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kiwi's Love at
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First like Finn we're making
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[Music]
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waves generate switch online
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[Music]
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today to appraiser welcome to my podcast
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thank you very much Dom thank you for
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having me so good to have you here you
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recently turned 50 yes how do you know
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that I saw it on Instagram
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uh yeah uh how how are you I'm good
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thank you just recovering from that uh
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that shock of turning 50 and looking
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forward to the next 50 years the
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downside of uh the down slope everything
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gets easier after that big turning point
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I hope that's what they that's what they
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say um yeah how do you how do you feel
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being 50 I feel good yeah I feel at this
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part this particular point in my life I
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feel very Serene and and I'm happy and
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very grateful
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blessed I'm so um glad you've come here
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today to be on the podcast um and I um I
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feel almost ashamed um about saying this
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but um I watched your famous movie
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number two for the first time ever last
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night cool thank you I could have lied
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and said I saw it when it came out 20
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years ago but we made it 20 years ago so
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that was um very major turning point in
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my life back then 20 years ago Mount
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Roso uh when the motorway wasn't there
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and uh lots of stuff hadn't happened and
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the neighborhood still very nostalgic so
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that movie going back and thinking about
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that it's it's really well done and
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we'll get into all that and I really I
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really enjoyed it just the um yeah the
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matriarch the strong female lead and um
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just some of the some of the dry jokes
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in there like her you getting off on the
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violence at the family Barbecue yeah
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there's a lot to a lot to unpack and
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it's very fresh and freshh when did you
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last see it by the way um why ago no a
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long time ago can't remember yeah what's
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very fresh in my mind thank you for
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watching it last night so Co yeah um so
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there's the career stuff to talk about
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with you and there's also and we can
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talk about this stuff as much or as
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little as you want the um the
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Parkinson's aspect um yeah how do you
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how do you feel talking about that stuff
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I feel good talking about that yeah yeah
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very happy to talk about Parkinson's
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disease youve um yeah cuz I know it was
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a brave move for you to post that tweet
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when you when you first came public with
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it and I've heard you do interviews
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where you talked about how there is a
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certain nobility and just suffering in
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silence but you made the decision to
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talk about it and [ __ ] I bet you pleased
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you have CU it's um the the the you the
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torch that you've shown on that is um
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phenomenal thank you yeah I was
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diagnosed nine years ago I think at this
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time of the year so um quite a
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um you know memorable time of the year
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always for that um particular thing and
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for a long time I kept it secret 5 years
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um but towards the end of that 5 years I
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began to realize a I wasn't doing myself
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any favors by keeping it a secret I was
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in a lot of pain at the time the
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medication that I was on was
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um was uh caused me a lot of side
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effects uh and also it was came a point
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where I didn't feel I could hide it
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anymore so I made the decision such as
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it was to um I guess come out and talk
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about it
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and um you know I'm very grateful for
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having done that I'm grateful for the
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way
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the the um you know that most of the
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reaction has been really positive and in
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fact my career has been really
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productive since because that was the
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biggest thing that I was anxious about I
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guess about coming out you know when the
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neur doctor and neurologist first told
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me about it so we're going too much
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detail already Dom no no no no it's good
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no it's good the good thing about these
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long form podcasts is um
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it can weave around the place like tell
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me if I'm Meandering too much because
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that is one of my one of my traits and
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I'm not sure if it's a
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Parkinson's thing or if it's just a tour
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thing well it's it's an it's an
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interesting disease isn't it because
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it's not something I suppose most of us
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know a lot about like maybe we've seen
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the Michael J fox documentary which is
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um alarming and incredible um I'm a big
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fan of Muhammad Ali so I'm aware that he
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had the condition but otherwise my
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awareness about it is very very limited
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as I'm sure it is for most people but
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you you drove here today you drove
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yourself here today you can still drive
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okay yep
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um okay I'm not the B never never been a
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great driver we
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can't no and uh looking forward to my
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young cousins Coco and so forth they we
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getting their licenses so um looking
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forward to uh using them um but yes the
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the Parkinson's is a lot of symptoms
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that people don't know about I think you
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know most people think of the movement
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disorder the Tremor and the um stooping
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and the shuffling and all that sort of
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stuff but also there's a lot of hdden
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stuff uh sleeping and anxiety and
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depression and
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um yeah all the fun stuff y was sleeping
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insomnia can be quite fun I had a good
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time last night I had a good time eating
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chips and tim tams in the middle of the
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night and
