Screentalk

Actor and director Murray Keane's first big role on screen was in 1980s television series Peppermint Twist. His acting credits also include Away Laughing, Chunuk Bair and Braindead. In the 1990s, Keane moved into directing, working on popular drama series Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune, The Almighty Johnsons and Go Girls. In this ScreenTalk, Keane talks about:

• Playing a semi-mute drummer on Peppermint Twist
• Working in mud and unwashed costumes for movie Chunuk Bair
• Why the film Braindead was the worst experience of his career
• The pressure of directing episodes of Shortland Street
• Being proud of directing Diplomatic Immunity despite its disappointing ratings
• Enjoying public praise for his contribution to Outrageous Fortune
• How Go Girls proved a great way of improving his directing skills

After making her television debut on Shortland Street in 2004, Siobhan Marshall won fame as straight-talking sister Pascalle West over six seasons of Outrageous Fortune. In 2005 she won celebrity singing contest Sing Like a Superstar. More recently she made a guest appearance on The Almighty Johnsons, and will next join her Outrageous screen sister Antonia Prebble as co-star of The Blue Rose. In this ScreenTalk, Marshall talks about:

• Being inspired into acting by seeing Les Miserables
• Playing her name-sake in Shortland Street
• Being accused of playing a slut on the show
• Moving from comic relief to ‘meaty’ drama in Outrageous Fortune
• Getting room to develop her acting and character on the show
• Having a serious migraine while taping Sing Like a Superstar
• Learning how to behave like a man on The Almighty Johnsons
• Discovering a penchant for bending the truth on Would I Lie to You?
• Being one of the only actors in the cast of Duncan’s Lady to speak English
• Playing a cool Kiwi girl in new drama series The Blue Rose
• Believing acting is the only thing she’s good at

Broadcaster Phillip Leishman has had one of the longest and most successful TV presenting careers in New Zealand. He began presenting sports news and events in the 1970s, and has hosted major live events such as the Olympics and test rugby. Leishman also helmed long-running game show Wheel of Fortune, and, more recently, the internationally-syndicated Golf Show. In this ScreenTalk, Leishman talks about:

• Becoming Glyn Tucker’s ‘little shadow’ on Turf Talk
• How tech problems led to him commentating on the 1976 Olympic Games
• The difficulties of covering the 1981 Springbok Tour
• Loving the pace of production on Wheel of Fortune
• Initially failing to notice David Tua’s infamous ‘O for awesome’ moment
• Hosting the last televised Miss New Zealand contest
• Missing the cool atmosphere of Weekend
• Why The Golf Show has been his favourite gig
• Traveling the world having a good time on Air New Zealand Holiday
• Being proud of his 41 years on air

Canadian-born to New Zealand parents, writer and director Alison Maclean helmed one of the most successful NZ Film Commission-funded short films of all time, Kitchen Sink, which debuted at Cannes and won eight international awards. A graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, she has directed feature films Crush (which she also wrote) and Jesus’ Son. A director of commercials and television series including Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, Maclean divides her time between New York, Canada and New Zealand, and she is developing several feature films. In this ScreenTalk, Maclean talks about:

• Meeting life-long film industry friends whilst working on Geoff Stevens’ Strata as a summer holiday job
• Persuading her sculpture department professors to let her make her first short film, Taunt
• Casting a real rugby player to play an All Black in Rud’s Wife
• The joy of directing anti-apartheid music video Don’t Go with Chris Knox, Don McGlashan and Rick Bryant
• Using film to open up the aural medium of radio in Talkback
• How she treated the writing of Kitchen Sink as an assignment
• How a black and white photograph in the NZ Listener led Maclean to discover Kitchen Sink actress Theresa Healey
• Where all that hair came from for Peter Tait’s character in Kitchen Sink
• The charmed experience and enduring popularity of Kitchen Sink
• How a road trip with a family friend led to her debut feature film, Crush
• Directing episodes of Sex and the City and Gossip Girl

Fiona Samuel has found success as an actor, writer and director. Her first acting job was in long-running soap Close to Home, and she followed that with appearances in a number of film and TV shows. Samuel’s greatest passion, however, is for writing and directing. She was the creative force behind The Marching Girls, and has written scripts for shows such as Outrageous Fortune, The Almighty Johnsons and Rude Awakenings. Samuel also wrote and directed award-winning one-off dramas Piece of My Heart, and Bliss: The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield. In this ScreenTalk, Samuel talks about:

• Being too theatrical on the set of Close to Home
• Creating the concept for The Marching Girls
• Discovering her scriptwriting skills needed an overhaul
• Adding a prostitute to the original story in Home Movie
• How a surprising statistic led her to create the documentary Virginity
• Taking 10 years to get Piece of My Heart funded
• The reasons she picked the main actresses
• Bringing a fresh but authentic feel to Bliss
• Wishing she’d had even more opportunities in her career

