TWO FISTS ONE HEART – RAI FAZIO & DANIEL AMALM

IN THE RING WITH YOUR OWN SELF
In the Australian drama, Two Fists One Heart, Rai Fazio and Daniel Amalm play out a story based on the real life of Rai – but it’s Daniel playing Rai’s alter-ego, Anthony, an Italian young man whose tough father is pushing him hard to be a good boxer. And Rai plays Nico – his nemesis, who gets to fight his on-screen self in the climax. Andrew L. Urban talks to the two young actors about their roles, their backgrounds and how intense the filmmaking was.

Rai Fazio’s father put his arms around Rai and hugged him after seeing Rai’s film about their often tumultuous relationship; “That was about the third time in my life that he hugged me,” says Rai, now reconciled and in a happy relationship with his father.

When he went home after seeing the film, Rai’s dad looked at his mother with a smile: “Your son …..he made me look good. I was worse than that.” His dad is 68, but he’s still down at the gym every day at 5 o’clock.

Rai, who wrote the screenplay, says “it’s about 80% real…” But his own character of Nico is an amalgam of young men who he had come across while his father trained them – including a couple from prison.

"the most realistic boxing ever put on screen"

As for the boxing, Rai proudly claims that it’s the most realistic boxing ever put on screen; “and when I cop it in the big fight, you look closely, I really cop it.”

While Rai Fazio (pronounced in Sicily roughly as Faccio), is Italian, Daniel, who plays the Italian character Dino Dibra in three episodes of Underbelly, was born in Brisbane but is actually Swedish/Maltese. His Maltese mother passed on her olive skin but the dark hair is from the shared gene pool: in Lapland, where his father was born, dark hair is not uncommon.

At his audition for the role (after he had submitted a self-screen test) he was asked to shadow box…and then to take his shirt off, which took him aback but he complied, and the filmmakers watched him throw a few punches. An occasional boxer (and bouncer), Daniel won the part for the combination of his boxing and his acting – both on display in Two Fists One Heart.

He gained a great deal about his character from the script, but he also spent a week up close and personal with Rai, who gave him plenty of emotive material. Making the film was “an overwhelming” experience. The big challenge was to make his character real – and not try to make the audience like him from the start, and to handle the subtle change.

HOW TO THROW A PUNCH
- by Rai Fazio

Published March 19, 2009