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waits
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yeah yeah it's a rough hand to be deal
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yeah um y so for you what does a what
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does a great day look like now and what
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do a what does a [ __ ] day look like huh
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well I can't remember too many [ __ ] days
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actually done in my last you know a long
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time I haven't but um a rough night
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looks like last night when uh we stayed
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up a little bit too late watching one of
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the Netflix documentaries about Vince
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mcmah the
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WWE guy just got up to the bit where the
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rock came along so um you stuck around
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for that but didn't get to bed until
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about 11:00 really late past my bedtime
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had 50 you know and
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uh at that point you know my body is
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starting to uh do this thing where when
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you're trying to go to sleep you get
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this restless legs or Restless limbs so
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body just as I'm falling asleep my body
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says no no no you're not going to do
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that you're going to wake up
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again um and so I've got various tricks
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and techniques that I've tried over the
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years watching uh movies and listening
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to the director's commentary Martin
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scor's commentaries especially uh helped
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me to go to
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sleep if you ever met him don't tell him
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it was my happy place I'm sure you
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wouldn't last night there's no doing
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weights in the middle of the night and
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uh eating chips and stuff yeah so I
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didn't get to sleep in till 4 last night
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so that's a pretty uh normal kind of
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rough night having said that not always
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probably once a week that sort of
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thing um but yeah we had we've had some
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great days over the last few weeks the
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family and uh um just moved into a new
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house so we've been enjoying that really
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enjoying ockland quiet time at this time
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of the year so some something like this
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when where you're in a studio um and
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you're talking about yourself at length
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is like is it exhausting does it take it
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out of you or not not we we shall see
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Dom I haven't
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uh I've not done a podcast before what
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is a podcast any um having said that if
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Studio like this Dom congratulations on
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this space by the way and um Studio like
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this my dad was a broadcaster so I feel
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very comfortable in this environment
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indeed my mom was a sound technician on
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Radio One BBC back in the
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60s so um yeah I grew up in Broadcasting
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House in
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and going to see my dad work and um read
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the news and all that sort of thing yeah
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so so bit of the back story so you're um
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you're Fijian yeah um but Fiji Islander
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I guess born born in uh born in the UK
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spent the first 14 years there I heard
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the the backstory of your dad so your
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dad's Fijian um had a dirty little
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secret growing up which was um like into
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the Arts and into reading like would go
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under the go under the house with a with
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a torch to read books and then sneak off
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to the ballet and stuff why why was that
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um why was that a duty little secret I
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don't know gripping a workingclass
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family Mount Ross school there odonnell
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Avenue 55 number 55 odonnell Avenue and
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um 12 brothers and sisters Grandad Jack
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my grandfather was a WFIE and uh the
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Elder brothers were waries as say
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working-class family and the aspiration
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to read books and go to the ballet
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wasn't kind of wasn't really a uh
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particular thing I guess he also snuck
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off to the dairy to buy Phantom comics
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and um
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that kind of stuff but um he had this
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aspiration in fact I guess he felt like
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it was his Birthright really to um have
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access to the high what he thought in
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those High you know I guess European
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culture and really aspired to that sort
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of thing and with my grandmother's
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encouragement my Fijian grandmother uh
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he moved to England and walked into the
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BBC and said I'm here to offer you my
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services and apparently whoever it was
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in front of him say great when can you
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start and he ended up reading the news
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for 25 years at the BBC different era I
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guess but he was also incredibly
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charismatic and great voice and and that
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kind of thing yeah what was this what
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was this I'm thinking of the BBC in that
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era did he yeah did he sort of like was
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he sort of an actor in a way you know
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what I mean like acting like how a BBC
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news reader would very much so yeah yes
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and he had the great receive
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pronunciation voice and that he still
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does I should say I keep talking about
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the past tense but he's I went and
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visited him in Dorset last year fleeting
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trip really I just decided it was time
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to go and see him and it was a very
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fulfilling moment to go and see Dad
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there he uh I guess he's kind of on his
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last legs was not even really on his
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legs at this point so how how old is he
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now he's 82 something like that yeah
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1942 he was born he was born in vatola
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in the middle of v l in the during the
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War World War II so I believe I believe
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my family had been kind of evacuated
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from soua and my grandfather apparently
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was helping
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um American GIS with wartime stuff and
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they saw out the war there and came to
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New Zealand quite early for Pacific
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Island family they came in
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1949 to um to Orland to make their life
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here so what are your personal memories
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of um moving to New Zealand at the age
