“He’s got a black hat and a black coat and he’s the bad guy. The fact that I get to ride a horse and shoot guns and have most of the best lines has been a bonus,” says Jeremy Sims of his Wild Boys character, Francis Fuller, the feared, meticulous policeman of Hopetoun and Jack Keenan’s nemesis.

For one of Australia’s most experienced and diverse actors, Fuller is a dream come true.

“It ticks a box - it's something that I haven’t done before. On the second or third day of the shoot I was riding up the main street with 70 extras and four horse wagons going by. I got off my horse and had this very hardcore, quiet, whispered conversation with a guy, then shot him in the main street as all the women and children looked on."

I said to Nathaniel (Dean), ‘I thought I’d be doing this when I was 25, the six gun and a horse stuff, but it’s taken till I turned 45 to get there’. But we don’t make many period dramas in Australia."

Wild Boys is a unique opportunity for Sims - whose acting credits include dozens of local productions, international turns in both New York and the West End of London, and an AFI Best Actor award. The role marks his return to acting after a long and successful stint directing which has encompassed theatre, several episodes of Rescue Special Ops and two feature films, culminating with 'Beneath Hill 60', his much lauded (13 AFI award nominations) World War 1 feature film.

The Sydney eastern suburbs-based father of two little girls, is planning on directing another feature soon but is loving being back in front of the camera, particularly he says, as the material he’s working with is so strong.

“I’m a fan of genres that use stories as allegories,” says the Perth-born NIDA graduate. “The allegory here utilizes the beginnings of a community, working out what’s good and bad in a fledgling society, how we got to have the values that we have. The 1860s is a fantastic time for that because it’s the first time in Australia's history that everyone’s run away from the major colonies and turned up in other locations.

“Up to that point, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, there were farms outside of that but not really towns and because of the gold rush in various places, suddenly there were towns the major capital cities had no control over. It gives the writers some pretty fertile ground to farm”

Not only is this world new acting territory for Sims, but so too is the equestrian activity it requires. “Like all actors, when asked I say I have several Olympic showjumping medals - I can ride, speak German and juggle all at the same time,” he laughs. “But no, I was pretty frank when I came on board. I said I needed to be trained to ride horses.

“And luckily they got the best people to train us. It’s fantastic. A lot of my scenes are on horseback. Fuller’s the sort of guy who rides into a situation that’s already been set up. The fire’s finished, the guy’s been shot and Fuller turns up on his horse, says that’s good, bad or indifferent, gives some orders and f***’s off again.

“I’m sure they’ve said it to every single actor, but they tell me I’m a natural horseman!”

Who’s your horse?

“I have this fantastic horse, Jerry. It’s like driving a car. He goes left, right, backwards, forwards, fast, slow, I’ve cantered him along a ridge and stopped and looked over the edge and then I nearly always, as the scene comes to an end, make him move to the left, to the right and then go (makes a fairly convincing neighing noise) like they do in the westerns. He does all those things! Extraordinary. I couldn’t be happier.”

Who’s your favourite Wild Boy?
“Bob Dylan because he’s still an enigma. He still does exactly what he wants to do on his terms. He still doesn’t ask anyone to like or dislike him. He’s still doing what he did when he started. He doesn’t suffer fools but he doesn’t tell people how to live their lives. And he’s an adventurer. At 70, he’s still doing all that. He’s decided to die in his boots, in his saddle.”