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Tavis: Eric Bana is a rising star in Hollywood with films like 'Black Hawk Down' and 'Troy' already on his acting résumé. He now stars in the acclaimed new Steven Spielberg film, 'Munich.' The movie is based on the real life events following the assassination of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 summer Olympics. The film is up for two Golden Globe awards this weekend. Eric Bana, nice to meet you.

Eric Bana: Tavis, thanks for having me.

Tavis: Happy new year to you.

Bana: You too.

Tavis: Glad, thank you, glad to have you here. You're from Australia.

Bana: Yeah.

Tavis: I was saying to you before we came on the air that when I think of Australia, with regard to the New Year, I always think, you guys get the New Year first, like, hours before it gets here. Before, Australia gets it.

Bana: And then just in front of us is New Zealand. But no one really cares about that.

Tavis: (laughs) You still live in Melbourne?

Bana: Yes I do.

Tavis: I guess, these days, there are a number - I guess there's a phenomenon of all these Aussies who have infiltrated the American film industry.

Bana: (overlapping) I know, they're going to get a little boat pretty soon, they're going to round us all up, put us in the boat and send us all home, I'm sure. But until that happens, we'll keep taking as many jobs as we possibly can. (laughs)

Tavis: Has there always been that kind of talent in Australia that we just didn't recognize, or did you guys all of a sudden start taking acting classes?

Bana: Well, I'd like to think it's always been there, but obviously, the last sort of 10 years, it really has kind of exploded internationally for so many of us, you know? And I think, you know, part of the reason is sheer desperation. I mean, our industry's so small back home, if every actor that everyone at home knows stayed in Australia, I mean, we'd be really poor.

Tavis: Yeah. How do I put this, any Steven Spielberg project has buzz around it. This one has extreme buzz around it. We all saw Spielberg on the cover of 'Time' magazine a few weeks ago. So, there's a lot of buzz on this film. But I suspect, of all of his films, this one may very well have been, I can't speak for Mr. Spielberg. But I would assume that this one, if not the, certainly has to be one of the narrowest tightropes he's ever had to walk. Because this movie could be so politically incorrect. You think he got it right? 'Cause this is a tricky project.

Bana: I really do. I think him and Eric Roth and Tony Kushner did such a really great job of crafting the film even before we'd started shooting it, really. I was cast very early and saw early drafts of the script and it was always fantastic. But he really spent a long time getting it right and getting the balance right. And he was very, very, very, as he always is, very aware of what he was doing all the way through.

And, and I think the end result's spectacular. I think the line that he walks, whatever that is, is a very interesting one and fair one and the most appropriate one. I really do.

Tavis: Give me the best example, or any example you want to share with me of what you mean when you say you think he got it right. Back that up.

Bana: Well, I think that you need to, obviously, acknowledge that there are two sides to a story for a story to exist. I think he does that in a very intelligent way. I think the way he goes about displaying that is very even-handed and very interesting. At the same time, cinematic and thrilling and gripping and all those sort of things. So, I don't know that it could've been that, if that was the line you were going to go down, I just don't know that it could've been done any better.

Tavis: How, was it bold of Mr. Spielberg or crazy of Steven Spielberg to try to do a movie like this in this contemporary setting? I mean, we're talking about '72, of course, '72 Olympics, and the world was a much different place than it is now. We didn't have 9/11 then. We didn't have Osama Bin Laden, then. I mean, not that there weren't terrorists then, obviously, there were. But a much different world then than now. Was he bold and smart to do this project now? Or really kind of crazy and tempting the gods to put this out now?

Bana: Oh, there's no doubt he's brave. He is a really, really brave guy. I mean, there's no doubt. And I think this film really shows that. I mean, it really does. I think the events are what inspired him. I really do. I mean, it's such a - the interesting thing about it, of course, is that it's such a controversial event that happened in Munich, and it was such a tragedy.

And, and that's our movie, essentially, and what happened afterwards, that there are so many parallels and political discussions that get thrown in and out and all different directions as the result of that incident, because it was such a massive incident and it drew so much attention.

I guess one of the exciting things for me about the film was that, a lot of people, obviously, knew what happened in Munich, but to then go into what actually happened afterwards, I guess is the trickier balance.

Tavis: Speaking of what happened afterwards, I'm curious as to what you thought afterwards. That is to say, what you thought when you got to the end of the script, what you got to the end of filming. Because even Spielberg himself, in his 'Time' magazine piece suggests that a response to a response doesn't really do anything. So, the Israelis are killed, and then Golda Meir says, we're going to go back and get them for killing our people.

A response to a response doesn't really change anything, says Spielberg himself. But as a person, never mind your acting hat, but as a person, you finished this project, what did you come away with, with regard to that notion of a response to a response?

Bana: I came away quite depressed, actually. (laughs) Unsurprisingly. I remember there was one line in the film that, when I read the script, it really drove the whole film home to me. And it was the most confronting, and I think the saddest line in the whole movie is the point at which the character played by this wonderful French actor, Mathieu Amalric, plays the character of Louis. Says that he has some new names for me.

And I say, who are they? And he says, well, it's the new KGB contact. And I say, no, we've killed the KGB contact, we've done him. And he says, no, this is the new KGB contact who's much, much worse than the last guy. And I remember when I read that in the script thinking, that's really it.

I mean, what an amazing thought, that you could be out there, getting the job done, as they probably were, and assassinating these people, but these people were being replaced with other people and if not worse. So, then, what have you actually achieved?