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of 14 must have been you had that kiwi
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connection but also the Fijian
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connection but um yeah that must have
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been a weird time so you you felt like
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an outside you had an English accent or
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I had an English accent for about a week
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or even
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less oh then You' been to fit in totally
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the code switching thing is very common
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in uh I guess in our communities as you
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know Pacific island people you know
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we've we get used to walking my my my
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dad's pH actually uh um swimming in
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swimming in different Waters be the fish
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that swims in different Waters so um
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very used to you know fitting in and all
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that kind of thing but yeah I had a lot
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of very tough cousins as well
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so um I still do have a lot of tough
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cousins so yeah I was very grateful to
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them for
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their easing me into the new Ze
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lifestyle and looking after me there at
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school and did you always want to um
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like into the theat so you left school
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and you go to film school and you have a
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a job at um the multiplex and New Market
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for 4 years yeah um so you seem to have
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the what did you want to do anything
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else uh briefly wanted to be an all
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black um and when in line exactly and
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when that sort of dream obviously was
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not going to happen we had a very strong
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first 15 at Sacred Heart That Year
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Matthew Grace Kin Aly Patty sh is Maka
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four represent Pat yeah I said Patty
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four new Zeal reps in the New Zealand
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secondary schools team so yeah I didn't
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even make the first 15 let alone the All
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Blacks but then I had a moment of
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wanting to be a physiotherapist I guess
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and still have a very strong interest in
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anatomy and and and interestingly you
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know that the background and I guess the
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study that I did back then and the
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interest that I've had in that over the
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years has been really influential on my
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self uh treatment with
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Parkinson's um and indeed on my work you
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know I feel like I'm a very physical
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director and um have enjoyed the that
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aspect of of directing over the years
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too so the all um option has taken off
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the table yeah um so you decide to go
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into into then your film in the Arts
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which is very unusual tempation to to go
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into yeah um not a lot of not a lot of
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options at the time no although
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um how would I say this I I um I started
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writing at University I wrote a couple
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of plays which are very well received I
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say very but you know with within the
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community there and a few actors started
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asking me to um write for them and then
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I ended up writing a play bear that was
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very successful in New Zealand and
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around the world in fact Ian Hughes and
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mine sii's incredible
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performances of that play kind of gave
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me a start but I always remember being
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very um
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um I guess embarrassed or shy about
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telling people that's what I wanted to
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do for a living you know I go to these U
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my my brother my uh my friends had uh
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you know Friday fives or whatever at
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their law firm and you go there and
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people say what do you do and I'm I
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would say I'm a writer and oh yeah you
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make any money from that and Tom was
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actually making really good money good
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money from that so was found a very
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challenging sort of uh situation
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but um I had aspired really to do what I
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do since I was young very small boy you
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know my grandmother took me see raised
00:14:38
the Lost Ark when I was six years old in
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south end on sea there in
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Essex and um you know she loved the
00:14:46
movies back in the old days you know and
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she she was a telephonist in the war in
00:14:50
Essex and south end on sea there and you
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know at the time she would like love
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going to the movies Humphrey Boger and
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all those sort of ones so rers the Lost
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Arc for her was really up uh up her
00:15:04
alley and very influential on me as a
00:15:07
boy um you know so I'd collect books and
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read a whole bunch of stuff about how to
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make movies and didn't have a whole lot
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of access to video gear but uh made my
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little James Bond movie when I was 12
00:15:20
and did you yep it was called The Living
00:15:23
Daylights the rescript I I cut a whole
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bunch of um you know on Two on Two VCRs
00:15:28
a whole cut a whole bunch of um footage
00:15:31
off the TV when 1987 Timothy Dalton's
00:15:34
first James Bond movie I you know stole
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basically a whole bunch of footage of
00:15:37
that movie off the TV and cut that into
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my little movie and cut myself in as
00:15:42
James
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Bond years cut two years later I was
00:15:46
doing show Penny Dreadful in Ireland
00:15:48
which Timothy Dalton's in and I didn't
00:15:51
have the guts to tell him
00:15:55
that were you just too cool at the time
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or no no no I was I was too shy to be
00:16:00
honest he was down car I didn't he
00:16:02
wasn't in my episode but he was he was
00:16:05
downstairs one evening when I was about
00:16:06
to go home he was just waiting for his
00:16:08
car and I saw him out the window and
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froze and went back in my office and
00:16:13
waited for him to leave went got my car
00:16:15
that's so adorable so how how old were
00:16:17
you when you did that 12 12 that was
00:16:19
like yeah I aspired at the same age to
00:16:22
get into radio and I was doing the same
00:16:23
thing with twin dick dubbing you know
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pretending to do radio shows at home
00:16:28
yeah that's awesome yeah Jack plugs and
00:16:30
all that sort of stuff so yeah the um I
00:16:33
mean just the the tools and resources
00:16:35
you'd have now as a 12y old you know
00:16:36
with just a couple of apps on your phone
00:16:39
that's remarkable but back then you may
00:16:40
do with what you had right yep and you
00:16:42
know had to be you know had to um a as
00:16:46
you say make do with what you had but
00:16:48
also access to equipment was challenging
00:16:51
so you know you always had to make
00:16:53
friends with a teacher or something like
00:16:54
that John K actually this teacher at the
00:16:57
local uh po Tech I guess he was a
00:17:00
neighbor and we were able to um get into
00:17:03
his editing Suite where I was for a day
00:17:07
you know you'd have like the two VCRs
00:17:09
and you press play on one and record on
00:17:11
the other and Rewind all that stuff so
00:17:14
it was good ground good skills you're
00:17:17
driven um you mentioned the play beer
00:17:19
before which um I I i' um I'd never
00:17:23
heard of until I started doing the
00:17:24
research for this but so you must have
00:17:25
been it sounds like it was it blew up
00:17:27
massively so you must have been 21 22
00:17:29
when you yeah I guess 22 and and how old
00:17:33
was medine at the time you cast 18 and
00:17:36
she was playing like a whole lot of
00:17:38
different charact what what's the gist
00:17:39
