''I was walking down the street and some guy rolled down his car window and shouted, 'Hey Julian','' said Weller, who will star as Julian Assange from WikiLeaks, in what is billed as the world's first ''Wikiplay'', Stainless Steel Rat.

''Dyeing my hair has given me permission to really get into the character. It helps me know what it might feel like for Julian and how people might relate to him.''

Weller, 32, is the first actor in the world to play Assange, either on stage or screen. The play, written by award-winning Melbourne-based playwright Ron Elisha and directed by former Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Wayne Harrison, is being rushed to the stage in Sydney next week, with plans to take the production to Melbourne or London.

Weller, who previously appeared on stage in Bell Shakespeare's Pericles and Hamlet, has been studying Assange's speech and mannerisms on YouTube.

''He has great posture and he's very skinny, so I'm going to try and shed a few more kilos,'' he says. ''He also has a very low, baritone voice and he doesn't move his lips much when he talks. I've been putting my earphones in at night to listen to how he speaks to capture his musicality. ''

Harrison says the play is about a film director making a film of Assange's life. ''She gathers all the key players and imagines their behind-the-scenes conversations. It's satirical and certainly very amusing. You learn an awful lot about Julian's background. All the characters must decide if they are going to be part of his grand adventure changing the world or if they will resist it and hang on to their old ways.''

Assange's mother, Christine, has congratulated Harrison on being the first in the world to stage a play, and offered to help Weller contact her son. ''That would be excellent,'' Weller says. ''I wonder what Julian will think of it all. I wonder if he'd be appreciative or if it's just a tiny blip on his radar.''

Hollywood studios are in a stampede to release the first film of Assange's life. Several projects are in the pipeline, the most prominent from Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks, which reportedly is planning a thriller along the lines of All the President's Men.