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