of the play the play was basically a
00:17:42
whole bunch of voices it was based on
00:17:44
was I say inspired by a New York
00:17:47
playright Eric beian who um he wrote a
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whole bunch of monologues plays talk
00:17:52
radio actually being one which was ended
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up being a movie um and and the play
00:18:00
itself again it was Ian Hughes and
00:18:03
meline a whole bunch of characters all
00:18:05
in the sort of environment of the movies
00:18:08
in New Market and Venus made the main
00:18:11
character that mine played was um of Jim
00:18:14
uh Jim junky I guess and it
00:18:18
was yeah it was a whole bunch of people
00:18:20
talking about their lives and um coming
00:18:23
together and people wanting to change
00:18:25
and not really being able to connect it
00:18:28
was
00:18:29
pre uh Facebook pre any that sort of
00:18:32
Internet really and pre phones really so
00:18:35
it was um kind of very analog kind of
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kind of thing i' love to revisit that at
00:18:41
some point so you how did you um so yeah
00:18:45
here you are straight out of school into
00:18:46
Film School you have this play which is
00:18:48
wildly successful um some might call it
00:18:52
like beginners like or whatever how did
00:18:54
you how did you keep your ego in check
00:18:55
you must you must have thought you were
00:18:56
hot sh I did certainly did and said
00:19:01
especially well for the first year I
00:19:02
guess not so much because in that first
00:19:04
year um after bear you know I wrote the
00:19:06
play number two as a one woman play for
00:19:10
Madeline and
00:19:12
um that had been a uh commission by from
00:19:17
Sharon Duncan who was running The Silo
00:19:19
theater at the time down there at was
00:19:22
what is now the basement theater in
00:19:24
Oakland but yeah pretty much as soon as
00:19:26
number two took off my ego went pretty
00:19:29
crazy at that point too I uh had a bit
00:19:32
of a rock and roll kind of time back
00:19:34
then you know I was earning royalties
00:19:36
from um Madeline's and Ian's
00:19:38
performances of the shows going all
00:19:40
around the world and yeah we got invited
00:19:43
to some cool places went to Jamaica
00:19:45
Chris Blackwell invited us to go there
00:19:48
we stayed in his incredible hotels
00:19:49
including gold and I you know you talk
00:19:52
about James Bond talking Ian Fleming's
00:19:55
house back there in uh Northshore I
00:19:58
guess of Jamaica so these kind of things
00:20:01
were kind of um you know very seductive
00:20:05
for a young man at stage and
00:20:08
um you know drank a lot and had kind of
00:20:12
a good time I guess but in the
00:20:15
end you know realized ultimately that
00:20:19
there was the process that um the
00:20:22
process of working on storytelling that
00:20:25
was the fulfilling thing in itself and
00:20:27
not so much the traveling around the
00:20:29
world in the parties I suppose you need
00:20:31
to experience those trappings to know
00:20:33
that they're not the thing that's going
00:20:34
to bring you sort of Joy or happiness I
00:20:37
yeah yep I I guess so I would have loved
00:20:39
to have not had to gone through all that
00:20:42
stuff and I'm sure there's a very few
00:20:43
people around the place that would have
00:20:45
preferred me not to have gone through
00:20:46
that stuff too but um why so it sounds
00:20:49
like it was a very de time yeah was not
00:20:53
so uh great for the home life and all
00:20:56
that stuff yeah well you
00:20:59
though yeah I watched um sure do I
00:21:02
watched a um a piece you did with the um
00:21:05
it's no longer going but the Sunday TV
00:21:07
show um I watched that a couple of days
00:21:09
ago you yeah you said you were a [ __ ] in
00:21:11
your 20s and even in your 30s is that is
00:21:13
that what you're talking about yeah and
00:21:15
also look back on that time now
00:21:17
obviously and think man if i' been
00:21:18
training when I was 20 that would have
00:21:20
been preferable situation but these um
00:21:24
the these um you know partying a bit and
00:21:26
you know being a [ __ ] it's got nothing
00:21:28
to do with Park right no but
00:21:32
um not taking advantage of your good
00:21:34
health when you do have it with
00:21:36
something you a lot of 20y olds and
00:21:38
people young people as just you know lot
00:21:41
of people in their 20s think they're
00:21:43
invincible and so did I but we we all do
00:21:46
like I'm um I'm a year older than you
00:21:48
and there's that saying youth is wasted
00:21:49
on the young and you have this fast
00:21:52
metalism you don't get a hangover and
00:21:55
everything's fine you think it's going
00:21:56
to last forever yeah
00:21:59
so so number two
00:22:01
um yeah as I said at the beginning I
00:22:03
watched that last night incredible movie
00:22:05
I loved it I I had a very good sleep
00:22:07
last night after watching it it brought
00:22:09
me a lot of Happiness so you um so you
00:22:11
wrote that as a play initially how much
00:22:13
of it was um autobiographical from your
00:22:16
own experience as being pan it was very
00:22:19
uh inspired I guess by my family
00:22:23
background certainly and um a lot of the
00:22:26
family anecdotes and all that sort of
00:22:28
thing but it's a collaboration always um
00:22:32
and you know it wasn't just and
00:22:34
especially by the time we got to make
00:22:35
the movie 5 years of
00:22:38
writing um you know a whole bunch of
00:22:40
other people had had input and kind of
00:22:43
morphed in
00:22:44
something less autobiographical I guess
00:22:48
but it certainly was inspired by my uh
00:22:52
my upbringing in my family inspiration
00:22:55
there in Mount rth School Al the the
00:22:57
play number to um resembles very little
00:23:00
to do with the movie uh no the
00:23:02
characters and stuff are the same it it
00:23:04
was a whole another generation and
00:23:06
obviously um you know meline performed
00:23:08
the play as a one woman show and the
00:23:11
movie wasn't like that at all so um by
00:23:14
the time um yeah um by the time the
00:23:19
movie had got made it was a pretty
00:23:21
different thing so how many characters
00:23:24
did mein play in number two can't
00:23:26
remember it was like 12 or something
00:23:27
[ __ ] it was incredible
00:23:30
performance it's quite funny like she's
00:23:32
um She's So wildly successful but the um
00:23:34
the stuff that she did early on with you
00:23:36
and be and number two probably led her
00:23:37
to do like super City and those other
00:23:39
things that she did later on in her
00:23:41
career definitely Yeah well yeah what
00:23:43
what what attracted you to her as an
00:23:45
actor uh well I went to her audition for
00:23:49
bear and you know she's this incredible
00:23:51
kind of Mercurial Live Wire and um you
00:23:55
know just fit perfectly with my kind of
00:23:58
multi voiced approach to
00:24:02
storytelling
00:24:04
um you know as I said bear was this
00:24:07
mixture of all kinds of people from all
00:24:09
around Oakland characters from all over
00:24:11
the place and
00:24:13
um I you know felt very strong
00:24:17
um I felt very strongly that her
00:24:20
performance was going to be able to give
00:24:23
a voice to um to my characters and she's
00:24:27
incredibly athletic as well
00:24:29
um why did it take so long to um for to
00:24:33
become a a movie from a player you said
00:24:35
four years five years 5 years uh well
00:24:38
for one thing I was only really seen in
00:24:40
New Zealand as a writer at that point I
00:24:42
hadn't directed anything you know my
00:24:44
obviously my James Bond 12year old thing
00:24:47
aside I hadn't really hadone any short
00:24:50
films or anything like that so you know
00:24:52
to convince people that um you know I
00:24:56
was going to be able to handle doing a
00:24:57
major
00:24:58
you know budget feature film was a big
00:25:02
thing and um it took a while to meet the
00:25:05
right people and um and get that off the
00:25:08
ground I'm very grateful to my friend
00:25:10
Lydia Livingston who's no longer with us
00:25:14
and Tim White Philipa Campbell the
00:25:16
producers of the movie who you know
00:25:18
really backed me and put their own
00:25:20
reputations and um skills and um Talent
00:25:26
on the line to be able to support me
00:25:28
doing that what why didn't you and and
00:25:30
on reflection and in hindsight why
00:25:32
didn't you Outsource as the Director cuz
00:25:34
I wanted to direct movies and number two
00:25:36
is my kind of golden ticket I guess I
00:25:38
had uh sold the rights or at least the
00:25:41
option uh to Bear within the week of
00:25:43
that so bear came out and I got
00:25:46
approached about the rights and I sold
00:25:48
the option very quickly you know they
00:25:51
gave me three grand for a for the option
00:25:54
for a year and I thought that's pretty
00:25:57
awesome 23 year bought new stereo
00:26:01
and regretted it immediately you know
00:26:04
and I can't remember what happened to
00:26:05
that
00:26:06
stereo
00:26:08
um
00:26:10
but with number two I remember very
00:26:12
clearly saying in my back my cousin's
00:26:15
backyard there in Freeland Avenue Mount
00:26:17
rth school I'm going to write this we're
00:26:19
having a barbecue in the summertime at
00:26:20
that time I hey guys I'm going to make
00:26:22
this going to write a new play and this
00:26:24
time I'm going to keep the rights and
00:26:25
we're going to make a movie and they're
00:26:27
like okay sounds cool but tup Paca just
00:26:31
died so that was kind of the main sort
00:26:32
of issue that particular time and sound
00:26:36
cool but then um then we did we did do
00:26:38
that and the family were very involved
00:26:40
because um we ended up shooting the
00:26:42
movie just on the same street just
00:26:44
around the corner from we had that
00:26:46
barbecue in fact we did make the movie
00:26:48
and Ruby D blessed us by coming from New
00:26:51
York to uh Mount rosull to make the
00:26:54
movie we held a you we did a barbecue in
00:26:57
the backyard Mount Rosco 4 her in her
00:26:59
honor really um so yeah Ruby day yeah
00:27:04
incredible so she's the um the the very
00:27:06
very strong female lead um she was 85 at
00:27:09
the time 85 and she's incredible she's
00:27:11
got so much energy like there's a scene
00:27:13
where she's you know running around
00:27:15
chasing the pig um so much she love that
00:27:18
stuff she she said she always did her in
00:27:20
stance and yeah see but as a as a guy in
00:27:23
your you would in your 20s at the time
00:27:25
30 were you not like [ __ ] yourself
00:27:28
making your directorial debut like uh
00:27:30
you know um with someone like her that's
00:27:33
in her 80s and had this amazing career
00:27:35
going for decades no I felt and you know
00:27:39
I felt really honored to that she came
00:27:41
you know as I said from New York to make
00:27:43
the movie with us and um you so blessed
00:27:47
and grateful that she did do that and so
00:27:50
um I don't really feel intimidated by by
00:27:54
that situation but I do remember not
00:27:57
liking the lunch during uh when we're
00:27:59
shooting the movie because when you're
00:28:00
in the minute you're in the moment
00:28:02
actually
00:28:04
directing that always felt very cool
00:28:07
like doing that and problem solving as
00:28:08
you go and doing it but then as soon as
00:28:10
you sit down for lunch that's when the
00:28:11
pressure sort of seeps in and I remember
00:28:15
thinking it's like being a a test a
00:28:18
batsman and test match cricket you know
00:28:20
directing is like everybody's watching
00:28:22
everybody sees that your weaknesses and
00:28:25
your strengths there's no
00:28:26
hiding um
00:28:28
and you just got to kind of keep mental
00:28:30
