I’m sitting in my poorly airconditioned Melbourne apartment waiting to speak to the superbly talented just seventeen-year-old Vincent Miller. We’re connected via Zoom, and I ask Vincent where he is from. It turns out he’s calling from a small hamlet next to the small hamlet I spent many of my formative years in. I close my eyes and imagine back to what it was like being his age and growing up in Bundjalung country. I can see his daily routines. I know the schools he went to. I can breathe the humidity in the air. I wonder if he jumped into Tosha Falls – I imagine he did. I think of Shelly Beach and hope he spent time in those waves.
The palpable memories of my past and Vincent’s present make the experience of speaking to him intimate. Knowing the streets he has walked, the bus routes he has travelled, the slippery jacaranda trees planted all over the two towns, and the rural beauty of the place makes Vincent’s first and searing role as Mel Blight in Inside directed by Charles Williams all the more astonishing.
Vincent is given an extraordinary role in Mel Blight, receiving high praise from his co-star Guy Pearce. Vincent was also a finalist for the Young Talent initiative at the AACTAs.
Inside arrives in Australian cinemas on 27 February 2025.
This interview has been edited for clarity purposes.
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Can you tell me a little bit about how you auditioned for Inside and what made you decide to do it?
Vincent Miller: For the audition process, there was Charles [Williams] and Nikki Barrett (Elvis, Mad Max: Fury Road, Talk to Me, The Power of the Dog, The Babadook) doing a nationwide call the role. I sent off a tape and I got a call back. They obviously liked what I was coming at on the script. So I got a call back and I sent her another tape, just from home.
I think it was the third call back the third round where I was flown down to Sydney to meet Nikki and Charles. There were a few other boys there going for the role, and they were all incredible. Really, really, talented.
It was a lot of fun. We did a workshop, and we just did a sat down with Charles and Thomas M. Wright [who is a producer on the film]. Thomas was a big help for me as well. So, you know, it was incredible. After that, Charles came up and visited me at my home and met my parents, and he told me the story. After that he called and said I had the role, which is just amazing.
Were you blown away that you’d be appearing in a film with Guy Pearce and Cosmo Jarvis?
VM: Yeah, definitely. Especially having Guy on the project. That was a big wow! I watched all his work, and I just thought, “Oh, my God, I'm just so lucky, and I'm so grateful.”
When we actually started filming, I met everybody else who was a part of it, and it was just amazing.
Inside was filmed in Victoria, wasn’t’ it?
VM: Yeah, that's right, down in the prison.
Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like preparing for such a complex and difficult role? Especially as you were fifteen at the time.
VM: Charles was a huge help in the preparation. He made the script feel personalised to me. I had questions to ask myself about the character. Mel has these moments where he blinks as a kind of tic. I would consider what brings that on? What is he thinking about when that happens? What has he been through?
Mel contemplates a lot when he's just sitting in silence. I had to convey everything he has been through by thinking about what he's thinking in the silence.
I think on the journey and filming every day, I learned more and more about Mel. It was my first role so every day I learned about acting. I wasn't too sure how I should get ready and how I should prepare, but Charles was incredible with helping me.
Charles is a very empathetic filmmaker and a very good person too.
I think that Mel Matthew Blight is one of the best written roles for a youth male character in Australian cinema for a very long time. You were convincing and so human. I think everybody who sees the film is going to immense empathy for your portrayal of the character which is a testament to your skill in bringing Mel to life.
Can you tell me what it was like playing against Cosmo Jarvis? Because I did hear that he went full method and that must have been quite intense.
VM: Oh totally! I'd heard of actors doing method acting but I've never had the opportunity to see it. So, it was wild. I didn't really get to talk to him too much at all, because he was just so invested in his character of Mark Shepard.
It was very inspiring to watch, because I thought I could possibly do that myself one day. It was incredible to watch him work and see how he did it. He was so good, and he was so fun to bounce off.
Mark Shepard is a frightening character, even when he's doing his best, or what he thinks is his best, it's quite deranged in its own way. No one is ever quite sure what's going to happen to Mel in his proximity – if he’s safe.
The there’s Warren (Guy Pearce) who is manipulating Mel. But in a lot of ways, Mel is realistically safer with him.
VM: Yeah. Like you were saying about Cosmo as Shepard, there's like this uncertainty for Mel. There's a lot of caution with him, because you don't know who this guy is. Mel just knows that he's been transferred from maximum security for a major crime. There’s a lot of caution.
But with Warren, it just feels a bit more natural. Mel can actually have a conversation with him. And you can see that in the in some of the scenes, in the cells, where they just feel comfortable around each other and they're having a bit of a laugh.
Mel becomes his de facto son, which is important because he wants to parent Adrian (Toby Wallace) so much. Did you get to meet Toby?
VM: I didn't, unfortunately. Toby is one of the actors I really look up to. He’s doing an incredible job killing it at the moment with all his roles.
You have a new project, the television series Plum. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
VM: I play a role called Gavin, which is the son of Brendan Cowell’s character. It is a story about a man and his is diagnosed with a brain disorder as a result from all the head trauma and getting knocked out in his rugby league career. It’s about him dealing with that and going on a journey of self-healing. The show concentrates on how he communicates with his son and his girlfriend, which he struggles to do as a man. It's all about masculinity and men not talking and communicating in a healthy way.
In Inside, talking is something that happens between the characters as the film progresses. Mel is very shy and closed up, but he's asking for help. When he does get to speak, he's quite honest. There’s a beautiful backwards and forwards between Warren and Mel that develops.
What would you like to say about Inside and why would you like people to come and see it?
VM: There’s these three damaged characters, but they have some kind of beauty in the pain in their own sort of way. It opens February 27 in Australia. Go and see it because I'm sure you'll feel something, and I'm sure you'll love it. It’s filled with hopefulness and heartbreak.