There are pros and cons to the global-roaming life of the modern Australian actor, says Ryan Kwanten, who is one of the stars of the Amsterdam-set Kidnapping Mr Heineken but generally calls Los Angeles home.

"You don't really get a chance to absorb the true pulse of a city," he says. "But you get to see things and do things that the locals would shake their heads at."

In the case of this film, a based-on-fact story of the plot to kidnap the Dutch brewing billionaire Freddy Heineken in 1983, those things included racing through the canals of Amsterdam in a speedboat while shooting a Sten sub-machinegun (loaded with blanks, naturally) at police. "It was pretty epic," says Kwanten, who cut his teeth on Home and Away before rising to global fame as the lusty vampire Jason Stackhouse on True Blood.

The Heineken shoot represented a homecoming of sorts for Kwanten; his father was born in Holland, but moved to Australia as a child. Before the film, the younger Kwanten's only experience of the Dutch capital (pedant's note: Amsterdam is the constitutional capital, though the government sits in The Hague) came as a backpacker, when "I had a debaucherous three or four days there, like a lot of Aussies do".

There was no time for such indulgences on this shoot, which ranged across four cities and took the cast from freezing Dutch weather to New Orleans at the height of summer. "We were wearing seven layers in Amsterdam and then we would be forced to wear the same seven layers in New Orleans because it's the next scene," Kwanten says. "They're the blessings and the curses of being an actor."

His character, Jan Boellard, is one of five Dutch men who hatched a plan to kidnap Heineken and demand 35 million guilders (roughly $A22 million) in ransom. Englishman Jim Sturgess plays the group's ringleader Cor Van Hout and Anthony Hopkins the brewer, who spent three weeks in captivity, along with his driver. Only one of the kidnappers is played by a Dutchman (Mark Van Eeuwen).

Three of the five kidnappers are Australian (newcomer Tom Cocquerel rounds out the cast with Sam Worthington). That was pure chance, Kwanten insists, but indicative of the esteem in which Australian actors are now held. "I've become far more of an Australian supporter and patriot since moving to the US," he says. "To see Aussies all over the world kicking butt, it makes me so proud."

He says he and Worthington took Cocquerel under their wing, acting "as mentors of sorts", and the 25-year-old did them proud. "It's his first crack at the big time, and he just stood up like a champion," he says.

The film is based on a 1987 book written by Dutch investigative reporter Peter de Vries (who co-wrote the screenplay), in which the story is told from the perspective of the Sturgess and Worthington characters. Hopkins gives a powerful performance as a man who finds his plight both amusing and infuriating, but there is little doubt where the film's sympathies lie – with the kidnappers. It's a slightly unsettling bias, though one Kwanten evidently shares – to a degree at least.

"They weren't angels growing up, but they were at that precipice in their life," he muses. "They had such a low standard of living compared to the wealthy – there was no middle class – and really there was no chance for these guys ever to get to that upper level of privilege. This hare-brained plan to kidnap a billionaire beer mogul was their best effort to get there. And you know what? It was a success. But the one thing they wanted [the money] was the thing that tore them apart. So it's a be-careful-what-you-wish-for kind of story."

Kwanten wants to make it clear that he's not "endorsing kidnapping in any way". But, he adds slyly, "kidnapping a billionaire beer mogul – particularly for a bunch of Aussies – well, it's far more appealing, you know."

On twitter: @karlkwin