focus and uh keep your head down and try
00:28:35
to keep hitting those runs play each
00:28:37
play each ball as it comes y um yeah are
00:28:40
you familiar with the term imposter
00:28:41
syndrome yes yeah yeah did you have any
00:28:44
of that at the time or uh probably not I
00:28:48
wouldn't have thought so um I have done
00:28:52
a lot over the years though subsequent
00:28:53
to that I guess my start with number two
00:28:56
is such a kind of incredible blessing
00:28:58
and I I guess I also felt like I had the
00:29:00
backing of the co community and family
00:29:02
around the movie
00:29:05
um
00:29:07
so by the time I got to make Dean
00:29:11
spanley my second movie it was a very
00:29:13
different thing over there in England
00:29:15
Peter tul and Sam Neil um and during
00:29:19
that that time see I certainly had a bit
00:29:21
of imposter syndrome during it sh isn't
00:29:25
that funny like the more experience you
00:29:27
get and the older you get the more you
00:29:29
the more you start you realiz realize
00:29:31
what you don't know the more the more
00:29:33
yeah uh yes in some cases it's like the
00:29:35
least you know the better in a way you
00:29:37
just crack on with it um is just still
00:29:39
on number two for a couple more if if is
00:29:41
there anything you do different if you
00:29:42
made it today I wouldn't make it today
00:29:44
it was it was completely uh it was of
00:29:47
that that time the whole um the
00:29:53
whole thing it was pretty as I said it
00:29:56
was completed before Facebook and and it
00:29:58
was before I don't think there's even in
00:30:00
the movie there's no phones I don't
00:30:02
think so so yeah right
00:30:05
that's true is a there's a landline
00:30:08
that's seen I don't it's crazy so cell
00:30:10
phones in that movie like only 20 years
00:30:13
ago and the whole thing is about you
00:30:14
know family trying to organize this
00:30:16
feast and nobody's texting each other so
00:30:20
there's even um yeah at one stage a
00:30:21
battery run to get batteries for the
00:30:22
tape recorder right yeah and a um a
00:30:26
calendar on the wall in the cat from
00:30:29
2005 right um yeah it's it's really God
00:30:32
I'm getting Goosebumps just um yeah it's
00:30:34
a great movie I think you should be
00:30:35
proud of it it's aged really well thank
00:30:37
you y I should watch it
00:30:40
again yeah can can you can you um like
00:30:43
watch it and enjoy it or do you just see
00:30:44
the flaws in it or no I can watch it
00:30:47
enjoy it definitely you know it's very
00:30:49
nostalgic for me some great friends and
00:30:53
great stories and great behind the
00:30:55
scenes stuffff it was um you very very
00:30:58
happy um time in our lives making that
00:31:01
making that movie how many how many pigs
00:31:03
were harmed on the making of number two
00:31:05
uh five
00:31:06
pigs I say if they're harmed but
00:31:10
certainly they're certainly eaten I
00:31:12
didn't see them get slaughtered but the
00:31:15
great thing was we were making it in the
00:31:17
mount Rosal community and my family were
00:31:20
able to distribute the pork to local
00:31:22
family so very popular for 5 days during
00:31:25
that [ __ ] and then there was crane day
00:31:27
so we had we had five days of the feast
00:31:29
so five pigs went to families around the
00:31:31
place and then on crane we had one crane
00:31:33
day where we had massive it wouldn't
00:31:35
even been a tech Crane in those days we
00:31:36
had a massive crane at
00:31:38
nighttime um and that was a kind of big
00:31:41
event
00:31:43
too Doug howlet was living in the
00:31:45
neighborhood at the time and I remember
00:31:46
they used to do like driveby in his uh I
00:31:50
had like Cadillac or something at the
00:31:51
time very cool douget yeah the top all
00:31:54
black Tri scorer of all time is that
00:31:56
right yeah I messaged him Wards the end
00:31:58
of last year asking him to do a podcast
00:31:59
like his I messaged his wife on
00:32:00
Instagram and she gave me his number he
00:32:02
politely declined it where is he at the
00:32:04
moment he he's just he's in Oakland just
00:32:07
yeah I don't know what he's doing but
00:32:08
he's just very very low profile by sign
00:32:12
um yeah what about the song bath in the
00:32:15
river one of the most successful New
00:32:17
Zealand songs ever Don mcglashan wrote
00:32:18
it Holly Smith sung it did you how does
00:32:21
that collaboration come about does so
00:32:24
don great man he helped my friends and I
00:32:28
when we were in summer Shakespeare there
00:32:30
at Oakland
00:32:31
University um he came by and helped us
00:32:34
with the music for that you know that
00:32:36
was in 1995 or something like
00:32:40
that um and when I was thinking about a
00:32:44
composer for I can't remember how my
00:32:46
collaboration really started with Dawn
00:32:49
for number two but I remember the fact
00:32:52
that in the play the song at that
00:32:54
particular moment we used uh the there
00:32:57
can be Miracles you know by Whitney sung
00:33:00
by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey in a
00:33:03
very catch thing and you I played that
00:33:06
to Don and he said yeah I'd like to
00:33:09
write something and he wrote a bathe in
00:33:13
the river and he came and played it to
00:33:14
me in my tiny little office there at the
00:33:17
uh production office West ockland you
00:33:20
just him on his guitar and it was just
00:33:22
an incredible mind-blowing moment where
00:33:24
it
00:33:25
was yeah such a beautiful song
00:33:29
and at the time I was really into
00:33:31
Homeland and sea which is actually on
00:33:33
the end of the movie you know Trinity
00:33:35
Roots beautiful song and I said to Don
00:33:39
how about whoever's singing that backing
00:33:42
vocal
00:33:43
on on homeland and sea
00:33:46
and he introduced me and us to Holly
00:33:49
Smith and the rest of his history with
00:33:51
that that song always felt A tingle of
00:33:54
Pride at the old blacks wherever when
00:33:56
the when we when that song got played
00:33:59
randomly um
00:34:02
and Don and Holly have both performed at
00:34:06
in Mai as well recently
00:34:09
and got married last year and
00:34:12
Don's not wasn't in New Zealand at the
00:34:15
time but he sent a little video and of
00:34:16
him playing it again on the guitar so oh
00:34:19
you got married last year I did yes
00:34:21
congratulations thank you very happy
00:34:23
about that very happy do yeah thank you
00:34:25
yeah that's cool oh I I didn't drop that
00:34:28
one and my extensive research I miss
00:34:30
that little L um I know so how does the
00:34:33
song Come about does he see like rushes
00:34:35
of the movie or does he read the script
00:34:37
because um he needed to write that in
00:34:39
advance CU it was the one song really
00:34:41
that we
00:34:43
were it wasn't um we we needed it you
00:34:48
know before the movie started so um he
00:34:52
wrote it came to my office as I said
00:34:54
played it as a demo just h on his guitar
00:34:56
and and we ended up recording
00:34:59
it and um yeah phenomenal song one of
00:35:02
the one of the greatest New Zealand
00:35:03
songs of all time I think would be fair
00:35:05
to say I think you're probably right
00:35:08
about that Dom yeah and I can say that
00:35:10
quite objectively really CU it was
00:35:12
nothing you know I guess I inspired the
00:35:15
situation but Holly and Don blue blew it
00:35:18
out of the park well I I I didn't like
00:35:21
it at the time I was I was on Commercial
00:35:22
radio so I was playing two times every
00:35:24
morning for maybe the best part of a
00:35:25
year but watching yeah watching the
00:35:28
movie last night when it came on again
00:35:30
yeah made me feel really good actually
00:35:31
the whole soundtrack's good sha War as
00:35:33
well did you have a hand in that or yeah
00:35:36
yeah yeah brilliant um and it cleaned up
00:35:39
at the the New Zealand screen Awards and
00:35:41
um you did very well at the Sundance
00:35:43
Film Festival as well what are you yeah
00:35:44
what are your Recollections of that
00:35:46
Sundance yeah that place looks insane
00:35:49
yeah it was kind of you know it was very
00:35:51
insane I had not really seen past uh
00:35:54
number two at that point and I guess you
00:35:58
know there's a part of me that thought
00:36:00
hey we made it to Sundance Film Festival
00:36:02
cool I'm going to be a millionaire and
00:36:03
in fact uh um well yes obviously not the
00:36:08
case and I wasn't really prepared for
00:36:09
the um
00:36:12
the attention and all the meetings and
00:36:16
all that sort of Hollywood kind of stuff
00:36:19
that um came after that although out of
00:36:23
that came my relationship with my
00:36:24
manager in the states Mo zakai who um
00:36:27
has been my manager ever since I'm
00:36:30
incredi incredibly grateful for that
00:36:34
chance and um oh this this place seems
00:36:36
like a trivial question but um what
00:36:38
about the the free stuff room at
00:36:39
Sundance the free stuff not a trivial
00:36:42
question at all at the time was really
00:36:44
important to me how you yeah 30 I've had
00:36:48
um Cory Gonzalez muron who went over
00:36:50
there with um T movie what we do in the
00:36:52
shadows and Cory was very young at the
00:36:54
time and he just talking about taking an
00:36:56
obscene amount of watches and things
00:36:59
yeah well I was looking very much
00:37:00
looking forward to the free stuff I
00:37:02
didn't get very much of it at all meia
00:37:03
Blake who was there with us she got most
00:37:06
of it I have to say you know she looks
00:37:08
glamorous and all they just I guess they
00:37:10
just thought I was like a bodyguard or
00:37:12
something but there's people in this
00:37:14
world that need free stuff Dom and
00:37:16
there's people in this movie that don't
00:37:19
and Y I don't know I think it's it's
00:37:23
it's a kiwi thing I don't know if it's
00:37:24
like a scarcity mentality or something
00:37:26
but we yeah we we are most new
00:37:29
zealanders I think are a sucker for um a
00:37:33
free I love that about us um you just
00:37:36
can't can't let it go did you meet
00:37:38
anyone anyone really cool over there
00:37:39
that was um impressed by your movie that
00:37:41
was like a sort of pinch myself moment
00:37:42
for you the pinch most moment really was
00:37:44
meeting Nick Noti on the street cuz
00:37:47
there was no reason he was just coming
00:37:49
down the road and he spotted me and Mark
00:37:51
K who's you know they they're doing
00:37:53
story on us for Sunday and I know just
00:37:57
came down already said are you guys
00:37:58
Canadian and we no but shook his hand
00:38:01
that was pretty cool that was that was
00:38:04
that was about it what the [ __ ] that's
00:38:06
insane it was I've got another my
00:38:09
another James Bond kind of moment though
00:38:12
so when number two was at the London
00:38:14
Film Festival same year later on in the
00:38:16
year Spike Lee his movie Miracle of St
00:38:20
Anna was on at the same venue same movie
00:38:23
theater the night after number two and
00:38:25
so there therefore I knew where the bar
00:38:27
was and all that kind of stuff I really
00:38:28
wanted to go say hi to Spike Lee and say
00:38:32
thank you for the inspiration and Ruby D
00:38:35
you know obviously work with him and do
00:38:37
the right
00:38:38
thing she uh inspired my whole kind of
00:38:42
thing with number two so we wanted to
00:38:43
shake his hand so went there a little
00:38:46
bit early snuck into the bar where I
00:38:48
knew he'd be coming out of the cinema
00:38:51
and there wasn't anybody in the bar
00:38:55
except for AA green
00:38:58
and I froze and ran away
00:39:03
again having said that having said that
00:39:06
a and I worked on Penny dread fi
00:39:08
together years later and she was very
00:39:10
kind to me so did you tell her about the
