While we may know the Australian star for his popular TV turns, including the long running American show ‘The Mentalist’, he’s a cinematic acting force to be reckoned with in Ivan Sen’s Aussie black and white moody outback noir.

First time I ever watched Simon Baker act, it was in Ang Lee’s American revisionist Western Ride with the Devil. The young Australian actor’s method seemed so unorthodox, he immediately found a fan in me. What I mean is, for someone that handsome, he possessed some serious acting chops.

Never one to get by just on his good looks alone, Baker then embarked on TV’s The Mentalist where, for 8 years, he played Patrick Jane, a golden curls-sporting sociopath ex con man who helps the California Bureau of Investigation as a consultant. In the process, he’s out to get the serial killer who murdered his family… Now that wouldn’t sound like a heroic role, but in Baker’s hands he turned Jane into not only every woman’s dream around the world, but also a likable lead who helped explain why bad boys, and broken men are so good.

Fast forward to the present day and Baker has left Hollywood in favor of his homeland Australia where he lives on his, what he calls “little property, [where] I’ve got some cows,” he confesses, during an interview conducted inside La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech. Baker is in Morocco to attend the Marrakech International Film Festival, with his latest film, Ivan Sen’s moody Limbo. He will also be In Conversation in the next days, gathering more fans and re-engaging his old ones in the process.

In Limbo, Baker once again messes with our impression of him and his golden boy looks, by playing a junkie cop sent to the mostly indigenous region of Coober Pedy in Southern Australia, to reopen the investigation on a 20 year old cold case. Even Baker’s extended stomach in the film feels real — and we checked, he definitely didn’t sport one in real life. Plus the way he shoots up heroin and slowly begins to collapse on the bed of his motel, in junkie slow motion, it is everything one could observe in Tompkins Square Park, during the days when New Yorkers called it “Needle Park”. Personally, I’m surprised the film isn’t submitted for any award race, as it is both visually stunning but also socially important. If you substitute Australia for middle America, and the indigenous cast with an African-American one, it could be a story that plays all too frequently on US soil, of police indifference when faced with crime perpetuated on the Black community.

What was it like to play this character, Travis Hurley, someone so different from Patrick Jane, and yet in some ways so similar? “It was good. I enjoyed the departure,” Baker answers, speaking softly, almost whispering. “As a general statement, you could say it was a darkish character but it was a guy who had a lot of personal armor.” I’d dare to say, in that sense, quite similar to the actor playing him — who keeps his grey tinted glasses on for the duration of his interviews. He does continue, perhaps explaining himself since I must look disappointed with his short answer, “most people who have a lot of personal armor are incredibly vulnerable beneath it, so understanding the psychology of why the guy was like he is was kind of a key for me.” Baker continues, explaining even further, “how that manifests physically on the screen, whether that’s a posture, or the adornment of tattoos, or the sort of disinterest and lack of emotional availability, the character then does kind of come back to connect, emotionally, to this family, through their trauma.” Baker admits that the character’s arc proved an interesting journey for the actor playing him.

While I always felt the sociopath, antisocial side of the Patrick Jane character, which actually made the show click for me, other journalists on the junket point out that his role in Limbo isn’t one we are used to seeing Baker in. “I lived and worked in Los Angeles for 20 years,” he replies, “and had some great experiences in the US, and a lot of wonderful opportunities were born out of that.” But Baker argues that with “American material, casting choices are pretty obvious — so you do a film that is successful and any role [after that] resembles that.” Baker does admit that two or three actors, including Christian Bale, can get away with being cast in courageous character actor choices, but mostly in the US, thespians tend to be typecast.

Repeatedly during our interview, Baker points to having had to “build a career, to support a young family,” as opposed to “building a career to support my own artistic needs and desires.” I’ll admit I’ve never heard anyone speak so candidly about their personal life, in front of four complete strangers. The actor, who began directing episodes of The Mentalist and in 2018 released his first feature film Breath, also talks about the breakdown of his marriage, which came in 2020. “I’ve been through a lot in the last few years,” he says even more softly, betraying a vulnerability that feels incredibly real. “My marriage broke down, and I’ve just, in the last couple of years really enjoyed acting, and I’ve found a deeper connection with myself through acting.”

Baker calls his director Sen, who is also the film’s producer, writer, cinematographer and editor, among with wearing a few other impressive hats, “what you’d call a pure auteur,” and admits the opportunity to work together arrived when Baker moved back to Australia in 2015. “His cinema could push along, could help challenge people’s ideas.”

About being at the festival in Marrakech, Baker is quick to point out that “these festivals are so integral in getting these films out there. In Hollywood, they used to make $20 million dramas, they don’t do that anymore, they all need to be made independently, and streaming services are not in the business of sharing cultures — they are in the business of pleasing customers, subscribers.” Festivals allow you “to look into a window of another culture, of another world, you enter into something that is completely different,” Baker adds.

The actor confesses that he started acting out of a secret desire “to connect with people,” and believes there is potential for what he calls “a revolution — when people start to make a lot more smaller films, and audiences actually seek them out and want to be challenged.”

Baker admits that he’s excited about being at an “age now where I can play characters,” but would still at some point like to get back to directing. What advice would Baker give his twenty year old self, I ask before he takes off for another interview? “Take risks, take more risks,” he answers, without missing a beat.

This interview took place at the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Fim Festival. Image courtesy of FIFM, used with permission.