Warning: Be sure you have watched all of Fake on Paramount+ before reading!
Since new local drama Fake has premiered on Paramount+ word of mouth has been spreading of the volatile relationship depicted between Birdie Bell (Asher Keddie) and Joe Burt (David Wenham).
How could Birdie have let it go on so long? Didn’t she see the red flags? What was Joe’s ultimate motivation?
The 8 part series, inspired by Stephanie Wood’s book follows on from her Good Weekend article in which she revealed she was the victim of a scam.
For the audience, sucked into Birdie’s perspective, it is a myriad of conflicting emotional responses… wanting her to quit Joe, being unable to look away, and hoping she climbs out of her mire.
“The whole idea behind it is to make it an experiential show,” David Wenham explains, “whereby for most of the show, you see it through Birdie’s perspective, and it is like a visceral rollercoaster of a psychological drama. You feel everything that she does on the journey. I think that the show has captured that, which is very fulfilling for everybody who was involved in it.”
Only by Episode 6 do viewers get a shift in perspectives and finally learn Joe’s reality.
“It’s very different to a show like Tinder Swindler, where it’s obvious that guy was motivated by money and sex. I spoke to both a psychologist and a psychiatrist about this… there’s a psychological syndrome that (people like Joe) fall under.
“Because obviously money’s not a motivation for him. So why does he do it? And it’s not just Birdie. There’s obviously other women as well,” he continues.
“I suppose at a really basic level, it’s probably the desire to be loved and just never being satiated. Just wanting it more and more. He’s a fascinating guy as well, because obviously he is classic example of a fantasist, whereby there is no line between reality and fantasy.
“He can’t distinguish where the line between reality for him finishes and fantasy takes over. That was something that I was very aware of, playing the character. I wanted to make sure every moment was completely real for both the character that I was working opposite, and also for the audience to distinguish exactly what was real and what was Fake.”
Since the series has dropped Wenham says more and more people are revealing being in similar situations, some of which suggests a need between both parties enabling situations to thrive.
In Fake was the needy Birdie subsconciously facilitating Joe’s fantasy?
“For whatever period of time they were fulfilling each other’s fantasies, until suddenly, Birdie realises that the fantasy is built on a very fragile foundation,” Wenham acknowledges.
Fake marks the first time Wenham and Keddie have worked together on screen, having appeared on stage in a production of Cyrano de Bergerac nearly 20 years ago.
For all of Fake‘s intense emotions how difficult was it for both to shake off any lingering gloom from the set?
“We worked out instantly we have a very similar approach to our work,” Wenham inists. “We interrogate the script intensely at a great pace, and we’re willing to try everything, but we’re also willing to discard stuff…. best idea wins. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. We implicitly trust each other completely as actors so we are willing to go where the other one pushes or prods us to go. That allows a really great creative process to occur.
“So creatively, it was extremely fulfilling and that was pretty challenging material. But during down time on the set, there was a lot of laughter between the two of us, because we needed a pressure release, and the valves to let off steam.”
Lastly, are there plans for a second season?
“It’s interesting you ask say that… up until today, it’s never even been mentioned, but the amount of people who bring it up….!” he laughs.
“You could take it any which way, really, if it did go there. But there’s certainly been no word at all.”
Fake is now screening on Paramount+.
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