00:39:12
moment you walked into a
00:39:13
[Laughter]
00:39:16
bar what what is it are you just are you
00:39:18
painfully shy or is it like a social
00:39:21
awkwardness thing a little bit yeah a
00:39:23
little bit was also um a little bit
00:39:26
like it's a New Zealand thing as well
00:39:28
isn't it that you don't really want to
00:39:29
just Bowl on up to famous people say hi
00:39:31
I'm tour so here's my you want Arnold
00:39:35
schz [ __ ] story so last year last year
00:39:37
I was making this TV show in Toronto I
00:39:41
was a producing director on that show so
00:39:42
it's quite a big like level kind of
00:39:44
position there's only three other two
00:39:47
other shows shooting on the same quite
00:39:49
large studio lot and Arnold's show Fubar
00:39:53
to was shooting there at the time people
00:39:56
are saying all through the whole shoot
00:39:57
hey I saw Arnold in the car park today I
00:39:59
went up and I talked to him and I
00:40:00
touched his Pig and all this sort of
00:40:02
stuff and I'm okay well I don't I
00:40:06
haven't seen him but if you say so
00:40:08
that's cool before I go home I really
00:40:10
want to you know just go up to him and
00:40:12
say
00:40:14
hello in uh North America for a director
00:40:17
to be carrying his own chair you know
00:40:19
the chair backs with your name on you're
00:40:21
not supposed to do that in the state you
00:40:23
know as a director it's not your job to
00:40:25
carry your own chair in the state and
00:40:27
Canada I should say having said that my
00:40:29
last day to shoot I really wanted a
00:40:32
chair where I was going from one Studio
00:40:33
to the other so I just picked up my
00:40:35
chair I was on the way to the next
00:40:38
studio and I saw there out of the corner
00:40:39
of my eye Arnold
00:40:41
Schwarzenegger talking to the Caterers
00:40:44
and saying hello and shaking their hands
00:40:45
and everything so man there's my moment
00:40:47
to go make a beine for Arnold carrying
00:40:50
my chair walked over and the trailer ad
00:40:53
somebody came cut me off like I was only
00:40:55
like 2 M 4 M away from
00:40:57
the great man and uh she said to me
00:41:01
you're crew from that movie from the
00:41:03
other show you can't come here and I'm
00:41:05
like yeah I'm crew but I'm not crew I'm
00:41:07
the producing director I've got look
00:41:08
there's my name my
00:41:11
chair it's like a business card Jo card
00:41:14
and she's like no you you're carrying a
00:41:17
chair you can't be a producing director
00:41:19
so get the hell out of here so I never
00:41:21
got to meet Arnold that's my Arnold oh
00:41:23
got it got it don't worry he'll be
00:41:25
back nice
00:41:27
loow hanging fruit um yeah got this um
00:41:31
[ __ ] if we if we picked apart your work
00:41:33
like every single we'd be here we' be
00:41:34
here for days but um you something
00:41:36
recently you've done um which I I adored
00:41:39
uh Sweet Tooth Netflix show which was
00:41:41
massive right like number number one
00:41:44
worldwide on Netflix 60 million people
00:41:46
watch that show at some point yeah so I
00:41:49
I I started watching and and we it had
00:41:51
any kiwi connection at all and then you
00:41:52
see the you see the zone and you see
00:41:54
some other bits and pieces and uh it's
00:41:56
quite comforting how did that come about
00:41:58
I was on my way back from Rhode Island
00:42:01
at the beginning of 20 well end of 2019
00:42:04
my friends Axel patteron and Mel turn
00:42:07
New Zealand producers who are involved
00:42:09
in Sweet Tooth here gave me a call uh to
00:42:12
say that they're putting together this
00:42:14
show here and they're looking for a
00:42:16
producing director so
00:42:19
um as I say I was on the way back from
00:42:21
Ro I was doing a show over there and
00:42:24
just very lucky to be coming back here
00:42:25
for summertime you know I imagined I was
00:42:28
going to be coming back here for in a
00:42:29
couple of weeks but then got offered
00:42:31
Sweet Tooth and we started work on it
00:42:33
within a few weeks of me being back at
00:42:35
the beginning of 2020 and then suddenly
00:42:37
the world changed and the pandemic hit
00:42:39
and we shut down production as so many
00:42:41
Productions around the world did but
00:42:46
uh towards the end of that year we uh
00:42:50
production took off again and we were
00:42:53
sad this incredibly blessed time when
00:42:55
New Zealand didn't have any covid so we
00:42:57
were able to make this sort of weird
00:43:00
serendipitous show about um a
00:43:03
post-pandemic kind of story set in
00:43:06
post-apocalyptic world where uh a whole
00:43:09
bunch of new species has come into
00:43:12
existence animal hybrids and yeah
00:43:15
Christian convery the young man played
00:43:18
uh theonomous Sweet
00:43:21
Tooth and yeah there's definitely um
00:43:25
elements of like art imitating life in
00:43:27
it totally it's
00:43:29
crazy they made the pilot here before
00:43:31
the pandemic so and Jeff Lam's comic
00:43:34
that is based on you he wrote that
00:43:37
several years ago it was kind of very
00:43:40
crazy that it all happened at the same
00:43:42
time yeah what what are your Reflections
00:43:44
on that making a TV show like during the
00:43:46
pandemic even though yeah like in ter in
00:43:49
terms of I suppose as well as the you
00:43:51
know being in and out of lockdowns and
00:43:53
traffic light systems and different
00:43:54
levels and whatever um yeah just getting
00:43:57
cast and I suppose all the cast had to
00:43:59
do two weeks and yeah quarantine M and
00:44:02
some of the directors as well my friend
00:44:04
Carol Banker she came and she had to uh
00:44:08
do the miq in so she got pretty sick of
00:44:11
Kuma by the end of
00:44:13
that and uh then she came out and then I
00:44:17
think she got covid or somebody so she
00:44:20
ended up doing like a month in in
00:44:23
quarantine there's a lot of those sort
00:44:24
of stories um but yeah that first season
00:44:27
when as I say most of the world there
00:44:29
was you know covid all over the place
00:44:31
but none at that point here end of 2020
00:44:34
was you know we were wearing masks and
00:44:38
that was a thing for me at the time that
00:44:42
I found it really easy to hide behind
00:44:44
the mask as a director and also a
00:44:47
director that was dealing with a whole
00:44:49
bunch of Health a whole bunch I was
00:44:51
dealing with the fact I had Parkinson's
00:44:53
disease and still trying to hide that so
00:44:55
I was this you know I had many levels of
00:44:58
hiding at that point how was s how how
00:45:01
was that helpful when the the master
00:45:03
covers youd let your nose and mouth
00:45:05
hiding I mean in terms of
00:45:08
uh do you mean helpful for Parkinson's
00:45:11
yeah yeah no I mean more I was I was hi
00:45:14
I was trying to hide the Parkinson's
00:45:17
symptoms and
00:45:20
um I also found in a kind of different
00:45:23
kind more metaphorical way I guess I was
00:45:25
hiding behind the mar right you know um
00:45:29
but yeah if I'm going up to an actor and
00:45:32
saying you giving them Direction
00:45:35
whatever it became kind of difficult to
00:45:38
do because of the difficulty of speaking
00:45:40
through the mask and um you know with
00:45:43
Parkinson's again one of the less unnown
00:45:45
symptoms is the effect it has on your
00:45:48
voice or can have on people's voices so
00:45:51
you know
00:45:52
obviously I am I've I've ended up
00:45:55
speaking quite Softly
00:45:58
um so you trying to project through the
00:46:00
mask became a challenging sort of thing
00:46:03
I mean for everybody it was tricky and
00:46:05
then season two and season 3 you know
00:46:06
we're doing spit tests every day we had
00:46:09
our own little Community going down
00:46:11
there and W it was incredibly um
00:46:14
controlled yeah um and very challenging
00:46:17
you know be doing these Skype or sorry
00:46:20
Zoom calls at 10:00 every night
00:46:22
basically asking each other who's who's
00:46:24
available tomorrow which cast has got Co
00:46:27
today and who
00:46:28
hasn't um wow yes God yeah it's a lot to
00:46:33
navigate isn't it it was yeah stressful
00:46:36
very stressful at the time but yeah but
00:46:38
you got through it and you made this
00:46:39
incredible show yeah very it's really
00:46:41
cool you proud of it so proud so proud
00:46:43
I'm grateful to Jim MLS showrunner
00:46:45
incredible dude and cast nonso noer and
00:46:49
Christian convery and everybody that was
00:46:51
involved such an incredible opportunity
00:46:54
well there's that saying in your line of
00:46:55
work like never work with children or
00:46:57
animals we're kind of working with
00:46:58
children who are animals and animals and
00:47:01
children um yeah as on a Netflix show
00:47:05
like that what sort of impact does that
00:47:06
have on like the you the New Zealand
00:47:08
economy and the New Zealand film
00:47:09
industry must be massive right like
00:47:11
there's so many keyways that you see you
00:47:13
each it's like oh this Jody
00:47:15
R was awesome in it yes that was one of
00:47:18
the great Joys making that show is in
00:47:21
the casting new zealanders in some kind
00:47:23
of key roles Jody r with her
00:47:25
flamethrower coming out the door and
00:47:28
Robin Malcolm is a very influential
00:47:31
scientist
00:47:33
um yeah it was just an incredible great
00:47:36
time what's um next for you career
00:47:39
careerwise what like what are you
00:47:40
working on at the moment or what have
00:47:41
you got coming up that you're excited
00:47:42
about I'm working on a book at the
00:47:43
moment DM I'm working on a
00:47:46
autobiographic
00:47:48
novel so it's called eulogy it's about
00:47:51
uh I guess it's about Parkinson's really
00:47:55
so it's uh my story from diagnosis to
00:47:59
brain surgery so deep brain stimulation
00:48:02
surgery this time two years uh March 20
00:48:06
two years two years ago in
00:48:08
March and uh that's sort of not for the
00:48:10
fainthearted that kind of surgery it was
00:48:13
incredible again you I felt so blessed
00:48:16
it was just after Sweet Tooth we went in
00:48:18
so um I
00:48:21
had been sort of hoping to get it done
00:48:24
for a long time and then the opportunity
00:48:27
came up they're at ockland City Hospital
00:48:30
very grateful to them and
00:48:34
um has has it made an impact yep very
00:48:37
huge huge difference I was on a whole
00:48:40
lot of medication with a whole lot of
00:48:41
side effects and really nasty as well I
00:48:44
was on this thing called
00:48:45
aporphine which I think is the sort of
00:48:48
stuff they give to dogs to make them
00:48:50
vomit um so I was on this um needle and
00:48:55
pump thing that you had to replace every
00:48:56
St very cumbersome as well didn't really
00:48:58
go for a swim ad all during that whole
00:49:00
three years I was on that very
00:49:03
tricky um so not on as much medication
00:49:07
anymore and at the time when I when I
00:49:10
was on that medication I couldn't
00:49:11
imagine ever really traveling
00:49:13
again but had an incredible year of
00:49:16
travel and work last year as I alluded
00:49:19
to with my Arnold Schwarz story there
00:49:22
you did you did yeah anold Schwartz nak
00:49:25
a story where you didn't actually get to
00:49:26
meet him exactly uh but it was um it was
00:49:28
a very well-crafted story even though
00:49:30
even though the end was a little bit of
00:49:31
a let down very much so but that happens
00:49:33
sometimes in movies and storytelling
00:49:35
it's a journey isn't it that's right
00:49:37
yeah hey um okay since we're on the
00:49:39
Parkinson stuff should we yeah we chat
00:49:41
about that a little bit
00:49:43
um so you diagnosed in 2016 um how long
00:49:47
before that were you aware that
00:49:50
something wasn't quite right or you went
00:49:52
