AFI nominees Alex Dimitriades, Sophie Lowe and two-time AFI Award-winning actor Anthony Hayes will complete the stellar cast of The Slap, which includes Golden Globe Award nominee Melissa George, Academy Award nominee Sophie Okonedo, Tony award nominee Essie Davis and, in his first Australian role, Jonathan LaPaglia.
Alex Dimitriades will play the part of Harry in the ABC TV series based on Christos Tsiolkas’ critically acclaimed novel. Dimitriades began his career with his role in The Heartbreak Kid, which lead to his role in the provocative film, Head On.
Other notable roles include ABC TV’s Wildside, La Spagnola, Underbelly and Summer Coda. Sophie Lowe will play the role of Connie, while Anthony Hayes, who wowed audiences with performances in The Boys, Look Both Ways, Suburban Mayhem and most recently Animal Kingdom, will play the role of Gary.
Lex Marinos OAM will play Manolis. Marinos was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the 1994 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for his services to the performing arts as a director, actor and writer. He has appeared in countless productions including The Last Days of Chez Nous, A Country Practice, and Kingswood Country.
Greek actress Toula Tianni is playing Manolis’ wife, Koula and Eugenia FragΑos (Head On) is playing Elisavet, Hector’s sister. Also joining the cast are Blake Davis (Tangle), who will play Richie, Oliver Ackland (Wasted on the Young, The Proposition) who will play Rhys and Diana Glenn (Carla Cametti PD, Satisfaction) who will play Sandi.
The Slap traces the repercussions stemming from a man who slaps a boy who is not his son at an Australian backyard barbeque.
After the boy’s parents call the police and legal action results, friends and family are forced to take sides.
A team of four AFI Award-winning directors Jessica Hobbs (Love My Way, Answered by Fire); Matthew Saville (Noise, The King); Tony Ayres (Walking on Water, The Homesong Stories, Saved); and Robert Connolly (The Bank, Romulus, My Father) will each direct two episodes of the eight episode series. Filming commences on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 in Melbourne.
