Aussie Actor Devon Terrell On His Big Netflix Break And Playing Barack Obama

It's a story that'll be familiar to just about anyone who is going through or has gone through their young adult years. In this case, it's a man in his early 20s pursuing higher education, taking college classes to learn how the world works in a theoretical sense but also just gaining more and more life experience through meeting and interacting with new people in new places.

There are awkward interactions with the parents of a new girlfriend and tense confrontations with drunken thugs, clueless classmates and overzealous cops. He smokes too much, he occasionally drinks too much. His relationship with his parents is complicated. He wonders where he fits into the world and what he can add to it. The young man in question is named Barry, and it's not until the end of the story that it's revealed Barry is short for Barack. Barack Obama.

The Netflix original movie Barry neatly sidesteps many of the conventions of the biopic, preferring instead to tell a fairly universal story about a young person grappling with their identity, forming their worldview and moral code and determining what to do with their life. Set in New York in 1981, when 20-year-old Barry arrived in the city to attend Columbia University after living in various countries around the world, it's a smart, subtle and keenly observed piece of work that shows the origins of the man who would make history as the first African-American President of the United States and become known as one of the most respected and revered world leaders of the modern era.

"I completely forgot it was about Barack. I just understood this character as a person."

At its core is a star-making performance by young Australian actor Devon Terrell, who nails the appearance and mannerisms of the Obama known the world over while expertly showing that 20-year-old Barry is still a man in search of himself. It's a breakout role for the 24-year-old NIDA graduate, born in California and raised in Perth, following what should have been his breakout role, a lead in Codes Of Conduct, an HBO pilot by 12 Years A Slave director Steve McQueen. When HBO declined to pick up the pilot, Terrell's agent was quick to offer a follow-up.

"He called to tell me about this Barack Obama movie," recalls Terrell with a laugh. "The challenge of playing Obama thrilled me as an actor straight away but I had to put that aside and just read it as a script. And I completely forgot it was about Barack. I just understood this character as a person. That is me, I thought. That is so many young people in the world right now. We're asking so many questions, thinking each of us is the only one asking these questions about themselves and the world, trying to understand ourselves. I know what it's like to be mixed-race and ask myself about my identity. It felt very personal to me, and when it feels that personal it's something I really want to do."

Director Vikram Gandhi, known primarily for his journalism work with VICE, clearly agreed, offering Terrell the role straight away. "And it became all about the work," smiled the actor. The work was partly about nailing the physical specifics (Terrell is right-handed, Obama is a lefty) and, of course, the vocal specifics (he not only does a very good Obama, he does a very good Jordan Peele as Obama!) while ensuring his performance didn't lapse into mimicry - "Barry was a whole different person from Barack" - but also the young Obama's personality.

"Everyone sees him as a superhero, or everyone says 'Well, of course, he was going to be President one day'," says Terrell. "But it wasn't like that. His school friends would never have picked it! When I read the script, I was like 'How does this person become this person?' And the more research I did, I was shocked at how people would say he was obviously very intelligent but there was also a bit of a block there emotionally - he was tough to get close to."

That has clearly changed over the years, with Obama cultivating an image as one of the most approachable of world leaders. So what happened? "He wanted to create change, and he didn't know how to do that at a young age," says Terrell. "I guess he thought the only way to do that was to go straight to the top."

Of course, Obama will only be at the top, so to speak, for a little while longer, with Donald Trump scheduled to be sworn into as President next January. Obama's legacy, however, has Terrell feeling optimistic. "The world has gone through so much adversity throughout history, and it's how we respond to that that matters," he says. "In this moment, so many issues have come to the forefront. And they have to come to the forefront for us to confront them and deal with them. A lot of people are in shock right now but I have to believe that some good will come of it. Barack's legacy is that people will look at a lot of what he did, ask themselves how he did it and feel that it's achievable again."

Barry premieres on Netflix on 16 Dec.