Unfortunately, there aren’t enough interesting acting roles in New Zealand to sustain a career.
I think it would be impossible not to be an Internet kid, coming from New Zealand, because culturally it’s a little barren.
I’m a proud New Zealander, and I represent Paralympics New Zealand. I love what I do, and I do it because I love it. The passion is unbelievable in every race I do. I have the ambition to change things outside the pool, too.
With ‘Soul’ I was just here in Aotearoa, New Zealand the whole time so I never got to go to the studios.
I come from a place that is very politically sophisticated and progressive. New Zealand was the first place to give women the right to vote.
When I was starting out I was way too scared to ask real directors how to do it or ask for advice, I’m really kind of New Zealand like that.
I moved from New Zealand to Melbourne when I was 17. I’d planned to go to university to study French, but I was offered a contract to write and record an album that was too good to pass up. Looking back now I think that was pretty young but, at the time, I was ready to have an adventure.
In the end, there will always be a fundamental difference of perspective between New Zealand and Australia on defense, whoever is in government.
It was always something I knew I was capable of and from an early age my mother was involved in the film industry. She used to work at a production company. So I was exposed to a renaissance period of films in New Zealand back in the early 80’s.
Sometimes I think, ‘Why should I care about doing well in New Zealand?’
I always had a love for the business. I remember hearing the stories about the patriarch of our family, ‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia, starting out wrestling in a rundown gym back in Auckland, New Zealand, then traveling the world, wrestling all over.
