From 'Cleverman' to 'Black Comedy', Briggs Is Conquering The Small Screen

Ask anyone who has seen him in action and they'll tell you that Adam Briggs — best known by his surname alone — is a man of many talents. Emerging from regional Victoria to become a dominant force in local hip hop both as a solo artist and as part of incendiary, award-winning duo A.B. Original, Briggs has asserted himself in recent times as an unapologetic iconoclast who is impossible to ignore, a tremendously skilled lyricist and a vital voice for Indigenous people in a society that egregiously shuts them out.

While simultaneously building his musical and activist profiles, over the past year or so, Briggs has broadened his horizons to include dabbling in screen pursuits, cutting his teeth as a writer (and occasional star) on acclaimed sketch series Black Comedy as well as recently appearing as fearsome 'Hairy' community leader Maliyan in ABC's lauded superhero show Cleverman, the first season of which was met with widespread praise upon its airing and is released on home media today.

In case you missed it at the time, Cleverman is created by Ryan Griffen — a friend of Briggs', who personally asked him to audition for the role of Maliyan — and follows the tale of a young Indigenous man (Hunter Page-Lochard) who becomes a reluctant guardian for his people, and the similarly oppressed, superhuman 'Hairies', against the machinations of social segregation (forced to live inside a cordoned off area known as 'The Zone'), an uncaring government, a stirring ancient realm, the exploitative mass media and an ignorant general population. Although not without its narrative imperfections — to be fair, what show is? — it proved an instant hit and demonstrated the power of locally made stories built with broader representation and respect in mind.

Despite his intimidating physical form, Briggs says that he was a largely reserved presence on set; as a first-time actor, he was less inclined to let little things pass him by, instead focusing intently on as much as humanly possible. 

"That was my first acting gig, like, outside of music videos, so as an overall experience I was just learning as I went," he explains. "Like, I was just taking in as much as I could at that point. I just wanted to learn as much as I could to carry on if I chose to keep acting or whatever.

"Cleverman was a great introduction to that world because I was surrounded — you know, there's a massive black cast, which made it really comfortable for me, but also not just the cast, it's the crew as well — also just the professionalism around it, it made it really easy, really painless to be a part of. I just took in as much as possible from the whole experience."

From the sounds of it, it was a worthwhile tack to take; the reverence and deference with which Briggs speaks of his co-stars is evident even down the muffle of a phone line, and it's clear that Cleverman has helped solidify his stance about pursuing further acting work — if only someone had told him about all the downtime that would be involved. 

"I've definitely skilled up, because you're working with, you know, Deb Mailman and Tasma [Walton] and even Rob [Collins] and Hunter and Ryan Corr — everyone's super-experienced," Briggs marvels. "I never went to acting school or nothing, man, so everyone was just real cool and it was a real dope learning experience. I got to bring a couple of my cousins in to be extras and stuff as well, so that was cool.

"The only thing I didn't like was the waiting, man. So much waiting on a film set. Waiting, dude. All the time. Just waiting. Hurry up and wait. That's the only thing, hey."

"Everyone's doing their job, so you've just gotta wait for everyone to get it right, so that's the part — and I noticed the other actors had their own little, you know, things they would do to keep themselves entertained or just make the waiting easier," he continues. "So I learnt the hard way. No one told me there'd be heaps of waiting, man."

True to form, though, Briggs was resourceful about the inconvenience, putting to productive use the long stretches of inactivity between calls.

"Luckily it was one of my first sets, so I was just listening to what everyone was saying and looking at the equipment," he says. "I'm a bit of a nerd, so anything I can take on-board to help me understand things better, I think it's part of my DIY ethic I have in everything that I do, so I just try and take in as much information as I can, and if I wasn't doing that I was probably just on my phone to my manager or whatever, just talking to whoever was near me." 

"And figuring out how to sleep with my eyes open," he laughs. "I reckon a few more jobs and I'll have that locked."

As far as giving life to the role of Maliyan, Briggs was happy to defer to the experience of Griffen and the show's crew rather than take too active a hand in constructing the character himself. "Ryan spoke to me about it, and they really enjoyed my audition, so they built this character up specifically for me," he says. "So, like, I was just along for the ride as well, man. I was taking it as it was rolling in, 'coz at the same time as doing Cleverman, I was also writing for Black Comedy." 

