Brenton Thwaites

Brenton Thwaites (born 10 August 1989) is an Australian actor. Beginning his career in his home country in 2011, he had a starring role on the series Slide and later appeared on the soap opera Home and Away. Since moving to the United States, Thwaites has had major roles in the films Blue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012), Oculus (2013), The Giver (2014), Gods of Egypt (2016), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). In 2018, he began starring as Dick Grayson / Nightwing in the DC Universe series Titans.

Brenton Thwaites
Thwaites at San Diego Comic-Con 2014's panel for The Giver
Born (1989-08-10) 10 August 1989
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
OccupationActor
Years active2010–present
Partner(s)Chloe Pacey (2015–present)
Children3

Early life

Thwaites was born on 10 August 1989[1] in Cairns, Queensland, to Fiona and Peter Thwaites. He has a sister, Stacey. He underwent secondary education at Cairns State High School, graduating in 2006.[1]

During his youth, Thwaites was drawn to the idea of becoming a policeman or a firefighter, having been interested in movies involving the latter. However, his interests diverted to the processes of filmmaking and "letting [one's] personality shine through so many different characters." At the age of 16, Thwaites gave his first performance in front of a live audience in a rendition of the Shakespeare tragedy Romeo and Juliet.[2]

Thwaites studied acting at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for three years, before graduating in 2010.[3][4][5] He then relocated to Sydney to join the long-running soap opera Home and Away before moving to the United States in 2011/12 to pursue his career in acting.[6][7][8]

Career

2010–2011: Early career

Prior to graduating from the Queensland University of Technology, Thwaites made his film debut in Charge Over You, a 2010 independent film.[9] After he graduated, Thwaites went on to appear in an episode of Sea Patrol and in the short film, Headsmen.[10][11]

In November 2010, Thwaites, along with Adele Perovic, Ben Schumann, Emily Robins, and Gracie Gilbert, was cast in a new Fox8 Australian teen drama series, Slide.[12][13] The show follows five Brisbane teenagers making their way to adulthood.[13][14] Thwaites believes his character, Luke Gallagher, "stands back a bit. He watches. He's struggling with family issues. He's drawn in as it was a chance to find better friends and an opportunity to be part of a group. He's a cool, accepted kid. Some friends he can love and help him mature."[10] Thwaites made his first appearance on Slide in the series' premiere episode on 16 August 2011. The series ran one season.[13]

Shortly after Thwaites moved to Sydney from Cairns in April 2011, he was given a five-month recurring role of Stu Henderson in the 24th season of Home and Away.[5][7] Thwaites called the show a great learning experience and said his co-stars were easy to work with.[8] Thwaites made his first appearance as Stu, a member of the River Boys, on 23 August 2011.[7] Tristan Swanwick of The Courier-Mail said Thwaites was a "bit too pretty to be a bad-ass River Boy" but that some fake tattoos would balance that impression.[5] Of his character, Thwaites said, "Stu's awesome, he has some fights, he gets the girls, it's awesome fun."[5][15]

2012–2016: Film roles and continued success

Following Thwaites' relocation to the United States, he signed on to play the male lead in the 2012 television film Blue Lagoon: The Awakening opposite Australian actress Indiana Evans.[16] The film received generally mixed reviews, with Zap2it praising both Thwaites and Evans' "(mostly) believable" acting[17] and The New York Times saying their performances were superior to those of the leads in the first film of the series.[18]

Thwaites at the premiere of Oculus, Toronto Film Festival, 8 September 2013

In 2013, Thwaites starred in the psychological/supernatural horror film Oculus, as the male lead Tim Russell. Production on the film began in October 2012 in Alabama, and was completed a few weeks later.[19] The film was first released on 5 September 2013, at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival,[20] and received a worldwide theatrical release on 11 April 2014.[21] His performance as Russell was well received by Indiewire, which claimed that Thwaites maintained a "credibly frightened demeanor" throughout the film.[22]

In 2014, Thwaites briefly returned to Australia for the filming of crime thriller Son of a Gun. Primarily shot in Perth, Kalgoorlie and Melbourne,[23] Thwaites had to audition for the part of JR "up to 10 times before landing the role." Regarding his character, Thwaites said, "I jumped at the opportunity to audition when this came up and I found the character was a very vulnerable kid amongst strange men that are in some way an inspiration. I just thought that was interesting as a young man myself."[24] Thwaites received critical acclaim for his portrayal of JR, with Variety contending that he "makes a suitably keen-eyed, clean-scrubbed lead, retaining a kind of porous naivete even as the character gets his blood up"[25] and The Sydney Morning Herald praising his role as the embattled hero of the plot.[26] The film premiered in Australia on 16 October 2014.[27]

In 2014, Thwaites appeared in Maleficent as Prince Phillip alongside Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning.[28] A Maleficent sequel was released in 2019, but Harris Dickinson was recast in Thwaites' role as Thwaites was unable to return due scheduling conflicts.[29] Additionally, he starred in The Signal as the male lead, Nic Eastman, opposite Laurence Fishburne and Olivia Cooke. The film opened at the Sundance Film Festival in January, seven months after shooting on location in the desert of New Mexico.[30][31] Thwaites received praise in a review by The Plain Dealer that noted his performance in The Signal was "as a compelling presence in the driver's seat as things get freakier and freakier around him."[32]

