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Is it much more difficult taking on leading roles versus supporting roles?
“I don't know. It's been good, I guess. I guess you get to convey more character and more story, and that I enjoy. To tell you the truth, I'm just as confident playing a supporting role as I am playing a lead role. I don't choose my projects by how many lines I have and I certainly wouldn't have done this film if that were the case, being in mind that there's not much dialogue in this film. But I just really enjoy my job and it's fun for me to be able to do a film which is a gnarly, action-adventure film, like Pathfinder for example, and then go and do a very dialogue, character-driven piece like Comanche Moon, which I recently shot with Steve Zahn and Val Kilmer.”
Who do you play in Comanche Moon?
“I play a character called Woodrow Call. Comanche Moon is a prequel to Lonesome Dove which was [about] these two characters, Gus McCray and Woodrow Call, who were made famous by Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. I play the Tommy Lee Jones, a younger version of Woodrow Call. So that was fantastic. That was 11 weeks in Santa Fe, New Mexico, out in the desert riding horses. And again, that was pretty much 100% on location. Had an awesome time on that.”
And you got to wear lots of Western costumes?
“And Western costumes, yeah. I feel like I'm a pretty lucky guy. But I also feel like the harder I work, the luckier I get, you know what I mean?”
Will Comanche Moon be shown in two parts?
“That's a three part miniseries. I believe at this stage it's going to screen on CBS in November.”
So go you get triple the time of a normal film?
“Yeah, you do. You have a lot more time to sew those seeds and develop the characters. It's a different [experience]. The Western was a completely different pace. It was really interesting to explore that.”
How is your celebrity in New Zealand?
“Well, I try to live under the radar. I don't put myself out there if I don't need to be put out there. I certainly don't court publicity. I certainly don't advocate going out and doing meaningless interviews about my personal life in trashy magazines just to get my profile up. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in the work. The profile and publicity, that's secondary to me. Perhaps I could advance my career faster if I did play that game, but I don't. I'm quite happy living in New Zealand. That's where I want to raise my family and I have a great lifestyle down there.”
What’s up next?
“I've got a couple of things in negotiation at the moment, but it'd be too preemptive for me to say what I'm going to do next. But I expect in the next couple of weeks to have this deal locked down and then be moving forth on my next project.”
