Clarence Ryan is one of those actors who transforms; whose face looks super familiar, yet you can’t quite place him.
Perhaps you know him from Mystery Road: Origin — the Perth actor played Mark Coles Smith’s sketchy brother in that 2022 spin-off series, scoring a Logie nomination for most outstanding supporting actor.
Perhaps it was from his role in the celebrated WA-filmed movie Blueback?
Or do you recognise him from Netflix’s new drama, Territory, a sort of Yellowstone meets Succession — or “Dallas with dingoes” as one description put it — big-budget production that dropped this week on the streamer?
It stars some serious heavy-hitters, including Anna Torv, Robert Taylor and Sam Corlett. Ryan appears as an Indigenous cattle rancher, caught in the crossfire as the hot-headed Lawson family battle it out for ownership of the neighbouring station, the vast Marianne property.
If it’s none of the above, perhaps cast your mind further back. Could it be that you know Ryan’s face from when he was a child actor and popped up on the Lockie Leonard children’s TV series, which ran from 2007 to 2010?
“Ah, the Lockie Leonard days,” Ryan says with a smile.
“That was a long time ago — it’s been a journey. I guess (it was that show) that kind of cemented my career.”
Fast forward and the 32-year-old is in demand, with several film and TV roles in production that he’s not yet able to speak about.
Territory is the latest — and it’s going big, released in more than 190 countries worldwide on October 24.
Ryan plays Nolan Brannock, an Aboriginal man caught between two worlds as he battles to be taken seriously by the Territory’s big-business cattle ranchers while doing the right thing by his family.
He’s just starting out, slowly trying to build his herd and make his mark, but as the show’s precis notes, it’s not easy.
“The owner of Laggan Downs station, Nolan is a proud cattleman who is respected throughout the Top End — for an Indigenous man,” the summary notes.
“He’s known for being a man of his word and has been carefully paying his dues for years as a contractor for bigger stations like Marianne. It’s still rare for a black man to own his own station in the Top End — and it puts him at odds with many of the racist cattlemen, including Colin Lawson (Taylor), who believes that Laggan Downs is really Lawson land.”
It’s a meaty role, with lots of scope for nuance and complexity — perfect for the shape-shifting Ryan.
I think I lost about 20kg just from sweating!
The part ages him up and shows audiences a different side to the actor.
“I guess (it’s kind of saying), ‘this is who I am now’,” he says.
“Nolan is the first ‘going into my thirties’ role: a transition from not being cast as the kid or the young 21-year-old. I’m now playing ‘men’ roles, and it’s a different kind of acting, which I like.”
He wears the part well, and it’s no small thing to transition from child actor to the kind of roles audiences will see him in over the months to come.
And it’s just the start.
“It’s been kind of seamless,” he says of his career transition. “I feel very fortunate.”
But he admits it has been a process, during which he has been grateful for the support of people around him, both in front of and behind the camera.
“I started my first project when I was 13 and I’m 32 now. It’s been quite some time,” Ryan says.
“You do meet people on the journey and they give you some advice on how to navigate things . . . These are people who have been in the industry longer than me, and they can see ahead, so it’s been great to have them say, ‘this may help you’.”
As a young man charting unfamiliar territory, he heeded their wisdom.
“My family aren’t actors, they were never in the industry,” he explains.
“From a young age, I was the one that said, ‘I want to be an actor’. Mum said, ‘OK, ‘I’ll put you in some classes and see what happens’.”
Territory will bring Ryan, who is based in Western Australia, to a wide audience, who will likely enjoy immersing themselves in the unique and strangely beautiful world of Top End cattle stations.
Ryan says he relished the experience of filming there.
Though he wasn’t based on the enormous, sprawling Tipperary Station (the real-life cattle property used for filming), he was close by at the Adelaide River Inn. He enjoyed travelling to set each day and the time he and castmates spent on the road filming in Kakadu National Park and South Australia (where his character’s station scenes were filmed).
“It was a tough shoot but, ultimately, a satisfying one,” Ryan says.
“It’s just a gorgeous landscape up there, but if you are not familiar with that type of environment — especially the humidity and the heat — it can be a big shock to your body. I think I lost about 20kg just from sweating!”