Australian actor, director, and writer Josh Lawson has quietly gone about making himself one of the most successful Aussies in the entertainment industry.
Originally hailing from Brisbane, Lawson has gone on to act on successful shows such as House of Lies and Superstore as well as the big budget Mortal Kombat that came out this year. He has also written and directed several of his own projects with the most recent being Long Story Short.
Lawson is currently touring Australia as part of the 2021 Supanova Comic Con and Gaming Convention and spoke to Mediaweek about the event as well as his experiences on Mortal Kombat, House of Lies, Superstore, and Long Story Short.
“Supanova is a totally new thing and something I am excited to get into,” said Lawson.
Lawson is attending Supanova due to his role as Kano in the new Mortal Kombat film and said that being in a big budget film and appearing at an event like this has always been a bucket list item for him.
“I can’t wait to meet fans of Mortal Kombat, because they are the reason that we made the film in the first place.
“I have never done anything like it, and I am so keen to talk to them and tell them about my experiences on the film and hopefully they get something out of it and I get something out of this meeting the diehard fans.”
Mortal Kombat
Lawson said that his casting in Mortal Kombat is not much of a story, after being asked to audition while in Los Angeles.
“I didn’t for a second think that I would get the role. I told my agent, look let’s not waste each other’s time and I will just give that one a miss, and they said let’s just give it a shot, you have nothing to lose.
“I did the audition and then I forgot all about it and I think about three or four months later I was in Australia working on my film Long Story Short, and I got a phone call that said ‘do you remember that Mortal Kombat audition?’ and I said vaguely, and they were like ‘well you got it’.”
The role almost didn’t come together due to Lawson’s work on Long Story Short, but the producers were able to make the schedules work.
The movie was filmed in Adelaide which was a positive for the Brisbane born Lawson.
“Now it seems like everyone is filming in Australia given that we are ahead of the curb a little bit with the Covid situation. There is no reason why we can’t film more stuff here, we have excellent crews, and amazing locations and a great infrastructure to be able to support massive productions like Mortal Kombat.
“It is just lovely to feel like Hollywood is a little closer to Australia when you do something like that. It makes the world feel smaller in a good way.”
The character of Kano was one of the highlights of the film due to the Australianised humour that the character provided. Lawson said that he was given space with the character.
“I had a lot of liberty to play, and the writer Greg (Russo) is not Australian and at that point not been to Australia before, so it needed a local touch. It wasn’t exactly a natural way to talk if you were to read it from the page.
“Kano’s in stock comedy wasn’t exactly there either and we just sort of discovered that as we were playing. It was a lot of fun for Kano to commentate on the heightened reality of the world, that he was just this rough and tumble Aussie who was going ‘holy shit this place is crazy, and these people are fucking crazy’. And through that, we found his attitude and point of view and once we locked that in he was really fun to play.”
Long Story Short
Before Mortal Kombat, Lawson was working on his own passion project that he wrote and directed in Long Story Short. The film is a time travelling romantic comedy, which Lawson described the production as being the complete opposite of Mortal Kombat in more ways than one.
“In a low budget, independent film, you can’t underestimate how difficult it is and how little you have and how short of a time period it is. It almost feels like the complete opposite to Mortal Kombat not just in tone and genre but in terms of resources.”
Lawson who appears in the film in a supporting role said that was one reason why he didn’t take the lead himself but said there was also an equally important reason.
“While it is possible to also act in front of the camera at the same time, it probably would have made the experience just a joyless one, because it would have just been so hard to do everything. And to add to that I am not necessarily sure that I was the best person for the job, there is a lot of me in it but seeing Rafe Spall do it is just confirmed that I made the right call.”
House of Lies
Before Mortal Kombat perhaps Lawson’s biggest exposure to the American market was the Showtime dramedy House of Lies which he starred in a featured role alongside Don Cheadle, Kristen Bell, and Ben Schwartz, which Lawson described as a dream job.
“It was like a family. I did that show for five years and after a couple of weeks we realised we had a very close synchronicity with each other, and we just got along so so well. That remained the case for five years and we still stay in touch to this day.”
Cheadle, Lawson, and Schwartz
Superstore
Another show that Lawson was on that has become quite popular throughout the world is the NBC comedy Superstore, in which he appeared as a guest star on numerous occasions as the pharmacist Tate.
“They were always very welcoming, and it is sometimes hard coming in as a guest because you’re not there week to week, and you don’t have quite as strong a bond with everyone as you do when you’re a regular.
“But they always made me feel welcome and gave me the freedom to play and it is great to see that Superstore has been given a second life on Netflix now.”
Although due to Covid-19 Lawson was unable to appear in the final season to give his character a proper farewell.
“They wanted to, but I was stuck in Australia and couldn’t get back.”
The Future
Lawson said that his focus for the future is to continue to get his own projects off the ground.
“Projects in film, TV, and even theatre. I am always writing; I have a children’s book out at the moment called The Internot. There is no end to what I like to do, I just like always make sure I do things that challenge me and keep audiences on their toes. I never want to feel like I am getting stuck in a rut.”