Joel Kohn and Ben Esler are both what you might call a jack of all trades. Both in front of and behind the camera, the two of them are slowly but surely garnering a reputation for themselves in Australian film and television. Ben, the actor of the pair, was able to spare some time in a hectic schedule of studying acting in New York and working on a variety of pilots to give an interview.



The first question for the man who was once told he was a dork over a variety of decades in a Coke ad how he became involved in acting.

‘It's something that I'd always imagined I would end up doing for as long as I can remember. I think from the time I was about three I was talking about it. By the time I left school I had being an actor ingrained into my perception of myself to such an extent that it would have been impossible for me to pursue any other career path. But getting your start professionally can be difficult.

It's hard to know how to go about it at first and you do have to be selective when looking for an agent, which you're usually gonna need in order to find work. So making the jump from "actor who has done a  few school plays" to "professional actor" took a bit of time. When it did happen however it was a fairly natural progression. I was invited to audition for a play that a friend was directing and the lady in charge of the casting was kind enough to steer me towards a reputable agent, who I'm still with now.’

As well as acting, Ben has become involved in script writing. While it’s not by any means an unheard of combination, actors who write as well are the exception rather than the rule. In this case, Ben’s dual role was the product of both circumstance and opportunity.

‘Well, in some ways I've become a writer out of necessity. Which is not to say that I don't love writing or that I'd rather not do be doing it, because that's not the case. But if you're able to make your own work as an actor, as opposed to waiting for someone to hire you, then that's a plus. Writing grants me that opportunity.

Additionally it's something that anyone can do if they make the decision to do it, as opposed to acting where you're waiting around for someone else to give you permission to work a lot of the time. You have the satisfaction of having a finished product in front of you when you're done. Even if nothing ever comes of it in terms of getting something produced or published you've personally got this tangible thing in front of you that makes you a writer. In that respect writing is really appealing to me because I think it's important to stay productive in this industry. ...It keeps you involved. And once you have a product then it's just a matter of getting the right people to take a look at it.



As far as the work Joel and I are doing that's just been a process of making a lot of calls and sending a lot of e-mails to basically everyone we could think of. There are people who are paid to read this stuff and if you ask nicely enough they'll usually end up taking a look... even if it takes a while. Further down the road maybe we'll get ourselves a writing agent... but we've done okay by ourselves so far.’

As so often happens, Ben and Joel met by accident and then developed a creative partnership out of that one meeting. Both had experience in the industry, similar taste, and an idea for what they wanted to be involved in. Since then, the duo have collaborated on a number of projects together.

‘I met Joel at a cast party for a play I did that he crashed. Somehow we got to talking about movies and we realised that we liked a lot of the same things. So we stayed in touch. At the time he was directing commercials, but he was kicking around an idea for a short film and he asked if I'd help him write it. The film didn't end up going ahead but we've written together ever since.

...Come to think of it I'm not sure we ever made the decision that we were going to. It just sort of happened. If one of us is working on something then the other usually will just end up being involved with it because the first person we're going to ask for feedback is going to be each other.’

So how do the two of them in fact work together?

‘We compensate for each others weaknesses quite well I think. Joel is a far more accomplished producer than I. He has a good knowledge of the business end of this stuff, but he's creative too and is always coming up with big story ideas, and I think he views good producing as a means to good storytelling at the end of the day. My role on the other hand is, or has been, primarily to serve a creative function. Ultimately, we each do a lot of the same jobs when we work... but we have individual strengths that we try to emphasise.

As far as our work process goes?

Me and Joel spend a lot of time on the phone when we're writing, and we're always sending stuff that we've written back and forth in e-mails, each of us taking a stab at it to make it better. Or, you know, we'll get together and each take turns at the laptop while the other paces and shouts orders. That's our process I guess, if you can call it that.’

Not content to just have one project on the burner, Ben and Joel currently have a number of irons in the fire, all of them at different stages of progress. While none of them are consistent in form or theme, they all bear the hallmark of their creators’s specific goals of what makes a good story.