If you were to choose an animal, what would you pick to be dressed as at a 'Dress as Your Favorite Animal' party?
“Up until two nights ago, a baboon was my favorite thing. I thought a pink blanket would be great that you could kind of tape to your back. But I saw the Planet Earth BBC documentary. I don’t know you’ve seen it - if you can see it, it’s amazing. These Papau New Guinean Birds of Paradise…they’re the most amazing birds you’ve ever seen in your life. They kind of look like children dressed in bad Halloween ghost costumes. They’re really amazing! They’ve got these huge blue eyes and these really kind of strange big blue mouths – yes, one of those.”
But that would have made for a strange movie title.
“Papua New Guinean Bird of Paradise….(laughing)…versus what?”
What’s next for you?
“Back in Wellington, back in New Zealand, I’m a part of a film collective and we’re making a film, a very low budget film. We’re just sort of working on a film coming from character and story, and trying to leave money out of the equation. I don’t know who will get to see it, but I think it’s an interesting project. It’s very challenging. I want to do that and I may be coming back and forth here eventually, but who knows?”
What is the industry in New Zealand like for an actress?
“It’s incredibly small and you know everybody. There’s very little opportunity to do film. You know, about a film a year gets made if we’re lucky. So there’s a lot of television and a lot of American television comes over so we’ve all done our time on Xena… We were all kind of raised doing that kind of stuff. But I think the good thing about it is it does force you to make your own work, because there’s not a lot of interesting work out there. It challenges you in that way.”
Is the entertainment industry growing?
“Yeah, I think it is, slowly. But the infrastructures aren’t there. The studio systems aren’t there and the support for the writers is just starting up. So maybe in 50 years we might be rolling along. It might take a while.”
When you were making Eagle vs Shark did you expect the kind of reception you are getting with the festival appearances and touring around America?
“No, I didn’t. It’s exceeded any expectation. Taika sort of felt like he wanted to practice and kind of stretch himself and fall over a bit, quietly, with a small feature that would probably be seen in New Zealand by our friends. So it’s extraordinary to be here. I mean being in Sundance – workshopping it in Sundance –I thought that was all my dreams doing that, so the fact that we’re here – it’s hilarious and surreal.”
