Q&A WITH THE ABBERTONS
Koby and Sunny Speak Openly About Bra Boys

Koby back at home in Maroubra Beach.

Sunny, what kind of film experience did you have before taking this on?

Sunny: When I was surfing professionally I was based here in the U.S. with the Rusty guys for a good part of that. I just learned most of the stuff from traveling with cameramen and cinematographers—what a successful shoot is and how to set up shots. I was taking on a lot with this - more than I imagined. But after studying how things came to be in our town, and looking closely at how most of us grew up, I really felt like I knew the culture better than anyone, and that I could explain it in that way that would not only relate to Australians, but to other people in similar situations around the world.

At what point did Russell Crowe get involved, and how did that come about? Koby: We wanted someone strong to be the narrator—but it was always going to be Russell; we were always thinking Russell.

Sunny: It was just getting it to him that was tough. It took a while. We got to him through one of the local Bra Boys who plays for the Rugby team he owns, the South Sydney Rabbitohs. So we passed a few messages on to him and Russell contacted Koby.

Koby: He was sending messages to my phone and email and then he rang me up and he’s like, “Hey, it’s Russell Crowe.” And I’m like, “F--k off.” [laughs] I probably did that like five times in a row because I thought it was one of my mates screwing with me. I was like, “Who is this?” I’d be with all my boys going, “Who’s doing this?” I was trying to work it out forever. Then one of my best mates, the one who plays for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which has been my favorite team my whole life, he comes up to me and goes, “I don’t know what you’ve been saying to Russell, but he’s been trying to ring you every day.” I was like, “Aw, no!”

After that I went and hung out with him a couple times; we’d go and have a couple beers, go and watch football together. We still hadn’t asked him to do anything, because I’m not that pushy of a person. But I guess his master plan was the thing that we’re gearing up for now. We just hung out and got along really good and I went up and stayed at his beach house with his whole family and stuff. After a while I was like, “My brother’s doing a video, want to have a look at it?” and he had a look at it and he said, “Oh it’s nice.”

Sunny: We had to show him it probably a month before we were really ready to, so he gave us a little bit of advice on some of the structure here and there. He answered some of my concerns about the storyline, by saying, “Yes, you can do it like that.” He didn’t want to commit to anything for the film because when we first met him, he said he didn’t want to help until he could see the finished product. He didn’t want to baby the film. So we finally got it to a place where we all felt really good about—even though we had a different narrator at the time. He booked a private cinema at Fox Studios, and he sat next to me and he didn’t smile, didn’t laugh or nothing the whole way through. I was shitting myself. At the end he just got up and started walking out, and were like, “We gotta follow him.” So we did, and I said, “What do you think?” and he goes, “Let’s go get a coffee.” So we walk outside and I was like, “What do you think?” and he’s all, “It’s great.” And we’re talking about all different aspects, and then I asked, “What do you think about the narration?” and he goes, “Aw, that guy is crap, but when I do it, we’ll fix that.” And that was the moment we knew we had him. How’s Jai doing? He seems to be on the down low in this whole process.

Koby: After the media treated him the way that they did he just doesn’t want anything to do with it anymore. He’s had enough. He just wants to be normal. You can’t expect someone to have a good chip on their shoulder after 23 months of jail, getting called all these names; it’s not right. He’s a good person. All he does is surf and hang out. And he got himself put in a position where he had to kill or be killed. He’s doing really good, just surfing.

Sunny: Anyone who goes to jail for that long, they just want to sit there and enjoy life. He’s going surfing a lot, charging Ours.

Is he pretty excited for you guys on this whole leg of your journey?

Koby: He doesn’t want to hear about it. He doesn’t care. I must admit he doesn’t care. He’s just disgusted with the media. He just doesn’t want to hear about it or read about it.

But there’s no rift or anything about this project?

Sunny: No, not at all. Look, we’re brothers—we have different views of things. But even when we disagree on something, we know we love each other. Nothing changes that. Koby: Sunny and I go at it all the time over stupid little stuff, but that’s just how we operate.