Destiny' Child: Clayton Moss

Upcoming actor Clayton Moss stars in the new Aussie film, Dealing With Destiny. He talks fate, pranks and thongs with Colin Fraser

 

Upcoming actor Clayton Moss stars in the new Aussie film, Dealing With Destiny. He talks fate, pranks and thongs with Colin Fraser.

For such a small word, destiny has a lot to live up to. Luck, fate, call it what you will – it largely amounts to the same thing. Not enough and you end up working in a cubicle farm for a psychopath. Just enough and you win $25 million in Lotto. Upcoming Australian actor Clayton Moss was somewhere in between when working at Belvoir St Theatre. Being at the right place was a bigger stroke of luck than he first realised when fortune stepped in by way of a tip off. A casting call for a new Australian feature was on and before you can say 'thank my lucky stars', 28-year-old Moss got the gig. Luck? Fate? Perhaps it was his destiny.

“I’m very open-minded about a lot of things,” Moss tells SX. “And I think it would be arrogance to dismiss things we don’t understand.” Expanding his theory, he contends that a lot of natural phenomena in our world – tides, wind, women’s menstrual cycles – are affected by the planets. “There’s no denying that. I just think we lack the technology, and the intelligence, to understand everything that occurs in our world. I’m a huge fan of unexplained phenomena, like UFOs. One per cent of UFO sightings are real, and the rest is rubbish. But that one percent is so intriguing and that unknown is what makes life so interesting.”

Dealing With Destiny is a credit card production for writer/producer Paul Condoleon and director Colm O'Murchu. Their story of four male students in their final months at university hinges on two themes: pranks and the notion of fate. This intersects with Moss's character and his on-screen girlfriend, a tarot-card reading siren whose interpretation of the future sets up a whole lot of trouble for Lloyd and his best friend Blake.

Partly-based on Conoleon’s experiences at university, Dealing With Destiny extends to his love on the Fab Four. “The four principle characters,” explains Moss, “are based on the four Beatles.” Which accounts for the prankery, taking some of the tom-foolery of A Hard Days Night or Help! as inspiration. The film opens with Blake waking up in bed, except it's being hauled around a public park by a truck. He was lucky. Lloyd's embarrassment involves a public beach and a thong. A bright pink, arse-exposing, woman's thong.

“We were filming near Strickland House on Sydney Harbour at Vaucluse,” said Moss. Their production licence did not afford the luxury of a closed set. “We filmed early, during the week, so it was as quiet as it could be. But there’s a walking track along the beach, and we couldn’t close it off with an open permit. So I had no sooner shot that scene than a group of 40 or 50 wolf-whistling pensioners appeared from nowhere!” he laughed. So was it destiny that he should end up flashing a group of appreciative geriatrics “When we finished shooting the scene, and Colm shouted, ‘Cut!’, they started walking through whistling and calling out ‘oooo, nice package’ and ‘nice buns’. It was very funny”. And lucky for them.

Dealing with Destiny is showing in Sydney and Melbourne at Hoyts from September 1-8. Go to dealingwithdestiny.co.