And that's the 64 million dollar question isn't it? I mean, that was the line - point in the film where I just felt this weight, just, really descend upon me. And I thought, that's really key moment for the audience, you know, at that point.

Tavis: I'm not sure that Spielberg was trying to teach us a lesson here, but he may very well have been giving us something to think about, something to marinate on, I do not know. Let me ask you though, is there, you think, a lesson in this film? I mentioned earlier, this is about '72 and the aftermath of what happened in '72. Is there a lesson, you think, that the viewer, the moviegoer comes away with from this film in this contemporary setting?

Bana: I think there's probably far more than one and I think it's very individual as to how you interpret it, obviously. But I don't know if you can ever really change people's minds. I guess, the best that you can hope for in a movie, like this or any other, is that you can open people's minds and, you know, start a lot of conversations and so forth.

And I've had, I've never been in a movie where I've had such an incredible reaction. It's only been open for a week and a half, and been in the US the last, sort of, week. And I've never been in a film where so many people are keen to come up and discuss the movie with you, it's really amazing.

And it seems to have had a really huge effect on those people who've actually seen it. And they have a lot of questions and a lot of discussion, but all great, you know, none of it negative. So, I think it's one of those films that will really be quite incredible in, you know, five years.

Tavis: Yeah. Agree or disagree, Spielberg has a way of making us think, at least, so, to your point just now. Let me wrap our conversation, if I can, by doing a u-turn back to the beginning of our conversation. We started out laughing about your growing up in Australia. I read somewhere that when you were in Australia you weren't really big on school, 'cause you knew pretty early on that you wanted to be in the arts.

Bana: Yeah.

Tavis: That you wanted to do this acting thing. So, eventually, let me fast forward right quick. You figure this out as a child. You get through school, although you don't love school, you want to pursue the arts and you come to the United States to pursue this profession. And you get here and for six months, what you do is just travel around the country. How cool was that?

Bana: Even at that point, I really wasn't quite sure what I was, how I was going to go about, you know, pursuing my career. 'Cause at the time, I was just a laborer, I was a bum and back home in Australia, I didn't really have a great full-time job. I just figured it was a really good time to travel, and I knew I was interested in entertainment and acting, and I didn't have a clue how to get into it.

So, I just traveled. I just figured, well, this is a good time for me to hit the road. And I started off in New York in an old Mustang and paid, I think it was 900 bucks. And I drove it about 14,000 miles and then sold it for 1000 bucks, which I thought was fantastic. That was the best part of the trip. Especially, 'cause all the people I was bumping into it and meeting were backpackers, who were bragging about how they could get from, you know, one town to the next for $12.50 on the train and stuff.

But no, it was a wonderful trip, and I, of course, didn't realize at the time how great it was going to be for me later on, that so many times I meet people from different parts of the states, and I'll say where are you from? And they'll say, South Carolina or Texas or Louisiana or, and I go, I've been there, I've been there, I've been there. And it's great, I mean, it really is, you know, I had a great time.

Tavis: I want to leave on a funny note, because you said earlier that when you got to the end of the script, you were a bit depressed, the script from 'Munich,' obviously. I want you to leave here on a jovial note, as I want to leave on a jovial note, at least for our conversation. In your six months travel, the funniest story, though, is the story of what happened to you in our nation's capital, in Washington, DC, do you remember this?

Bana: Oh, in DC. I do.

Tavis: Tell the story right quick.

Bana: Well, I was a stupid, naïve, young Australian tourist out for a night, you know, looking for something to do. And I was driving around DC, and I ended up in the worst possible part of the city, lost.

Tavis: Which means you were two blocks from the White House. Yeah, right.

Bana: I was in front of the White House. I was in the most dangerous part of the US. And I got lost, and I got so scared, and I had to get the hell out of there. And I finally found my way onto a freeway, and I just drove. I'm like, I'm done with DC; I've been here two days; I've been nearly killed twice. I'm done; I'm finished; I'm just driving now, forever, until I run out of fuel.

Tavis: Welcome to the USA.

Bana: It's great. So, I get on the freeway, and I just drive. I drive on the highway for one hour, two hours; it's raining, you know, just - I'm getting the hell out of here; I'm just getting out of this town. Three hours, four hours, I finally see a hotel, a cheap hotel. I pull in and, like, have this real sad look on my face.

And I say, I'll check in for the night. How far out of Washington DC am I? Where, where exactly am I? I figured, what state am I in, Virginia? Where have I gone, you know, Atlanta? They said, you're about 18 miles from the capital. And I said, how, how is that possible, I've just been driving for four hours, and I'd been on the kind of circular.

Tavis: You were on the beltway.

Bana: On the beltway, and I'd done - the most frustrating part was the fact that I must have passed this Motel Six half a dozen times and never noticed that it was 12 bucks a night until the fifth lap and then that seemed like the right place to go.

Tavis: There are a few cities in this country like that; you can just go in circles. Indianapolis, where I'm from, is one of those cities, so I know that experience. Nice to have you here.

Bana: Tavis, thanks for having me.

Tavis: It's a pleasure to meet you, all the best, have a great year.

Bana: Cheers, thank you.

Tavis: Finally tonight, a few thoughts about singer Lou Rawls, from humble beginnings and gospel music to one of popular music's most recognizable voices, Lou Rawls left an indelible mark on American culture. He also devoted a great deal of time to giving back to his community, raising millions of dollars over the years for the United Negro College Fund. We are all saddened, of course, to learn the news of his passing while we were away. And Lou Rawls was just 72, and will be dearly missed.

We'll leave you tonight with a classic clip from one of his variety specials back in the '70s. Good night from LA, thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.