Politics gets personal in ‘Brotherhood’

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Here are brothers at odds on a decaying urban landscape — “in the total scheme of things, we’re not massive players,” Clarke says of the characters. He likes the story’s intimate scale. “I look at other shows on TV about politics, crime, family, and it’s always big and powerful.

“I think we can provide a good microcosm of what’s really going on in the rest of the world.”

Clarke was raised far away from the big and powerful. His father was a sheep shearer in the Australian Outback.

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“I grew up in the country,” he says. “Then I went to university and studied law. Two dismal years.”

But then a friend in drama school got him hooked.

How did his parents react to his new career goal? “They had no comprehension — not that I had much comprehension either — when I said I was leaving university to be an actor.”

He landed stage work in Sydney. Appeared in a popular Australian cop drama, “Stingers,” and on other TV shows. Won a role in the acclaimed 2002 Australian film, “Rabbit-Proof Fence.”

Then, a couple of years ago, he packed up and moved to the United States.

“I spent everything I had,” he recalls. “I could have bought a house! And I didn’t even consider the risk if it didn’t work out and I had to go back home. I never considered failing, I really didn’t. Though after I got the (“Brotherhood”) job and got kinda settled, I went, ‘Uhhhh, how close did I come...?!”’

Clarke reports that his father visited him in Providence to watch an episode of “Brotherhood” being filmed, and, though enjoying himself, summed up Clarke’s profession as “stealing money” and “a bit boring.”

Laughing, Clarke looks happy with it. He’s in a great series and auditioning for other roles while he waits for word about a second “Brotherhood” season. He’s happy living in Los Angeles — an Aussie with an Audi that has Rhode Island plates. And when Angelenos ask what he was doing in Rhode Island (which they do), he’s happy to explain.

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