100% I felt like my body was pretty [ __ ]
00:49:57
I have to say for about at least 2 years
00:50:00
prior to that I was making a movie six
00:50:04
days in
00:50:06
um in the six I guess in the six months
00:50:09
leading up to the diagnosis and at that
00:50:11
time I was you know very shaky and very
00:50:15
aware that there was something seriously
00:50:16
wrong 2013 really I think I started
00:50:20
making I was making documentary or
00:50:22
documentary concert film really B with
00:50:24
raw New Zealand ballet with Ethan Ste
00:50:26
and Jillian Murphy down there in
00:50:29
Wellington we were on stage with the
00:50:31
lead dancer chian and I remember
00:50:34
pointing in know director you everybody
00:50:37
expects one of the director to be able
00:50:38
to point very strongly but pointing in
00:50:42
my hand having that sort of Tremor and
00:50:45
hiding that as quickly as I
00:50:48
could um and uh not really thinking very
00:50:52
much of it got misdiagnosed a few times
00:50:57
I guess I was still pretty young at that
00:50:58
point so not Parkinson's wasn't
00:51:02
necessarily the obvious um the obvious
00:51:06
thing and then we were making the
00:51:09
deadlands a year after that I had done a
00:51:12
whole bunch of training with Josh
00:51:14
Randall and Lawrence
00:51:16
mcui um and I very strongly believe that
00:51:19
the training that I did with Lawrence
00:51:21
and Josh at that time kept my symptoms
00:51:25
at Bay for an another year at least but
00:51:28
by the time I made the movie 6 days
00:51:30
after that was very much in the throws
00:51:32
of
00:51:33
um the symptoms being pretty pretty bad
00:51:37
but looking back on it you know they say
00:51:38
with Parkinson's that if you by the time
00:51:40
you get diagnosed 80% of the 80% of your
00:51:45
body or your brain's ability to produce
00:51:47
dopamine has died so um the chances are
00:51:52
that you've had the condition for a good
00:51:55
20 years prior to the DI nosis and
00:51:57
certainly looking back on things that I
00:51:59
used to do like fall asleep really
00:52:01
easily on the bus and always get a hard
00:52:03
time about
00:52:06
that it's a skill well and in movies
00:52:11
especially um always having restless
00:52:14
legs trying to way way back in my
00:52:18
20s you know you hear my voice on some
00:52:20
of the behind the scenes stuff on number
00:52:22
two I definitely feel like it was
00:52:24
happening then as well so of symptoms
00:52:27
bubbling away that you don't really pay
00:52:29
much attention to but and then you know
00:52:31
when I got the Tremor I guess one of the
00:52:33
first things I should have done was
00:52:34
Google
00:52:36
trema and made a connection because my
00:52:39
grandfather granded Jack who uh my my
00:52:42
dad's father he had Parkinson's as well
00:52:45
but didn't make that connection for
00:52:47
whatever reason yeah what do we what do
00:52:50
we know about it or what have you
00:52:51
learned about it like is there is there
00:52:52
any signs that we can be looking out for
00:52:54
is there anything people can do to avoid
00:52:56
it
00:52:58
I was it a genetic or her it's not gen
00:53:00
well there's I believe there's a genetic
00:53:02
component or it can be a genetic
00:53:04
component but nobody really knows at
00:53:05
this point so the search for cure so is
00:53:08
incurable that's one thing at the moment
00:53:10
there's no cure also there's no
00:53:12
biomarker which is to say there's no
00:53:15
thing where they can say you're going to
00:53:16
get Parkinson's in 20 years time
00:53:18
whatever because nobody's found out what
00:53:21
causes Center of brain research here
00:53:24
they're doing great work um
00:53:27
and research and obviously Michael J fox
00:53:29
foundation in the States has been doing
00:53:31
incredible work
00:53:32
too um uh you know looking for biome
00:53:36
looking for cures but also at the same
00:53:38
time looking for ways to support people
00:53:40
with Parkinson's for me personally it's
00:53:43
been challenging in the sense I'm young
00:53:46
my kids
00:53:49
have uh you know it's been a very major
00:53:51
challenge in their lives as well and um
00:53:56
at the moment you know I'm grateful to
00:53:58
say the main symptom that is
00:54:01
causing the main symptom of that
00:54:04
everybody in my house is talking about
00:54:05
at the moment is Dad falling asleep at
00:54:07
the
00:54:08
table which has been a thing for a long
00:54:11
[Laughter]
00:54:13
time but yeah it's had a massive impact
00:54:16
on my children over the years can you
00:54:18
remember the um the the day the
00:54:20
diagnosis yeah yeah so you hadn't you
00:54:22
had an inkling something was wrong well
00:54:25
I went to take my young at the time she
00:54:28
was my youngest daughter so my middle my
00:54:29
middle girl taleno she had Weis in her
00:54:32
chair so I took her to GP and he was a
00:54:36
older man he was on the edge of
00:54:40
retirement and he was he was like a non
00:54:43
nonsense kind of a guy treated my
00:54:45
daughter that's was fine went away and
00:54:48
but he had um he was obviously a kind of
00:54:52
I I admired him so I went back and we
00:54:54
had a chat and he told me I think you
00:54:55
need to be thinking at
00:54:57
parkings with ghost I would say you know
00:54:59
he kind of ghost in his eyes when I
00:55:01
walked in the door cuz kind of knew what
00:55:03
I was there for he told me later because
00:55:06
he said at the time um uh the time that
00:55:09
I went with my daughter that he kind of
00:55:11
knew there's something wrong with me but
00:55:12
he didn't want to say cuz that's not
00:55:14
what we were there for but yeah so he uh
00:55:18
he said I think we should be talking
00:55:19
about Parkinson's and then luckily
00:55:20
enough I was able to get into a
00:55:23
neurology appointment there and the uh
00:55:26
Oakland City hospital again and have a
00:55:29
chat about it
00:55:33
and um yeah it was January
00:55:36
[Music]
00:55:38
20 the day after the day after the
00:55:41
diagnosis I went to wck to interview s
00:55:44
Graham Henry for a movie I was doing
00:55:48
documentary
00:55:50
and I was kind I never forget at that
00:55:53
time because you know he was talking a
00:55:55
lot about performance psychology and
00:55:58
health and he's been very inspiring to
00:56:00
me over the years with the psych
00:56:02
psychology stuff that they did with the
00:56:03
O especially between the years
00:56:06
207 2011 exactly Dr K Evans and go NOA
00:56:11
yeah exactly um but I didn't talk to him
00:56:14
about the Parkinson's at all but very
00:56:16
many how were you able to focus on work
00:56:18
that day at that time yeah well it was
00:56:20
that I mean that par so I made this
00:56:22
documentary the free man at the time and
00:56:23
that was very kind of again s pity the
00:56:27
the fact that I was making a movie about
00:56:30
extreme sports or at least the the
00:56:32
psychology behind people that do extreme
00:56:36
sports you know it was incredible thing
00:56:39
that I was at the same time dealing with
00:56:41
this
00:56:42
uh uh news and condition that has so
00:56:45
much to do with movement at the same
00:56:47
time I'm going to Hawaii to interview L
00:56:49
Hamilton and hang around with him
00:56:52
and go to Iceland to hang around with
00:56:55
whim half
00:56:57
and learn so much about you his
00:56:59
incredible breathing techniques and cold
00:57:01
water immersion this was a long time ago
00:57:03
would learning about this stuff had
00:57:05
massive impact on my Parkinson's journey
00:57:09
I remember sitting because at the time
00:57:10
you I wasn't really telling anybody
00:57:11
about that stuff but we uh hanging
00:57:14
around with whim half in a in a
00:57:17
restaurant in um in Iceland and I just
00:57:20
remember him looking at me from across
00:57:21
room saying to have you got any kids and
00:57:25
I was like yeah I got three
00:57:26
[Music]
00:57:27
and it he he I could just tell by the
00:57:31
way he was looking at me he knew what
00:57:32
was going on for me and a couple of
00:57:34
weeks later he sent me an email with a
00:57:35
whole bunch of tips and techniques to
00:57:38
deal with Parkinson's and dopamine
00:57:40
production uh from his
00:57:44
research oh wow I um I love whof yeah
00:57:48
that's cool super inspiring yeah yeah
00:57:51
yeah does um cold water I mean I'm sure
00:57:54
there's no medical proof but yeah water
00:57:56
remion help a lot yep definitely so um
00:57:59
and there is apparently but I mean you
00:58:01
just anecdotally from my own point of
00:58:02
view I certainly can see the impact if I
00:58:05
have a cold shower the um dopamine level
00:58:10
in my brain goes up and is sustainable
00:58:13
in a way that having doine from tim tams
00:58:17
doesn't
00:58:19
quite yeah um yeah cold chers are are
00:58:23
like amazing you feel you feel so alive
00:58:25
for for such a long time afterwards um I
00:58:28
was I was unaware of the um connection
00:58:29
with um um Parkinson's and dopamine
00:58:32
until you mentioned it before that's dop
00:58:35
like the feel good chemical in your
00:58:36
brain so without that like hard to find
00:58:39
Joy exactly um it's interesting because
00:58:43
dopamine has become part of a kind of in
00:58:47
U our our current uh lexicon you know
00:58:51
really only the last 10 years you know
00:58:52
people talk about dopamine addiction and
00:58:54
talking about scrolling you know
00:58:56
scrolling what do yeah and uh dopamine
00:58:59
fasting and all that kind of stuff but I
00:59:02
don't think 10 years ago I'd even heard
00:59:04
of dopamine and I'm sure it wasn't as
00:59:06
commonly talked about um so that's I
00:59:10
guess
00:59:12
um you know from from a Parkinson's
00:59:15
point of view that's directly what
00:59:16
causes Parkinson's is the lack of
00:59:18
dopamine really lack of your brain's
00:59:20
ability to produce it so the kind of key
00:59:24
uh the key medication that people take
00:59:27
generally for Parkinson's is this Cinema
00:59:30
which is or lopa which is
00:59:33
um artificial dopamine
00:59:37
basically and how was your yeah how how
00:59:40
was your mental state through that time
00:59:41
like um coming to terms with um the
00:59:44
diagnosis lots lots of Tears Lots was it
00:59:47
anger the stages of um what of the stage
00:59:51
you know the stages of you grief denial
00:59:53
acceptance um I accept person Al
00:59:56
accepted it quite quickly but then I
00:59:58
guess from then on it was difficult with
01:00:00
personal relationships became quite
01:00:02
challenging you know and um especially
01:00:06
close family the impact again that I had
01:00:08
on my kids was difficult
01:00:12
um
01:00:14
but
01:00:18
the fact that I was working again you
01:00:21
know this very fulfilling incredible
01:00:23
kind of as I say serendipitous almost
01:00:25
almost
01:00:26
kind of weird spiritual moment
01:00:30
that kind of lost my track of train to
01:00:33
thought I like it like a nice
01:00:34
distraction or something there's yeah
01:00:36
way more than a nice distraction I think
01:00:42
um I think
01:00:54
that I feel and it's a weird thing to
01:00:56
say I guess but I certainly feel blessed
01:00:59
that I have this disease and I really
01:01:03
can't think of having my life any other
01:01:04
way now the challenge that head has put
01:01:07
in front of me and the challenges that I
01:01:09
have been able to
01:01:11
uh face and deal with and again go back
01:01:15
to gra the day that with graah Henry he
01:01:17
talked about um expect the unexpected
01:01:20
and handle it you know sort of
01:01:22
psychological stuff you know this is
01:01:24
kind of like that's kind of like exactly
01:01:27
what I was going through at that time
01:01:28
expect the unexpecting Handler you don't
01:01:30
expect to get a diagnosis like this in
01:01:31
your
01:01:32
40s um but you know it's taught me
