Steve Bastoni and Gary Sweet have known each other so long they can’t even remember where it started.
“Police Rescue, 1994?” says Bastoni uncertainly.
“No, earlier than that, 1993,” says Sweet. “Or did you just come in the second series?”
“No, the first series,” says Bastoni, appalled at the very idea. “What are you talking about? You weren’t rescuing anybody without me. Without me throwing those ropes down, Mickey was lost in the bush.”
The year was, in fact, 1991, and as Steve “Mickey” McClintock (Sweet) and Yiannis “Angel” Angelopoulos (Bastoni), the pair were the hottest things about the hottest show on Australian television.
They met on the first day on set, when Bastoni – who had a well-earned reputation as a bad boy, but has been clean and sober for years now – turned up for the first table read an hour late. As he tried to joke his way out of trouble, the pair caught each other’s eye, and a friendship was born.
Today, sitting at an outside table at a cafe in Melbourne’s inner north, not far from Sweet’s home, the pair frequently reduce each other to peals of laughter with a non-stop barrage of jokes, insults and memories. They have pet names for each other – Ahmed (Bastoni) and Mustafa (Sweet) – as well as a bunch of more derogatory ones (“you goose”, “f—ing idiot” and “knucklehead” among them).
It’s fair to say they don’t really make them like this any more.
We’ve met ostensibly to talk about the Peninsula Film Festival, the annual short-film event Bastoni established 14 years ago and which he runs with festival producer Meg Pascoe. This year, Sweet is a judge, part of a panel that also includes actors Shane Jacobson, Stephen Curry, Doris Younane and Michala Banas, director Simone Buchanan and documentary producer (and former lawyer) Ivan O’Mahoney. Since the demise of Tropfest in 2019, its competition has become one of the most important short film events in the country.
“I’ve been trying to get Gaz to come to the film festival for 14 years, and he’s just been too busy because he’s such a social butterfly,” jokes Bastoni.
Bastoni as Angel in the series.Credit: ABC TV
Sweet agreed to get on board, he says, because he’d just acted in a couple of short films (neither of which is in the competition), “and I realised how much fun they are and how important they are, because they provide a platform for emerging cinematographers and directors and scriptwriters to show their wares.”
“So I managed to twist his arm and get him down there,” says Bastoni. “He had to get a leave pass and a passport. I’ve stamped his visa to go south of the Yarra.”
Though they spark off each other with the ease born of familiarity, they rarely see each other in the flesh these days. Until they both landed “guesties” (guest appearances) in Darby and Joan, the English-backed series starring Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi, they hadn’t worked together for decades. Other than Darby, the last time they saw each other was about 10 years ago, when Bastoni, who lives on the Mornington Peninsula, did a stand-up run at Crown, and needed a place to crash.
“Occasionally we talk on the phone,” says Bastoni.
“I saw you once when you were playing Ron Barassi and you had a possum on your head.”
“Oh, the rug,” Bastoni says, laughing at the memory.
Their bond was forged on Police Rescue, a show that pushed the envelope of TV crime drama, with serious scripting, decent cast and crew, and especially its action scenes.
“We did all our own stunts,” says Bastoni.
“Back in the days before they’d lift electrical leads up off the floor in case you tripped over them,” says Sweet, disgusted at how soft everyone has become. “We jumped off Sydney Harbour Bridge. Head first.”
“We jumped off Centrepoint.”
“Off North Head, head first.”
“The north tower at the MCG,” says Bastoni. “The Westpac building in Sydney, off the top.”
“Out of choppers,” says Sweet, now completely and dreamily lost in the mists of throw-caution-to-the-wind time.
Did you ever hurt yourself?
Taking the plunge: Gary Sweet bungy jumps in a scene from Police Rescue.Credit: ABC TV
“The only time I hurt myself was falling out of the make-up van,” says Bastoni. “I’d had a big night; we were a bit dusty. I was due to jump off Centrepoint Tower that morning and the stunt co-ordinator took one look at me and said, ‘bit windy today, we’re going to have to postpone this’. I said, ‘Yeah, probably a good idea’.”
“What about the time you smashed the teacup, knucklehead, when you were a method actor?” Sweet says.
“I had this scene where Angel was going through turmoil at home, so I smashed this cup in a very Brando-like fit of rage,” remembers Bastoni. “I got seven stitches in my hand. But they kept rolling. I just thought I’d better shut up, because I’m not suffering for my art and they’re not catching it.
“They used that take, blood dripping down my hand,” he says. “They went ‘cut’ and I went ‘Owwww’.”
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Between takes, cast and crew had a ball, the pair remember. For guest actors like Cate Blanchett – “we gave her her first start, and what has she done for us,” says Sweet, “nothing” – it could be bewildering.
“In those days you weren’t really taken seriously as an actor unless you were slightly tortured,” he adds. “And we had so much fun.”
Once the camera was rolling, though, it was deadly serious – because it had to be. Mistakes could be fatal.
“We had a saying, ‘when the clapper board drops, the bullshit stops’,” says Bastoni. “We looked like we were off with the fairies, but bang, we were on, and no one ever f—ed up.”
Truly, they don’t make them like that any more.
The Peninsula Film Festival runs Friday, January 17, to Sunday, January 19, with the short film festival competition on the village green at Rosebud on Saturday the 18th. Details: peninsulafilmfestival.com.au
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