Interview ‘Troppo’ actor and executive producer Thomas Jane

The Extra Mile interviews Thomas Jane, star of the new series Troppo. The show follows ex-cop Ted Conkaffey, who starts a new life in Far North Queensland, Australia, after being falsely accused of a heinous crime. As he partners with private investigator Amanda Pharrell, they navigate themes of redemption and justice in a harsh and isolated environment.

In our interview, we discuss Jane’s unique experiences filming in Australia, the resonant themes of the series, and how his diverse career has influenced his performance in Troppo.

TEM: (The Extra Mile) : What initially drew you into the role for Ted?

Thomas: Wounded men, men who have been wounded by life and are trying to struggle, struggling to find their way out to a sense of peace, you know, so that’s certainly what, what Ted, what he gives. And it’s just like, oh, always right up my alley. Find a character who’s wounded, misunderstood, good at his job, and, and, and how is he going to sort of dig himself out of, you know, whatever, whatever hole that, in this case, Candace Fox has dug for him. The writer of the novels.. Candace Fox, terrific, terrific books. Yeah.

TEM: The series is based on Candace Fox’s books,  Crimson Lake. Did you actually read the book prior to doing the show? And would you say there’s any, like, significant changes or any additions that kind of really stood out to you?

Thomas: Absolutely read the book. That’s what got me interested in the first place. And we try to stay true, obviously, to the characters. But then we also, you know, some of the storylines get reimagined, which, you know, it’s a tricky situation, right? You want to stay true to the characters, but you also want to keep it interesting and surprising for the audience who is familiar with the books. So we try to do a little bit of both.

TEM: I mean, you know, obviously the series is set in Australia. Have you been to Australia prior to filming the show? And, like, how would you say that kind of contributed to the whole atmosphere and the storytelling? I mean, obviously the whole, like, crocodiles and everything, but I kind of want to hear your thoughts.

Thomas: No, that’s pretty much it. I’ve been to the Gold Coast to make a movie with John Cusack, actually, about 10 years prior. So I kind of knew what I was getting into. The books are very descriptive, and they do a great job of describing sort of northern Queensland and that life. It’s different. It’s a different reality than what most people are used to, even Australians. Other Australians will be unfamiliar with the northern Queensland lifestyle, you know, because Australia is a fairly large place. There’s a lot going on. But northern Queensland is particularly a different it’s kind of it’s the kind of place where you can go to disappear if you just one of the last places on earth that you can go and erase your footprint from the world and disappear so you make some interesting characters up there.

TEM:  Do you have any like memorable experiences or just kind of from filming just in Australia like especially in such like a distinct environment?

Thomas:  This is how distinct it is when you show up to shoot at a location before the crew shows up you’ll bring in a snake wrangler sometimes two of them and their job is to go through the perimeter of the area you’ll be shooting in and make sure that all the snakes are out of there and if they find a snake they’ll bag it and they’ll take it off the perimeter. So I don’t think there was a time when the snake wranglers showed up and didn’t find a snake. They turned out to be quite useful.

TEM: The show deals with themes of redemption and justice. How do you think these themes resonate with the audience? And, like, what kind of message do you want the viewers to kind of take away, essentially, from the show?

Thomas: The theme of redemption, you know, is really, I think, what kept us coming back and kept us interested in telling this story, you know, for both characters, Amanda and Ted, and how seemingly unredeemable acts or unredeemable events in someone’s life, is there a way to crawl your way back to some kind of redemption? That’s what, that’s what I love about the story, you know, and it kind of keeps me coming back to revisit Ted. It’s a tough part to play, but it’s worth it in the end.

TEM: You’ve had a diverse career in roles. How would you say your experience in the past projects, like The Expanse or anything else you’ve worked on, influenced your performance?

Thomas: You’re always learning. There’s always more to learn. With The Expanse, I directed one of the episodes of Season 5 and used that to direct a couple of the episodes in Season 2 for Tropo. I really learned a lot and had a very rewarding experience directing the show. So I suppose that would probably be the biggest connection to other shows that I’ve done, and bringing the knowledge that I’ve learned on these other shows into Tropo as a producer and a director. That helped quite a bit, and I learned a lot. and um i learned a hell of a lot you know so when i when we go into season three i expect from myself um a higher standard of quality of work

TEM: What would you say has been the most rewarding aspect of working in as an actor and an executive producer?

Thomas:  well you know it’s always rewarding to create the characters and and and lay them down uh in the best way that we can um with the with within the limitations that we have to every show has limitations but the challenge becomes can you say what you want to say or the essence of this character or this story in the uh in the time that we’re allowed that we’re allotted to say that. He needs to, you know, get his wife back. He needs to get his kid back, or at least put himself in his kid’s life, in a way that he hasn’t been able to do in Season 1. So we get to focus on the family dynamic with Ted, you know, in Season 2.

TEM: We’re all about going the extra mile here, and I’m kind of curious, you know, Thomas, how do you go the extra mile, whether it be in acting, producing, or just in your day-to-day life?

Thomas: What does it mean to go the extra mile? You know, there’s a part of your brain that actually… grows the more you do things that you don’t want to do, right? And so every time you accomplish something that you don’t want to do, your brain is like, I don’t want to get up, I don’t want to wake up an hour earlier, or I don’t want to go to the gym, I don’t want to take that walk. But when you turn that part up and do it anyway, there’s a part of your brain that actually gets stronger. So if you’re going the extra mile, every time you go the extra mile, in whatever capacity or whatever phase of life that you’re in at that moment, you’re actually strengthening the part of your brain that, you know, that can will things into existence. So no matter what it is, so that, I guess what I’m trying to say is the little things that we push ourselves to do every day actually contribute to getting the big stuff done. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, it does. That’s a great answer.

You can stream the first episode of Troppo Season 1 on Super Channel on August 4th, 2024.