By “IT’S BEEN AN AMAZING YEAR,” says Daniel Webber, midway through a sit-down with Esquire. He’s not wrong.
For Webber, the last 12 months have seen the release of the third season of Billy the Kid, in which he plays notorious outlaw Jesse Evans. He also wrapped filming on Oscar-nominated director Ruben Östlund’s upcoming black comedy The Entertainment System Is Down, in which he’ll appear alongside a star-studded cast. “When you’re hand–selected for this prestige ensemble with people like Kirsten Dunst and Keanu Reeves, it’s an honour, but in all honesty, it‘s a little terrifying,” he says. To cap it all off, Webber also shot Netflix’s new Alan Ritchson-led action film War Machine, which he describes as “another physical role” that involved “getting drowned in pools with my hands tied together”.
Webber’s ascension has been hard-earned. “I’ve built this career the old-fashioned kind of way,” he says. “One bruise, one lesson at a time. I’ve never had a safety net or anything, and I think that has given me a bit of an edge.”
From a young age, Webber was “milling timber, fixing fences, digging trenches and doing pretty much anything that keeps your hands calloused.” That upbringing taught him about discipline, self-reliance and pushing through adversity, which came in handy when his acting career initially struggled to take off. “It was like Spartan living for a while there,” he says. “I’d live off $40 a week for groceries. Every cent would be going back into acting. I’d take jobs on wind turbines and energy plants and skyscrapers, waking up at 4am in the morning. It was all for me to find a way to get to America.”
He speaks of those years without bitterness, only reverence. The way a mountaineer might speak of the scrapes and bruises that taught him where to place his feet. At no stage did Webber consider giving up on his dreams. “[Acting] really grabbed me completely when I found it,” he says. “For a period, I really thought about nothing else.”
These days, that hunger has matured into a dedication to his craft. Webber’s work on Billy the Kid demanded not only emotional stamina but the physical endurance he’s gained from his experience as a stuntman. “My original dream was to become a stuntman,” he says. “Fifteen years ago, I started working on films doing stunts, but then acting just took me down a different path. Now I think they go hand in hand.”
Preparing for the third season of Billy the Kid, Webber immersed himself in the physical aspects of the role. “There was a real emphasis on creating a sense of authenticity in Jesse’s physicality. He’s got to be able to stand opposite Billy the Kid, who’s notorious in the Old West, and he’s got to be the person that Billy is afraid of. I spent a year prior to season three getting graded – basically getting beaten up every day with wire work, fights, horses – just really trying to prepare my body to show up as a physical force in the show.”
It’s easy to see why, after spending the last nine months working in Canada, Webber is happy to be enjoying some quiet time back home in Lisarow on the NSW Central Coast. “This is the place I come to reset,” he says. Indeed, there’s a certain quiet that sits on the Central Coast at this time of year. While the jacarandas bloom on the precipice of summer, the air smells faintly of salt and woodlands as dawn breaks.
It tracks, then, that this is where Webber calls home. Because when he’s not on set or in training, Webber is in nature. “I grew up being outdoors all the time, scraping my knees and climbing trees,” he says. “Now it’s a non-negotiable thing. I need to spend time in nature. It helps me clear my mind, and the noise just falls away.”
To live such a lifestyle, Webber relies on a wardrobe that’s equal parts wearable and practical, a balance present in the Ralph Lauren garments he wears during his shoot with Esquire. On set, Webber moves easily between outfits that are tasteful and rugged. As he says, it’s not all that dissimilar to his wardrobe on Billy the Kid, just a fraction elevated. “There’s a touch of the Old West and the refined gentleman,” he says. “What I love about that style is that it’s clothes that can really live with you. They’re not going to break down. They last, and eventually they take on their own personality.”
For Webber, style isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s also about philosophy. He wants to wear something that reflects his life spent outdoors. “I need clothes that I can be rough with, stuff that I know is going to last,” he says, adding that “the style of people like Robert Redford or Paul Newman [co-stars of 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid] is evergreen to me.”
Like the iconic duo, Webber gravitates towards pieces that weather well, clothes that earn their character through time and use. Ultimately, that’s what it all comes down to for him. “I want to breathe fresh air, sit on a rock and watch the sun go down, feel small amongst the immensity of it all,” he says. “Nature doesn’t care about ego or status or storylines. It just strips you bare.”
And in that image – Webber standing among the trees, wind in his hair, grounded and unguarded – you see the man himself. Though he hasn’t reached the summit yet, you know in your bones he’s going to keep climbing.
All clothing and accessories by Polo Ralph Lauren.
Words – Cayle ReidPhotography – Michael ComninusStyling – Grant PearceProduction – Rebecca MooreHair – Michael BrennanMakeup – Kristyan LowMotion Director – Jasper KarolewskiVideo – Sahel Dupre-VirtamoDigi Op – Alex WaughPhoto Assistants – Tim Simon and Maddison Woollard