Later in the year, he also had the lead role in The Giver, playing Jonas, alongside Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep.[33] Primarily filmed in South Africa,[6] the film was met with generally mixed to negative reviews, with The Telegraph criticising Thwaites' portrayal for "he [struggled] to give us the layered, conflicted hero this film [needed]".[34] However, his portrayal was well received by the Huffington Post, who commended Thwaites' acting[35] and by The Plain Dealer, which noted that the "fast-rising Thwaites...does a nice job with the lead role."[36] He was awarded the Australians in Film "Breakthrough Award" for his role in The Giver.[37]

Thwaites starred in Gods of Egypt, alongside Gerard Butler and Geoffrey Rush. He played Bek, a human thief.[38] Principal photography on the film began on 20 March 2014 at the Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, and the film was released worldwide on 26 February 2016.[39]

2017–present: Pirates of the Caribbean and Titans

Thwaites starred in the fantasy-adventure sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which was released on 26 May 2017.[40][41][42][43] Thwaites portrays Henry Turner (the son of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley's characters), opposite Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Javier Bardem.[44][45][46] Shooting of the film commenced in February 2015, on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia.[47][48]

Following Pirates, Thwaites had a leading role in the 2017 Christian film, An Interview with God, portraying a young journalist, Paul Asher. In this role, he starred opposite Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn.[49] Thwaites was then cast as Dick Grayson / Robin in the DC Universe series Titans[50] which began airing in 2018.

Personal life

Thwaites has been in a relationship with Chloe Pacey since 2015,[51][52] after the two had been roommates while Thwaites was filming Pirates in Australia. They have three daughters.[53]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2010 Charge Over You Sam
2011 Headsmen Max Patterson Short film
2012 Save Your Legs! Mark Cow
2013 Oculus Tim Russell
2014 The Giver Jonas
Maleficent Prince Phillip
Ride Angelo
The Signal Nic Eastman
Son of a Gun JR
2015 Ruben Guthrie Chet
That Sugar Film Himself Documentary film[54][55]
2016 Gods of Egypt Bek
2017 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Henry Turner
2018 Office Uprising Desmond
2019 An Interview with God Paul Asher
A Violent Separation Norman
2020 Ghosts of War Chris

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2011 Sea Patrol Leigh Scarpia Episode: "Black Flights"
Slide Luke Gallagher Main role; 10 episodes
Rove LA Himself Part of the studio audience[56][57]
2011–12 Home and Away Stu Henderson Recurring role; 57 episodes
2012 Blue Lagoon: The Awakening Dean McMullen Television film
2018–present Titans Dick Grayson / Robin / Nightwing Lead role

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2014 AiF Breakthrough Award Up-and-coming talent The Giver Won [37]
EuroCinema Kawananakoa Award Rising star His work Won [58]
GQ Men of the Year Breakthrough Actor His work Won [59]
2017 Teen Choice Awards Choice Action Movie Actor Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Nominated [60]
2019 Teen Choice Awards Choice Action TV Actor Titans Nominated [61]
gollark: There is probably a lot of intermediate time where you don't have a cornucopia machine, but do have lots of automated production which isn't conveniently packaged and can self-replicate fast.
gollark: Those are excellent words, actually.
gollark: Anthropomorphized phytoplankton or what?
gollark: Make them check each other's code somehow and destroy malfunctioning ones. You can get undetected error rates down low enough that there will probably not be problems.
gollark: You can *detect* an error fairly easily if you store a hash or something, which can be way smaller than the actual data, and just have your thing self-destruct if a mismatch is found.

References
  1. Strudwick, Daniel (27 July 2011). "Cairns actor Brenton Thwaites trades Far North for a role in Home and Away". The Cairns Post. News Limited. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  2. Barker, Lauren (11 September 2014). "Brenton Thwaites, actor, The Giver". The Weekend Edition. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  3. "SLiDE Behind The Scenes Episode 5 – Luke" (Official YouTube video). Fox8. 31 August 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  4. "Underbelly coup for QUT acting grads". Queensland University of Technology. 18 August 2011. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  5. Swanwick, Tristan (9 July 2011). "Brenton soaps up well for role". The Courier-Mail. Queensland Newspapers. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  6. "Brenton Thwaites on Son of a Gun". Time Out. 25 August 2014. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  7. "Big break calls Thwaites back". Gold Coast Mail. APN News & Media. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  8. Dennehy, Luke (21 August 2011). "Thwaites' to star in Home and Away". Herald Sun. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  9. "The Project". Charge Over You. Archived from the original on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
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  39. "Summit Entertainment Dates Allegiant, Gods of Egypt and Step Up All In". comingsoon.net. 16 December 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  40. "Geoffrey Rush talks about new and old projects". TV Guide. December 2014.
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  49. "David Strathairn And Brenton Thwaites Join Faith-Based Drama "An Interview With God" (Exclusive)". The Tracking Board. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  50. Petski, Denise (1 December 2017). "Titans: Brenton Thwaites As Robin In DC Superhero Series". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
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  52. "SEE THE PICS: Did You Know That Brenton Thwaites Is Having a Baby?". J-14. 26 February 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
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  55. "Aussie filmmaker's shocking sugar experiment". The West Australian. Seven West Media. 19 November 2014. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  56. Swanwick, Tristan; Cooper, Nathanael (9 September 2011). "Home and Away star Brenton Thwaites busted by Rove McManus writing in his journal in audience of Rove LA". The Sunday Times. News Limited. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
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  61. Moreau, Jordan (19 June 2019). "'Avengers: Endgame,' 'Riverdale,' 'Aladdin' Top 2019 Teen Choice Award Nominations". Variety. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
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