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Perth actor Devon Terrell on playing Barack Obama in the Netflix film Barry

Sarah Thomas

It's a daunting task playing one of the most powerful men in the world, particularly portraying him as a beer-drinking, weed-smoking, partying undergraduate in the 1980s. 

And what's even more incredible is that the college-era Barack Obama in the forthcoming Netflix film Barry is played by a 24-year-old NIDA graduate from Perth, for whom it's not only his first feature credit, it's his first-ever acting credit. 

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A biopic of Barack Obama set during his time as a college student in New York City.

It's testament to the talent of Devon Terrell that he has scored such a high-profile and challenging role in what is basically his first gig. 

In Sydney on Tuesday to promote Barry, out next month, Terrell says he didn't allow himself to think about whether he was up to the job. 

"I thought if the director says I'm the right person then I'm the right person to tell the story," he says. 

Terrell, who graduated from NIDA in 2013, came to the attention of casting circles after landing the lead in an HBO pilot for director Steve McQueen, which was never made. 

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Despite being an unknown, Terrell, playing an Obama in 1981, an era where he was questioning his path in life, his politics and his identity, is absolutely astounding.

Displaying an intensity not seen since the days of Heath Ledger, Terrell inhabits the character with an enthralling, quiet complexity, fleshing out in nuanced but forensic detail an Obama who fitted in nowhere and everywhere, and was powered by a singular sense of drive and integrity amid his identity struggles.

Terrell says his preparation was meticulous, including digesting articles, Obama's 1995 memoir Dreams From My Father and footage. 

Most immediately striking is his pitch-perfect capturing of Obama's distinctive tone and cadence. 

"The director [Vikram Gandhi] kept saying it's like this swirl over [Obama's] head," says Terrell. "He's constantly got these ideas and he's trying to make sense of them. That's what we were going for – the stiltedness is a sense of him always wanting to say the right thing in the moment. He never wanted to say something and not mean it."

In the two months he had to prepare for filming in March, Terrell also taught himself to write left-handed and particularly in the distinctive way Obama curves his hand while holding a pen, as well as training himself to play basketball from the left, too. 

That aside, Obama is also a natural fit for Terrell, with many parallels between the two. 

The film depicts Obama struggling with his background: a Kenyan father who he hardly knew, a white hippie mother, and an upbringing in Indonesia and Hawaii.

Terrell was born in Long Beach, California, to an African-American father and Anglo-Indian mother and moved to Perth age five. 

"I read the story and I had such an emotional connection to it and I said that's me, someone just summed up my life," he says. "I've had very similar experiences, moving to Australia and having to change my accent and go to school. And I've never met a person who's Anglo-Indian and African-American."

In the throes of publicity ahead of its release, Terrell says he keeps getting asked by the US media what a young Obama would say to Trump – "I hope you do good by the country and I hope you listen to the people," is his response. 

But he adds that he hopes the depiction of Obama's character and early struggles will add to the legacy of the departing president. 

"He was such an important figure in terms of breaking the mould and in [creating an] understanding that if you have the intelligence and integrity to want to do good, you can achieve whatever you want to do."

Terrell also shares a similar sense of integrity. He says he's an "actor's actor" and cites Ledger, Marlon Brando and Michael Fassbender among his influences, and will be moving to New York in January, where he's looking at a number of roles. 

"I want to be a respected actor around the world and for people to look at my work and to have emotional reactions, and to change things. It's not about the glitz and glam, Every day shooting [Barry], I woke being excited to work," he says. 

"A lot of acting is, you know, you give up a lot of your life trying to be other people and it reveals stuff about yourself but I think for me it's very much about pushing myself to how good could I become, where can my career take me." 

Barry screened at the Toronto Film Festival in September to hugely positive reviews, particularly about the promise of Terrell, who says he hopes the film sparks discussions about identity. 

"Everyone has the right to be who they want to be and I think we're definitely going through a stage where there's so much black or white going on the world and we really need to find conversations to have. I hope Barry is one of those conversations." 

Terrell says he was aware that there were White House representatives at the Toronto screening, but he doesn't know if Barry has made it to the Obamas yet.  

"Hopefully their daughters have Netflix in the White House," he says, laughing, adding "I'm sure he's very busy at the moment."

What does Terrell hope Obama will think of his performance?

"My honest opinion is I hope he goes, 'Yeah, I think you were close enough'.'' 

Barry streams on Netflix from December 16.

 

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