01:01:36
resilience and toughness and all those
01:01:38
great things but it's also taught me
01:01:39
compassion and
01:01:41
empathy
01:01:42
[Music]
01:01:44
and an openness to the world you know
01:01:47
the last few years has been a time where
01:01:49
I've really realized that the more I
01:01:51
pushed the world like really want to
01:01:53
like want to push push push the universe
01:01:56
and get stuff out of the
01:01:58
universe it doesn't really work but just
01:02:01
letting the universe come to me in a way
01:02:03
that has um been really uh fruitful and
01:02:08
yes we're very
01:02:10
grateful it's a [ __ ] tough way to
01:02:12
learn all those things
01:02:13
though yeah yeah and and even um even
01:02:18
you know I don't know like unfair it's a
01:02:21
it's a [ __ ] hand to be dealt I yeah I've
01:02:23
never said like why me I I know have you
01:02:26
not no I don't
01:02:29
um
01:02:32
it's I I don't I know something about
01:02:35
that particular thing saying it's not
01:02:36
fair like I've got this and they don't
01:02:39
that's that's just just the way my
01:02:42
life's going to turn
01:02:43
out there was um a quote that I I think
01:02:46
this was on the Sunday documentary or
01:02:48
something online um [ __ ] it it was felt
01:02:51
like a real gut punch for me and I I had
01:02:52
even met you at this point um how do I
01:02:54
love when I feel feel so ashamed [ __ ]
01:02:58
that's well it's a hell of a line yeah
01:03:01
thank you it was
01:03:04
uh I mean there's so there's so much
01:03:06
about Parkinson's that uh is beneficial
01:03:10
just for normal life things like you
01:03:14
know trying to be still how do we move
01:03:17
how do we move fast how do we be still
01:03:19
how do we take advantage of our bodies
01:03:21
how do we how do we um how do we
01:03:24
experience the world in a way that our
01:03:27
bodies you know we're here in the world
01:03:29
in this particular body and that's all
01:03:30
we got so what are we going to do with
01:03:32
that and all those kind of um
01:03:35
philosophical things are important for
01:03:37
everybody so at the time that question
01:03:40
of how do I love when I feel so
01:03:43
ashamed that was um very powerful for me
01:03:47
at the time why did you feel
01:03:50
ashamed
01:03:54
I I mean it does make you feel a bit
01:03:57
stink the condition when um you know you
01:04:01
doing a whole bunch of it's very
01:04:04
difficult for you know for you to be
01:04:07
a a father for one thing it's very you
01:04:10
know I've said before that um doing the
01:04:12
dishes is hard like all those kind of
01:04:14
daily daily things very challenging and
01:04:18
they do have an impact on your
01:04:20
um on your self-esteem and all that kind
01:04:24
of all that kind of thing however I'm
01:04:27
very grateful to say that in the
01:04:29
subsequent years after that particular
01:04:31
Sunday interview that I have uh grappled
01:04:34
with that
01:04:36
particular um
01:04:39
beast and have um learned how to love
01:04:43
again very grateful for for that there's
01:04:47
a twinkle in your eye when you say that
01:04:49
yeah you mentioned earlier um yeah you
01:04:51
got married last year yes
01:04:53
congratulations thank you so so you your
01:04:56
your your part we don't have to talk
01:04:57
about your partner if you don't want but
01:04:58
you met her post diagnosis well nae and
01:05:01
I have known each other for 34
01:05:04
years when I used to walk up to tvnz of
01:05:06
my school shorts to go and visit my dad
01:05:08
in the mar Department she was a young
01:05:10
assistant there at the time she was also
01:05:13
a very uh highly regarded pop star as
01:05:16
well with her songs Toe with love
01:05:19
exactly what the [ __ ] I yeah so um and
01:05:24
over the years she has
01:05:26
uh worked very uh fastidiously and hard
01:05:29
at the uh for the Pacific Island
01:05:32
community especially Tong out to Pastor
01:05:34
fer and produced that show over the last
01:05:36
I guess 20 years so um she's a person of
01:05:41
incredible Renown and respect so I'm
01:05:44
just so
01:05:45
grateful yes to have her come back into
01:05:49
my life and as uh my children she's been
01:05:54
incredible
01:05:57
incredible um you know I just have so
01:05:59
much respect for her at the time she was
01:06:02
literally peeling me off the floor I was
01:06:03
in the middle of sweet to season 2 she'd
01:06:06
come around and I'd be on on the floor
01:06:07
trying to in the kitchen floor like
01:06:09
having trying to you know do my needle
01:06:12
and the pump and everything like that
01:06:13
she would come around
01:06:16
and um as I say literally peel me off
01:06:19
the floor at that point so we had a
01:06:22
great year last year in the leadup to
01:06:24
the wedding I went to Toronto for 5
01:06:26
months and left her at home with my
01:06:30
children um but she came for a couple of
01:06:33
visits and then I went to LA for screen
01:06:35
of her movie and we had a great time and
01:06:37
then uh on the way back I had been
01:06:40
offered to show in Hawaii so just went
01:06:42
did a little Sidetrack there with Robbie
01:06:44
did a show rescue High Surf there with
01:06:46
Robbie mager on the North Shore of
01:06:48
Hawaii of of Wahoo I should say and at
01:06:51
that point Na and the kids were like
01:06:53
well if you're going to go to that show
01:06:55
we coming to so did that and then on the
01:06:58
way back I I I I got two flights one to
01:07:02
Melbourne jet star flight from hon Lulu
01:07:04
to Melbourne Melbourne to Oakland got
01:07:07
married 12 12 hours
01:07:09
later wow amazing oh congratulations
01:07:13
thank you yeah what about your
01:07:15
perspective on life and work how's that
01:07:16
changed yeah my perspective on life has
01:07:19
completely changed since diagnosis and
01:07:21
then I alluded to that a little bit
01:07:23
before by saying you know what I was
01:07:24
saying about the Gratitude yeah
01:07:26
gratitude but also pushing against the
01:07:28
universe and just letting it come to
01:07:31
you um you you know I when I was in my
01:07:35
20s I was like I must have this I must
01:07:37
do that and very ambitious I guess but
01:07:40
at the same time I do remember saying
01:07:42
that by the time I turned 50 I want not
01:07:44
to be as ambitious and just have that
01:07:46
sort of that
01:07:48
particular um thing go away a little and
01:07:52
certainly I feel like that too I just
01:07:55
feel like everything from now On's a
01:07:57
bonus yeah at the very beginning of this
01:08:00
chat when you came in and I um
01:08:02
congratulated you on turning 50 recently
01:08:04
you said 50 more to go how how how do
01:08:07
you see the future
01:08:09
looking I see the future looking very
01:08:13
Rosy which is kind of crazy because you
01:08:16
I've got an incurable brain disease that
01:08:19
is degenerative
01:08:21
and but yeah if optimistic very optimis
01:08:26
MH I feel optimistic in the sense that
01:08:29
um you know the research and the um
01:08:33
incredible work that people around the
01:08:34
world are doing on this particular
01:08:37
disease
01:08:41
um you very optimistic from that point
01:08:43
of view but also you know just from
01:08:47
personally I just feel
01:08:52
that I know just feel a very good very
01:08:54
happy place right
01:08:56
now that's wonderful in terms of stigma
01:08:59
and stuff you experienced match or has
01:09:01
it just all been good people that know
01:09:04
you know I think people that know and
01:09:07
have heard me talk about I think it's
01:09:08
been good it's the tricky thing is like
01:09:10
in the supermarket when I shuffling and
01:09:13
I can't stop you know walking on my
01:09:16
tiptoes and I go a little bit too far
01:09:17
and crash into the cheese or
01:09:19
whatever you know often I think it looks
01:09:22
I can imagine that looks like I'm drunk
01:09:24
or
01:09:26
inebriated in some way
01:09:28
yeah
01:09:31
um so those kind of things are tricky I
01:09:34
wear you know I wear this around my neck
01:09:37
you know so when I'm meeting people I
01:09:39
can introduce myself
01:09:41
with with with that rather than um with
01:09:46
a name tag rather than having to say it
01:09:48
cuz it's
01:09:50
tricky if you could give advice to
01:09:52
someone that um you may have even done
01:09:54
this actually since you've been um you
01:09:56
know so public about your diagnosis if
01:09:59
you could give advice to someone that's
01:10:00
been recently recently diagnosed with
01:10:02
Parkinson's what would you what would
01:10:03
you say or what would you
01:10:06
do
01:10:08
um so yeah I have I have well that's
01:10:11
that's an honor um yeah you put yourself
01:10:14
in that position and um you have people
01:10:16
reaching out to you y that's very true
01:10:19
it is an
01:10:20
[Music]
01:10:24
honor I mean it's diff different for
01:10:26
everybody and you know
01:10:28
to I'm really lucky to have incredible
01:10:31
support especially now that um you know
01:10:34
with na but you know not everybody's in
01:10:39
same fortunate position as I am so
01:10:45
um yeah I going just take it one day at
01:10:48
a time is the main thing I
01:10:50
think yeah so it depends completely
01:10:52
depends on the person that I'll be
01:10:54
talking to
01:10:56
JZ you're a good dude are you PR you
01:10:57
proud of
01:10:59
yourself you ask who did you ask that of
01:11:01
I don't know you that of was
01:11:04
it I get to a lot of gu it's um it's
01:11:07
funny funny thank you for saying that
01:11:10
and uh yeah I am I remember thinking
01:11:13
what when you're talking to Josh am I am
01:11:15
I going to when I to say do any ask me
01:11:17
that question but you know pride is a
01:11:19
tricky thing I I don't feel like proud
01:11:21
proud but uh I am grateful and I feel
01:11:26
a lot of gratitude but at the same time
01:11:28
yeah I I've I've seen some stuff in my
01:11:31
time I don't think you know many many
01:11:33
many many times prior to Parkinson's
01:11:35
even though I didn't think I'd be making
01:11:37
it to 50 so you to be on the other side
01:11:41
of 50 my uh my my um as I said before
01:11:47
the sort of it's all downhill from here
01:11:49
in a good way you know on down slope
01:11:50
it's easier walking down conquered that
01:11:53
particular con that particular
01:11:56
Hill um and my unsolicited advice from
01:12:01
The Far Side of 50
01:12:05
is take care of yourself I guess yeah
01:12:08
not sure I reckon that's a good place to
01:12:10
end it is there anything that we haven't
01:12:11
touched upon that yet we've touched on
01:12:14
Plenty yeah thank you very much for
01:12:16
having me mate it's been it's been an
01:12:18
absolute honor to meet you and I'd urge
01:12:20
anyone that hasn't seen your movie
01:12:21
number two yet to watch it on tvnz on
01:12:23
demand it's a bloody great on demand
01:12:25
that's cool yeah um you you should be
01:12:28
proud of yourself I mean there this the
01:12:29
work stuff but you know work schirk but
01:12:31
also the um the stuff you've done as um
01:12:33
an advocate for Parkinson's um I don't
01:12:35
think that can be underestimated it's
01:12:38
it's it's cool and it's unfortunate that
01:12:40
you know this gift has fallen into your
01:12:42
lap but um I'm so pleased that you're
01:12:44
doing something with it thank you and
01:12:47
you know still learning so much about it
01:12:50
and learning about language around
01:12:51
health issues and disabilities but one
01:12:53
of the things that friend of mine in the
01:12:57
states uh inspire me to do was think
01:13:00
about how am I going to make this easier
01:13:02
for somebody else coming behind you
01:13:04
coming in later in this
01:13:06
thing um you know so hopefully me
01:13:10
talking about it might make it easier
01:13:12
for somebody else more t phraser
01:13:17
faka m Dom thank you for having
01:13:24
me for