Simon Prast made his television debut in cop drama Mortimer’s Patch. Best known for playing spoilt rich kid Alistair Redfern in Gloss, Prast’s biggest film role was playing a gay man in 1998 movie When Love Comes. He also has a strong background in theatre, and for 11 years ran the Auckland Theatre Company. In this ScreenTalk, Prast talks about:

• Learning how to ‘deliver the goods’ on Mortimer’s Patch
• The satisfying intensity of acting on ground-breaking AIDS drama A Death in the Family
• Auditioning alongside Peter Elliott for Gloss
• Finding the show very urban and fresh
• Enjoying playing a psychopath on Shortland Street
• Love and dignity being at the heart of the film When Love Comes
• The irony of the transition from playing sons to fathers on Go Girls
• Realising that an aging actor can develop new roles

Stu Dennison was a much-loved TV presenter in the 1970s who introduced the ‘naughty schoolboy’ and thumbs up to a generation of Kiwi kids on the show Nice One Stu. He went on to host a range of TV shows, often as sidekick to popular TV host Roger Gascoigne. After Dennison ended his on-air career, he re-invented himself as a sports producer at TVNZ. In this ScreenTalk, Dennison talks about:

• Being the ‘everyman’ on Ready to Roll
• Creating the outrageous persona on Nice One Stu
• Becoming famous by being controversial
• How a spontaneous ‘thumbs up’ became his signature gesture
• Winding up the prim and proper Roger Gascoigne on Top Town
• Getting a pie in the face on Telethon
• Enjoying the mix of live entertainment and skits on How’s That
• Moving from presenting to editing and producing sports
• Carrying the torch at the Beijing Olympics

Roger Gascoigne was at one stage the most famous man on New Zealand television. He began his TV career as a continuity announcer and introduced his infamous wink to the nation. He went on to present a huge range of TV shows in the 70s and 80s including Ready to Roll, Top Town and several Telethons. During the 80s he made the transition to news presenting on regional show Today Tonight. In this ScreenTalk, Gascoigne talks about:

• Becoming the face of television
• How ‘the wink’ became an institution
• Getting excited about music videos in the early days of Ready to Roll
• Revamping the midnight to dawn slot on Telethon
• Ruining a valuable piece of equipment on Top Town
• Fearing for his life while being mobbed on the show
• Changing the focus of his career by hosting Today Tonight
• Acting a role similar to his real persona in Peppermint Twist
• How the arrival of Holmes led to him leaving television

Sean Duffy started his TV career as a news and documentary editor, then later began mixing in acting roles on film and television. His major breakthrough role was in Mortimer’s Patch. Since then he has starred in numerous TV shows including Willy Nilly, Plain Clothes, Tiger Country and The Neighbourhood Network. His film credits include Utu, Came a Hot Friday and Smash Palace. Duffy has also directed a number of TV documentary series. In this ScreenTalk, Duffy talks about:

• Being laughed at for his acting in The Governor
• Mortimer’s Patch being his favourite acting experience
• How the pace of the show was incredibly slow by modern standards
• Seeing a horse being spray-painted on the set of the film Utu
• Ending up buried under a concrete airport runway on Gloss
• Terrifying fellow actor Simon Prast in one scene
• Being surprised that TV3 commissioned quirky comedy The Neighbourhood Network
• How illness ruined his performance in Tiger Country
• Forming a brilliant working partnership with Mark Hadlow on Willy Nilly
• Not understanding why the show was cancelled

Producer Ric Salizzo started out as a sports reporter and newsreader on the radio. In his early television days, he was criticised for frowning during news bulletins, and he freely admits that conventional sports broadcasting was not his forte. Salizzo found his production niche with the ground-breaking rugby documentaries The Good, the Bad and the Rugby and Blood, Sweat and Touring. He was also producer and co-host of long-running sports entertainment show Sportscafe, and is currently executive producer of The Crowd Goes Wild. In this ScreenTalk, Salizzo talks about:

• Believing he was terrible as a sports newsreader on One Network News
• Having his face compared to a rubber tyre by a TV reviewer
• Showing the ‘human’ face of the All Blacks in The Good, the Bad and the Rugby
• How the need to create a job for himself led to Sportscafe
• Lana Coc-Kroft joining the show because Marc Ellis fancied her
• Trashing the set in the final programme - his favourite episode
• Learning a huge lesson from the ‘terrible’ Sugar Shack
• Creating a new twist on sports news with The Crowd Goes Wild
• Coming through the tough times of losing his wife Cathy Campbell, and still wanting to tell good stories