Hugo Weaving (The Matrix series, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) and Mel Gibson (acted in Hamlet and directed Passion of Christ) did— the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney Australia.
Eric cites Mel Gibson’s Mad Max as one of the films that influenced him to become an actor.
Eric could have been the lead of xXx, which catapulted the career of Vin Diesel, but turned it down to do another film.
Eric originally wanted to drop out of school to become a car mechanic, but his father persuaded him to finish his education first.
Eric is a product of “European stock,” being the son of a father from Croatia and a mother from Germany.
Eric’s real full name is Eric Banadovich.
Eric makes sure that he only works on one film a year, and even then he makes sure his family is with him on the set. He has been quoted to say, “I love being at home, being with friends and family.”
He has been married to Rebecca since 1997 and they have two children together. They currently reside in Melbourne Australia.
A picture of his wife and children can be seen in the movie Black Hawk Down. Watch out for the scene where the helicopter pilot grabs a picture of his family as he crashes. The props team asked Eric’s wife Rebecca if they could use the photo when they realized they didn’t have one on hand.
A great deal of his early work was as a stand up comedian (10 years), which he believed served him well of “getting the best out of a dramatic scene.”
Eric gained international attention when he did a black comedy entitled Chopper, particularly that of Brad Pitt, who requested for him when he did Troy.
Eric is the second Australian to play a Marvel Comics superhero, Hulk, the other one being Hugh Jackman who did Wolverine of the X-men series.
His work in Hulk caught the eye of Steven Spielberg, making him consider Eric seriously for Munich.
Eric was still doing work for Troy when Steven Spielberg requested to meet with him in the desert, where they were already filming the airport scenes for Munich.
Of Eric, Spielberg says, “He’s got all his priorities straight. He’s one of the few actors who doesn’t need to act to be happy. If he never acted another day in his life, he’d be a very happy man.”
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