Danielle Cormack began acting on stage, but in her mid-teens won a coveted role in the popular 80s soap Gloss. Growing up on screen led her to a one-year stint on Shortland Street, playing sweet and innocent nurse Alison Rayner. Cormack starred in the TV show Topless Women Talk About Their Lives and then went on to the film version of the project. Her pregnancy was incorporated into the film and her performance earned her a best actor award at the 1997 Film and TV Awards. Cormack has appeared in a number of feature films including The Price of Milk, Channelling Baby, and Separation City. She recently appeared in the TV drama The Cult.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Cormack talks about:

• Growing into womanhood while appearing on Gloss
• Playing the lovable nurse Alison Rayner on Shortland Street
• Being the first of the original cast to leave the soap
• Appearing in Xena and not always enjoying the intensity of the show’s fans
• How becoming pregnant changed Topless Women Talk About Their Lives
• Giving birth on screen a week after giving birth in real life
• Why Channelling Baby was her favourite filmic experience
• Working with a deliciously naughty cast and crazy director on Separation City
• Feeling a little isolated on the set of The Cult

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

Credits: Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

In the mid-90s Hurst also began directing for the screen, initially on episodes of Hercules and Xena, but also helming the feature film comedy Jubilee, and TV mockumentary drama Love Mussel.

Hurst talks about his early days in theatre, his first television appearance in 30 Minute Theatre – Tinkling Brass, and his first major roles in the Sunday Theatre one-off Casualties of Peace, and rock band drama Heroes.

He also talks about his first feature film role, in the 1984 David Blyth splatter film Death Warmed Up, and reveals that he hated seeing himself in the film and thought he had “made an appalling job of it”.

After Death Warmed Up, he decided he would never work in film again, but recovered from that fairly quickly with the feature Dangerous Orphans in 1985.  His work on 1993 classic Desperate Remedies made him “love film again.”

Hurst discusses the making of Desperate Remedies, in particular the delights of working with celebrated cinematographer Leon Narbey.

Hurst also tells the story of how he won the part of Iolaus in Hercules, and of his on-going connection to the role through Hercules and Xena fan conventions.

And he discusses how Hercules and Xena led him into television and film directing, including the feature Jubilee and the television mockumentary Love Mussel.

Hurst closes the interview talking about his latest project – a feature film called Bitch Slap.

This video is also available on YouTube.

Credits: Interview by Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

These productions were instrumental in building the skill base of the NZ cast and crew. Many NZ actors found fame through their characters, particularly Lucy Lawless (now married to Tapert) and Michael Hurst (Iolas in Hercules).

Tapert talks about his beginnings in the industry: dropping out of grad school in Michigan (where, “Hollywood might as well have been as far away as New Zealand”) to make films with long time business partner and Hollywood director, Sam – Evil Dead, Spider-Man – Raimi. Tapert also discusses:

• Making blood mixture on their first feature, Evil Dead.
• The inherent difference between feature films and television.
• His involvement in Hercules and the challenges of juggling global productions.
• His commitment to local cast and crew and the unlikely inspiration for Hercules’ cast (Desperate Remedies).
• His inspirations for Hercules’ spin-off Xena and the internet’s influence on Xena becoming a pop culture icon.
• Why local actors and directors have succeeded on these productions, but NZ writers haven’t managed the crossover and why post-production effects were done in the US.

Tapert continues to bring new productions to NZ, and is about to cast a new R-rated series for US Cable TV based on the Roman slave story, Spartacus. He has recently finished producing another major TV series in Auckland, Legend of the Seeker.

This video is available for distribution on YouTube as Part One and Part Two.

Credits: Direction and Interview – Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing – Leo Guerchmann