The leading man role caps off a jam-packed five-years for the NIDA graduate that began – funnily enough – with Working Dog. It was 2006, and the first season of Thank God You’re Here was rating through the roof. Lawson was friends with members of the ensemble cast, who suggested his theatre sports background would make him suitable as a ‘‘celebrity’’ guest.

Lawson freely admits he was there under false pretences – his CV at the time included guest appearances on Home and Away and Blue Heelers – but he was a natural improviser and the job offers began to flow. From there, he landed gigs on Sea Patrol and ABC comedies The Librarians and Chandon Pictures; juggling them with American jobs such as a Law and Order short film and a couple of pilots that failed to get off the ground.

In 2010, he played Isabel Lucas’ husband in made-in-Melbourne feature film The Wedding Party which was a hit on the film festival circuit; notably winning four awards (including best feature film and best actor for Lawson) at the New York City International Film Festival last October.

Lawson says the nagging uncertainty he always felt about how he was going to pay his bills has finally started to subside. ‘‘Every year on January 1st, I don’t really know what I’m going to be doing that year,’’ he says. ‘‘But in the last few years I’ve stopped worrying about it and started trusting that there will be work, and work I want to do. I feel really lucky at the moment.’’

Now that he spends most of his time in Los Angeles, Lawson says he relished filming Any Questions For Ben? in Melbourne. ‘‘Melbourne’s the place I feel most at home; it’s the place I pine for,’’ he says.

The eight-week shoot felt like ‘‘a two-month sleepover’’ says the actor, who is close friends with many of his Ben co-stars including Christian Clark, Lachy Hulme and Ed Kavalee.

The film could almost double as a tourism campaign for the city, celebrating our laneway and cafe cultures, rooftop bars and cinemas, as well as defining events such as the Australian Open, Melbourne Cup and grand prix.

‘‘The Working Dog guys are Melbourne born and bred and they know the city in the way that only Melburnians know. I think they captured a magic that a lot of people who live in Melbourne forget to see,’’ Lawson says. ‘‘They remind you that it’s not just one of the best cities in Australia, but one of the best cities in the world. It’s surprising and it’s beautiful and it’s fast-paced – and it really is cinematic.’’

Lawson admits he was ‘‘really affected’’ by the film, recognising similarities to himself that he didn’t even notice until he was shooting certain scenes. ‘‘The guy can’t stay in a job for very long, he always wants to move around and that’s the life of an actor. And he’s always moving house – I don’t think I’ve been in the same house for more than a year for the past decade. Plus the mum in the movie doesn’t quite understand what Ben does and that’s true in my life – my parents know I act and what I’m in, but they don’t understand the politics and the business side of what it is to be an actor.’’

Despite high expectations for the film – and the long break between The Dish and Any Questions For Ben? (during which the Working Dog team produced TV programs such as Thank God You’re Here and The Hollowmen) – Lawson says he wasn’t aware of any excessive pressure on director Rob Sitch or other members of the creative team, including Santo Cilauro, Jane Kennedy, and Tom Gleisner.

‘‘What’s great about them is that they make a film because they want to make it,’’ he says. ‘‘They have an amazing sensibility and they’re hilarious and they make stuff with real heart, but they do it because they love it. That’s what drives them – not a sense of obligation to the audience but a sense of obligation to the story that they’re telling.’’

After his promotional commitments here are over, Lawson will return to Los Angeles, which he says ‘‘feels more like home the longer I stay away from Australia’’.

In an ideal world, he says, he would move back to Australia and be able to support himself. ‘‘It’s just really hard, especially doing comedy, which is what I love. I just find it’s very difficult to make a living doing comedy in Australia. What has made the move easier is that the Americans have been very, very welcoming, as they are of all Australian actors that come over.

‘‘So I guess we’ll just keep coming and taking their jobs,’’ he adds with a cheeky laugh.

His American support base includes the glamorous Taylor (star of Transformers and Red Dog), whom he met on the set of Any Questions For Ben?

Lawson says he’s still getting his head around the fact that the pair are now targets for paparazzi and gossip. ‘‘I think we all know that nobody is snapping me, they’re just snapping Rachael,’’ he says.

That could all change as Lawson’s star continues to rise in the US, acting alongside heavyweights such as Ferrell and Galifianakis . He admits that working with such comedy legends was initially a daunting prospect, ‘‘until the point when you meet them, and it becomes just another job’’.

‘‘It’s kind of like bungee jumping or sky diving – much scarier in your head, and the second you do it you think it’s not that bad ... even if I do go home and pinch myself and remember I’m working with [Ferrell’s Anchorman character] Ron Burgundy.’’

Any Questions For Ben? is released nationally on February 9.