Actor Adam Driver ponders a question during the press conference for The F Word at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013.Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press
The heat wasn't too much of a problem, the harsh landscape could be dealt with, but the camels that appear onscreen for much of Adam Driver's new film Tracks proved a bit of a challenge to work with.
"I was scared of the camels. There was one of them that didn't like me," the 29-year-old actor confessed while promoting the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"The other two I had won over but there was one that was a hold out. So I spent the majority of the time kind of trying to get (us to bond), but that wasn't working out until the very last week. I think we really finally bonded."
Tracks is based on the true story of Robyn Davidson – played by Mia Wasikowska – who set out on a gruelling solo trek by foot across the Australian Outback in 1977.
Driver plays a National Geographic photographer who intermittently interrupts Davidson's solitary journey of self-discovery to take pictures for the magazine that's sponsoring the trek.
Aside from the unexpected sight of multiple dead kangaroos, Driver said filming in the Outback, with its harsh but beautiful sweeping vistas, was "really amazing."
The searing heat of the Australian desert, combined with the filming that had to be done outdoors more than an hour away from the nearest town, all lent to the authenticity of the movie, he said.
While filming Down Under, Driver even received some special tongue-in-cheek support from his friends back home.
"Everyone liked to send me texts of lists of everything in Australia that could kill you. People just got personal pleasure from doing that," he said with a laugh.
Driver is best known for his role on HBO series Girls and says the character he plays in Tracks is a departure from his TV role.
"He's very gregarious and interested and he's constantly looking on the bright side and fascinated with the interconnectedness of people," Driver said of his character in the film.