ScreenTalk

Kate Elliott began her life on screen after attending an audition at school. Since winning that role – as a bulimic, sexually abused, self-mutilating teenager in House of Sticks – Elliott has starred in many of New Zealand’s major television productions including Street Legal, The Insiders Guide to Love, The Cult, Shortland Street, and played Katherine Mansfield in tele-feature Bliss. Her film credits include Toy Love, The Locals, and Fracture.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Elliott talks about:

• Why she chose to be an actor
• How she began her screen career at age 14
• Making out with Madeleine Sami while wearing a school uniform in the Harry Sinclair production Pale Blue
• Her experiences on TV series Street Legal
• How strippers at Mermaids taught her how to act while under water in Toy Love
• Using what she learned on Toy Love for under water scenes in Bliss
• Her character in The Insiders Guide To Love
• Appearing in the Whittaker’s chocolate TV commercials
• Playing Katherine Mansfield for the first time in An Indiscreet Journey and how her character differed from the Katherine Mansfield in Bliss
• Juggling a new baby and her role in The Cult
• The fight to land her leading role in Bliss
• The unique skills involved in working on Shortland Street

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Chris Knox is a musician, film critic and cartoonist. His music career began with legendary Dunedin punk band The Enemy, followed by post-punk heroes Toy Love, then the Tall Dwarfs and his own solo work.

Knox has appeared as a film reviewer on arts TV shows The Edge and Backch@t, and hosted the series The New Artland. He is also the man behind the long-running Max Media cartoon strip in the NZ Herald. Knox has also hosted an Intrepid Journey to India.

As a singer-songwriter and music video director, Knox is known as a pioneer of lo-tech, DIY classics.

For this special two-part ScreenTalk interview, Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd chats with Knox about his life and career. The pair discuss:

• Knox’s early love of film and how he first got into filmmaking
• The first footage of The Enemy, shot by cameraman Peter Janes
• Making the Toy Love video Squeeze
• Making the later Toy Love videos Rebel and Don’t Ask Me

Part two of this interview can be found here, where Knox talks about moving into making his own videos, being a TV film reviewer and presenter, and Max Media.

This video is available on YouTube for distribution via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview by Roger Shepherd, directed by Clare O’Leary. Camera and editing by Leo Guerchmann.