The Shark Net: articles


The rise of Tim Draxl

Tim Draxl, 21, plays Robert Drewe as a young man in The Shark Net. Like Ian David, who adapted the autobiography for TV, Draxl was initially daunted by meeting the man he was playing. This is the first time Draxl has played a lead role and at first he thought meeting Drewe would put him off.

"Because we'd rehearsed, I'd got into the headspace of where I wanted the character to be," Draxl says. "I had figured out his progression and how he develops and that kind of thing, and I thought if I met him, that might screw everything up and make me change my mind."

Fortunately he didn't meet Drewe until shooting was well under way. "I was quite secure by then," Draxl says. "He just took it all in his stride and was very cool, calm and collected about the whole thing."

Draxl hopes the series will represent a turning point for him, tipping the scales so people start to think of him as an actor, rather than a jazz and cabaret singer having a go at screen work.

While he won't be giving up the singing—he signed a five-album deal with Sony when he was 16 and still has three albums to deliver—he hopes to do more acting work. "I see myself primarily as an actor, and I always have—even when I was singing."

By Catherine Keenan
August 07, 2003
The Sydney Morning Herald