‘Horrific’: Roxburgh on reliving Peter Greste’s Egyptian jail hell for the big screen
When journalist Peter Greste was languishing in a prison cell in Cairo, he couldn’t imagine freedom – much less that, a decade later, Richard Roxburgh would be playing him in a film about his ordeal.
By David Leser
Peter Greste and Richard Roxburgh. For Roxburgh, ensuring that the movie’s depiction of Greste didn’t trivialise his prison ordeal was a “huge responsibility”.Credit: Louie Douvis
Eleven years ago, when Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste was being thrown into a Cairo prison on charges of aiding a terrorist organisation, Richard Roxburgh was preparing to play the voice of Flip, the grasshopper in the animated comedy adventure, Maya the Bee.
Yes, I know, that’s a rather – how shall we put it – flip way of starting a serious story about a distinguished journalist denied his freedom, together with a brilliant character actor chosen to portray him a decade after his release.
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