(Written by Elizabeth Park for Foam)
Mark Whalberg is slated to play Koby Abberton in the Hollywood biopic Bra Boys, due out next summer (produced by Brian Grazer and directed by Russell Crowe). Whalberg wishes he were as cool as Koby. The upcoming film, and documentary of the same name, (released last year to film festivals, and coming out on DVD in early May), is the story of the Australian Maroubra beach gang known as the Bra Boys, led by Sunny Abberton and his brothers Koby and Jai. Since the doc’s release, their notorious tale-tragic, heroic, complicated- has been sensationalized by the media and fans alike, and repudiated by local police.
For this interview, Koby, clad in a red flannel shirt found in the backseat of his car, smells of clean laundry. He displays a rare honesty and confidence that is completely disarming, and utterly and freakishly, charming. He’s been living in LA (shacking up at Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe’s woodsy lodge) for the last eight months with his lovely girlfriend Tahyna, and is planning on staying indefinitely. “I support what my girlfriend does [she’s an actress], and home is a weird place to be right now because you can’t walk around with your friends without getting arrested,” he said in that roguishly sexy, and hard-to-imitate accent. He has boyish good looks and a mischievous smile in addition to a sexy tattooed neck, chest, back, arms…and feet. All said, his reputation often precedes him.
Internationally known for fearlessly charging the biggest waves in the world, Koby was charged as an accessory to murder after the fact, in 2003, for the murder of Anthony Hines, (Jai served twenty months in jail, and was acquitted of murder charges.) Bra Boys stands at 400 “tatted” members, with numerous other wannabes. “It’s become so ‘popular’ to be part of us, that now you have to wait ten years before you get a Bra Boy tattoo,” Koby says of the fierceness, loyalty and responsibility one must prove (in all areas of life) before officially being inducted as a member. Are there overt tones of vigilantism? Well…yeah. But Koby has an uncanny ability to put those around him at total ease, which seems paradoxical to the tough guy persona.
But it’s not. Because it’s all lain bare. Sure, he curses his f—ing head off, is a hard-ass fighter (both boxing and jujitsu), and is, “surfing’s biggest psycho-charging-pioneer,” to quote Bruce Irons. He also generously offers up his just made tuna pasta to just-met guests, jokes about his “man candy” to a stranger, and explains- quite poetically- that he paints as a means to find religion. And through his unique balance of grit, humor and sensitivity, Koby wins.
