About the Once Were Warriors Cast
Born to a Maori father and a pakeha (white) mother in the industrial town of Moerewa, Rena Owen in the middle child of nine children. She wrote and starred in Te Awa I Tahutu, and continued to write, act and direct. Now based in Auckland, Rena Owen has worked extensively as an actor in theater and television. Her experience in entertainment began when she was a child, performing traditional Maori singing and dancing. Through her participation in the college Maori cultural group, she gained roles in college productions as Bloody Mary in South Pacific, Calamity Jane in Calamity Jane, among others. She also performed in church and community plays, but pursued a nursing career after college. She then moved to London where she decided to pursue drama and acting full time. Once Were Warriors is Owen's second film role after "a small but juicy role" in the Kevin Costner-produced feature film, Rapa Nui.
Owen has deservedly received international kudos for her unforgettably powerful performance as Beth, including a recent Best Actress Award at the Montreal Film Festival. It was a role she wanted desperately and one that she felt close kinship with. Says Owen, "Female dramatic lead roles like Beth are so rare. I could have been a Beth -- I know lots of Beths. I could have quite easily been a Beth if my first love hadn't messed around on me because, when I was 16, I would have been happy to live in Moerewa for the rest of my life and have lots of babies. I've seen in a lot of women's lives what pain can do -- it can either drive you or it can defeat you."
Says director Tamahori, "Rena is a very powerful actor and she was the only person who I ever had in mind for the role. I had seen Rena in the theatre but the country really hadn't seen her before so she was ripe to just blaze on the screen and amaze people, making them wonder where she had come from. She's a classically trained actor and she has a kind of method approach so she throws herself into it with enormous gusto. At times it was like she was walking on a razor's edge -- it was very scary at times."
Auckland-based Morrison has extensive television and film experience in New Zealand. His film credits include roles in John Laing's Other Halves, Geoff Murphy's Never Say Die, and Merata Mita's Mauri; he also worked as an advisor on Jane Campion's The Piano. His New Zealand television credits include Seekers, Gloss, Adventures, Shark in the Pond, and Gold. Morrison has also worked on the television program KohaI as a researcher and reporter, was a disc jockey on Radio Aotearoa, and has performed with many Maori cultural groups.
Morrison is well-known to New Zealanders for his role as a genial doctor on the popular TV soap, Shortland Street. In fact, no one originally thought of the usually lean and non-muscular Morrison for the volatile role of Jake. But after a search of gyms and boxing rings for a strong man who could act failed to produce a likely candidate, Morrison auditioned and wowed Tamahori with his intensity. Says Tamahori, "Everyone thought I'd screwed up when I cast him. He's not a trained actor, he's a self-taught performer and he'd only ever played variations on his happy-go-lucky self. But his commitment was so huge and he knew it was the role that would turn him into an actor and I think the results are self evident. He silenced all the critics who thought I was casting him for marquee value." Morrison proceeded to work with a personal trainer for two and a half months to get in shape for the part.
Portraying such a violent character took its toll on Morrison. He says, "Finding the anger and pain in Jake, and then losing it after the filming had finished, was tough. I got back to Shortland Street after finishing the movie and I wanted to swear at all the nurses and patients."
Morrison was raised in a large Maori family in Rotorua. The hardest part of portraying Jake was trying to understand his denial of his Maori heritage. Describing his youth, Morrison says "I knew who I was. I knew I was Maori and I was proud to be Maori from a young age."
From the town on Whangarai, sixteen-year-old newcomer Mamengaroa Kerr-Bell was discovered by casting director Don Selwyn while accompanying a friend to the auditions for Once Were Warriors. She had never acted before but when Selwyn asked her if she'd like to read, she accepted and instantly won over Rena Owen and Temuera Morrison, who play her parents. About her role she says, "Some things I had to pretend but other things I could relate to quite well. I know a lot of people whose father would beat them and their mother and I could relate to Grace helping her mother bring up the kids because I have a little brother and two baby sisters."
Director Tamahori says she "was just a natural. I was astounded by what she had behind her eyes and the sheer timeless beauty of her face. She looked both old and young and I had seen faces like that in a lot of research I'd done. She seemed to carry a lot of history with her and it was a haunting face."
Playing Nig Heke is 22-year old Arahanga's second appearance in front of the camera. His debut at the age of 11 was in the short film, The Makutu on Mrs. Jones, which was directed and produced by his father, film producer/director Larry Parr.
Originally from Raetihi, a town in the center of New Zealand's North Island, Arahanga has spent six years in the film industry as a freelance grip working on some 50 commercials, including several directed by Once Were Warriors' director, Lee Tamahori. He has also worked on several film and television productions including The Other Side of Paradise, Old Scores, The End of the Golden Weather and Gold.
This 15-year-old Flaxmere youth has three sisters and two brothers. Unlike his character, Emile attends boarding school at Hastings' Te Aute College. He's an avid sportsman and plays basketball, softball, and rugby. Auditioning for the role in Once Were Warriors was a nerve-wracking experience for Emile, whose only acting experience had been in school plays. He hasn't decided whether he will continue with acting but says "I wouldn't mind trying my hand at all those other things that people do around the set like being a grip or lighting boy or focus puller."
Cliff Curtis was trained at the New England Drama School during 1988-89 and then worked in theater for two years. He moved into film in 1992, beginning with the role of Mana in The Piano, followed by the lascivious seducer Fraser in Desperate Remedies, and then a cameo role in the Kevin Costner-produced film Rapa Nui set in Easter Island.
Fifteen-year-old Williams has never acted before and never intended to be in a film. Director Lee Tamahori was conducting auditions at Williams' school, Hillary College in South Auckland, and saw him slouching across the school yard. With his natural dreadlocks and expressive eyes, Tamahori thought Williams looked perfect for the part and yelled out for him to come in and audition.
Pete Smith launched his acting career in 1984 by winning a best supporting actor award for his role as one of the only two men left alive in the world, in Geoff Murphy's The Quiet Earth. Since then, he has gone on to film roles in Crush, The Piano, and Rapa Nui.
[Fine Line Home] [Warriors Home] [Warriors Synopsis]
™ & © MMV New Line Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF USE