Before the Hemsworth brothers Chris and Liam became two of Australia’s best-known exports, another Aussie actor was making a name for himself.
Christopher ‘Kick’ Gurry had been working as an actor for several years before his starring role in the 2000 Aussie film Looking for Alibrandi.
The film made Gurry a star overnight and it wasn’t long before Hollywood came calling with parts in the film Spartan, opposite the late Val Kilmer, and Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise.
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Nowadays, Gurry is in demand not just as an actor, but as a writer, director and producer, and counts Sean Penn amongst his fans.
Christopher Gurry was born in Melbourne, Victoria. While his date of birth is often recorded as May 25, 1978, according to a post on his official Instagram account, he was actually born on May 20, 1976.
He was reportedly nicknamed ‘Kicker’ by his family because his brother couldn’t say Christopher. While at high school, he shortened it to ‘Kick’.
By his late teens, he appeared in episodes of TV shows including Raw FM, opposite Nadine Garner, and SeaChange.
He won a role in the 1998 Hollywood film The Thin Red Line, which starred a who’s who of young actors, then followed this with parts in Aussie TV shows Wildside and Halifax fp.
His big breakthrough came in the 2000 Aussie film Looking for Alibrandi. He starred as Jacob Coote, the love interest of Josephine Alibrandi, played by then unknown actress Pia Miranda. It also starred Greta Scacchi and Anthony LaPaglia.
The film was a commercial and critical success, winning the AFI Award for Best Film and taking in more than $8 million at the local box office – not bad for an Australian film.
Gurry became an instant heartthrob thanks to his portrayal of the motorbike-riding bad boy.
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He reflected on the film that made him a star in a 2020 interview with WHO to mark its 20th anniversary.
“I don’t really remember what my life was like without Alibrandi being a pretty big part of it,” he said.
Gurry also recalled advice he received from the film’s director, Kate Woods, and star LaPaglia.
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“I remember Kate saying to me early on, ‘You’re the kind of actor who wants to just cruise and rest on your laurels and just do what you do’,” he said.
“And she said, ‘But, with this kind of movie, these kinds of performances take an incredible amount of work and you have to be ready for it and you have to do the work’.
“That was a big mind-shift. Although they are movies, they’re important to people. And if you get them right they live, like this one has, for 20 years.”
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He continued, “We were lucky we had Anthony. He really was a huge mentor.
“I remember him saying one day, ‘Fame and success in the movie business is just an amplifier. If you’re a d–k, you’ll just become a much louder and bigger d–k, but if you’re a good person, it’ll just give you more opportunities to do good and be an interesting person’.”
In the same interview, Gurry recalled an interaction he had with another future co-star, Tom Cruise, soon after the film was released.
“I was in Sydney… and was walking back to my house and Tom Cruise was living in the street I was staying in and he was standing out the front of my house,” Gurry recalled.
“He looked up and he was like, ‘Hey, kid, I just saw your film. It was great’. He’d seen the film the night before and he loved it.”
After such a shining review, it only made sense that Gurry would wind up in Hollywood. Gurry told WHO he moved straight to LA in 2000.
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He appeared in Buffalo Soldiers, opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin and Ed Harris, before returning to Australia for a short film, The Big House, and to again star opposite Miranda in Garage Days.
Hollywood beckoned again with a part in the 2004 film, Spartan, starring Val Kilmer, William H Macy and Ed O’Neill, and 2008’s Speed Racer, opposite Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman.
He returned to Australia for the mini-series, The Alice, and TV shows Tangle and Offspring before returning to Hollywood.
He played Griff in the 2014 big-budget sci-fi movie Edge of Tomorrow, starring Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton, and followed this with another science fiction film, Jupiter Ascending, opposite Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.
In 2017, he appeared in the Brad Pitt film War Machine and the US TV series Ten Days in the Valley opposite Kyra Sedgwick.
His most recent role was in the 2023 Stan original series, Caught, which he created and starred in as Dylan Fox.
The Aussie-made six-part comedy also featured Sean Penn and Matthew Fox and was about four Australian soldiers sent on a mission to a war-torn country only to be captured by freedom fighters, resulting in a hostage video that goes viral.
Penn’s involvement came after Gurry shared an early teaser of the show, which caught his attention.
Gurry told Variety in 2023, “[Penn] said everyone’s afraid of stories right now and we have to be pushing forward with courage in storytelling”.
Penn signed on as an executive producer of the six-episode comedy, which also starred Rebecca Breeds, Bella Heathcote, Bryan Brown and Erik Thomson.
The show’s producer John Schwarz said at the time, “I have known Kick for years and when he brought this project to us, his passion and vision for what it could be was abundantly clear, it made setting the show up and then making it one of the most satisfying and rewarding experiences.”
Gurry told Variety he was thrilled to be able to film projects of this calibre in his homeland and to have the support of the streaming service.
“I left Australia 20 years ago, because I thought Hollywood was a place I could go to explore really unique and original ideas. And ironically, it was going home where I found… support [for] that kind of thing.”
To mark his birthday in 2022, he took to Instagram to share a photo with his father and write, “At 46 today, I still remain deeply connected to the dreams from my youth, the magic in my life, and the hope for the road ahead.
“Want to thank all the incredible people in my life that inspire the dreams, that bring the magic and that create the hope!
“Especially my dad who has always shown me how to dream, how to find inspiration in people, and how to hope, search and fight for a better day ahead. Thanks for that dad. I love you.”
Gurry, now 48, is thought to divide his time between Australia and LA. Not much is known about his private life. He has never married or had children.
He is thought to have dated his Speed Racer co-star, The Addams Family star Christine Ricci, from 2007 to 2008.
He was pictured with US actress Torrey DeVitto at a 2014 Hollywood event.
He made headlines in 2022 when he was photographed walking in Bondi with Aussie actress Leila George, the estranged wife of Sean Penn. She also happens to be the daughter of his Looking for Alibrandi co-star Greta Scacchi.
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