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A man with a wild heart

Star Portrait: Guy Pearce

What a defiant look: In the film, Guy Pearce is very gentle. Privately, the actor fights against his inner demons.

Guy Pearce
Photo: Getty Images

"We were worshiped because we looked good"

He is a former poster boy. From 1986 to 1989, Australian and English teenagers skyrocketed Guy Pearce. At that time he had a starring role in the cult soap "Neighbors", as Mike Young trained alongside Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan through the Australian neighborhood. But after four years Vorstadtidyll was over.

"We were not worshiped because we were good, but because we looked good. I thought that was so hollow that I got out, "he says. Now he does not find it so bad to be a sex symbol anymore. "Honestly, who would not be flattered?"

And the damn good-natured Englishman who saves two tigers in the movie "Two Brothers" actually does: sapphire blue eyes, high cheekbones, and then there is this defiant move around his mouth. Guy admits, "I'm one who does not always make it easy for himself and his environment."

When he was three years old, his parents moved from England to Melbourne with him and his elderly mentally handicapped sister Tracy. He started acting when his father, a test pilot, died in a plane crash. "I was eight years old and somehow had to distract myself from the pain, " he says.

He sang in the school choir and in musicals and sniffed theater air at the local stage. For a short time he had a bodybuilding obsession, which earned him the title "Mr. Junior Victoria "in his state of Victoria. But the muscle play was not his real vocation in the long run.

"I can be a really nice guy"

"I wanted to slip into other roles, " he says. At the age of 18, right after graduation, he stood in front of the camera for the first time for "Neighbors": "Of course you do not make a name for yourself as an actor."

He got it with other films: He starred in the transvestite comedy "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, " turned next to Kim Basinger "LA Confidential" and fought in the thriller "Memento" with a lot of bare skin and many tattoos against his memory gaps - and while constantly against his private, inner demons.

"I am, atypical of a scale, extremely moody, " he admits. "I can be a really nice guy. But when I have my aggression, I am inedible. "When his marriage was upset, he first threw his wife out of the house and then did therapy.

Because Kate Mestitz, a psychology student, is his great love. "We still know each other from school, " he says. Seven years ago they got married. "I had lifted her onto a pedestal. It's a bit closer to the ground by now, but I love it even more than before, "he says.

Why then the sacking? "Because I was too unpredictable and did not want to hurt her." Now he would like to contract with her again - she is still hesitating. "She enjoys her independence - unfortunately!" Does he want children? "Not your own, " says Guy. "There are so many poor children. We want to adopt one. "For this, however, Kate has to move in again ...

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