That said, there was at least one element where Briggs forced himself to take up a more hands-on approach — and its results are evident from literally his first scene, when he dismisses a pair of brawlers in a streetfight. 

"One thing I was doing was I upped my gym regime," he explains. "I was doing a little bit of heavy lifting, but I went into full powerlifting because the idea was that Maliyan was the baddest dude in The Zone, you know what I mean? So I physically wanted to be the strongest dude in The Zone."

"It was just a lot of heavy weights, man," he laughs. "Just a lot of heavy weights, just, like, three days a week at my mate's gym, Iron Revolution, in Melbourne, just lifting heavy weights so I could smash TVs and whatnot. It's something that I always just enjoyed in my own pastime anyway, but I just really upped the regime, just lifting much heavier when it comes to that."

Briggs' involvement in TV — both here and with Black Comedy — goes beyond being an on-screen personality; indeed, he and Trials, as A.B. Original, were responsible for crafting Cleverman's incredible theme song (featuring legendary Indigenous musician Gurrumul) in addition to writing a solid chunk of Black Comedy's second season — a vocation that the rapper says he is keen to continue exploring ("I like writing, man … I love it").

The unquenchable creative thirst and writer's mind shines through in hearing Briggs talk about Maliyan's arc from a memorable but murky character in the first episode to being a pivotal piece of the Cleverman puzzle — and his role as a voice for rebellion among the denizens of area known as The Zone.

"Maliyan, to me, was just super-frustrated," Briggs reflects. "You can just tell he was over it, you know what I mean? He was just done listening to what anyone else had to say, and the politics didn't interest him; diplomacy and whatever. And he was the yang to the other side of the balance of The Zone. He definitely had his own best interests at heart, and the way he was trying to get that across might not have been super-positive."

In stark contrast, what has been uniformly positive for Briggs and his Cleverman crew-mates has been the reaction they've seen from audiences around Australia; most importantly, the positive effect it has had for the audiences for whom this show was really made.

"Everyone just loves it, man; everyone just loves the stories, and — you know, my whole family loves it, and that's the main thing, hey," Briggs says. "That's the biggest part. It's a show for us, you know what I mean? And just the way that everyone's been able to take that on and how well the story's been accepted internationally as well shows that these stories are super-relevant, and they are of an international quality."

Those that have seen the show will know that it covers some pretty harrowing scenes and topics in the course of its six-episode first season that tap into (what should be) deep national shame about myriad activities and atrocities committed by colonial and post-colonial powers during Australia's recent history, including the treatment of Indigenous people and migrant minorities. One moment that particularly sticks out even now is a scene in which Hairy youth Djukara (Tysan Towney) — who has been imprisoned for no good reason, so there's that, too — is chained up and shaved down in front of several of his people.

It's unimaginable to consider what that must have felt like on-set, and makes one wonder how truly "painless" the filming process could have been.  

"I wasn't there for that part, but I did see Tysan getting a bunch of hair glued to him, so that part wasn't much fun," Briggs says. "And the super-early start to make that happen wasn't much fun either.

"The painless part was the professional side, you know what I mean? How organised everything was and how friendly everyone was. It was a really cool kind of set. And it was exciting, too, because we all knew we were working on something big, but I guess, there were parts where it was exhausting as well — for me, Maliyan is such an explosive kind of dude, so it's like, he goes from zero to 100 instantly, and that takes a toll. You know, when you're barking like that, it's a pretty intense moment … you've gotta keep up that intensity take after take.

"It's mentally exhausting too. You've gotta go there, you know what I mean? As I said, dude, I'm not from an acting school or nothing, so I don't know — I just tried to do as best as I could." 

Given that Maliyan has since ended up as one of the most iconic characters of the show's inaugural outing, it's safe to say that Briggs can consider his acting debut a rousing success. And, although — spoiler alert — Maliyan's fate is somewhat up in the air as of the end of the season, having been gunned down by Collins' character, Waruu, Briggs may not yet be done with the herculean Hairy — but we'll have to wait until season two to find out.

"It's ambiguous, mate; anything could happen!" he teases. 

"Never let a bullet get in your way."

Cleverman season one is available on DVD now.

Briggs will appear with Trials, as A.B. Original, to deliver a keynote speech at this year's BIGSOUND conference in Brisbane. See the event's website for more information.