The next Cliff Curtis has found his voice
He’s the young Ma¯ ori actor who’s starred in a film with Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett and played a baddie on Home and Away. Now, Adam Saunders has returned home to New Zealand for the premiere of a film based on his journey to reconnect with his Ma¯ ori culture.
That film, aptly titled Find Your Voice, written and starring Saunders and Keisha Castlehughes, came about when Saunders was working as a TV presenter in Australia and his director, Chris Herd, was grilling him about his Ma¯ ori heritage.
‘‘He was asking me all these questions and I didn’t have any of the answers. He was more tuned into my culture than I was. I realised then how little I knew, so I went back to find out..’’
Despite Saunders’ parents being Kiwi (his mother is Ma¯ ori/ Chinese from Hawke’s Bay), he grew up in Sydney and forged a successful acting and entertainment career in Australia.
Saunders, 32, has been acting since he was 7. He has been in Water Rats, Mcleod’s Daughters
and the film Truth,
starring Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, Dennis Quaid and Elisabeth Moss. He even played a villain on Home and Away, where his character tried to poison the residents of Summer Bay.
He says he’s just like Cliff Curtis, where his Ma¯ ori ancestry makes him ‘‘ethnically ambiguous’’ for film and TV roles. ‘‘In my career I’ve played a Peruvian, a Spanish bullfighter, an Italian. It’s great to have that flexibility.’’
He now wants to focus on film. He wrote, produced and starred in Find Your Voice to give himself work.
Shot in 2011, it has taken seven years for it to be released. ‘‘As an actor it can be hard to sit around and wait for the phone to ring. The reason I’m going into film-making is to give myself these opportunities.’’
Saunders self-funded the lowbudget film with director Herd. They took a leap of faith when they approached Keisha Castlehughes for a leading role, as they didn’t know her or have much money to offer.
‘‘We did a little victory dance around the house when Keisha said yes.’’
Saunders says that the coming-of-age film, where he plays a Sydney rap artist returning to his Ma¯ ori roots, was a labour of love. He flew to New Zealand to film mainly around West Auckland for 30 days and hired a film crew so small that they all could fit into a camper van. Most of the crew also doubled as extras.
‘‘It was like a big family road trip,’’ he says.
Saunders also enlisted the help of his uncle Tama Lundon, who is a member of the legendary Kiwi band Herbs. Lundon stars in the film and lent some of Herbs’ famous songs to the soundtrack.
Saunders says the experience was a lesson in persistence and was better than going to a film school.
‘‘We made all the mistakes that you can think of. The first draft of the script was more than
‘‘We did a little victory dance around the house when Keisha said yes.’’ Adam Saunders
300 pages and we thought we’d ad lib a lot of the scenes, which was a nightmare for our editors. We also had very few resources and relied a lot on our talent to lend their time. But we got there in the end.’’
The film had its world premiere in June at the Maui Film Festival in Hawai’i, where it won the Narrative Feature World Cinema Award.
It is also being released in a unique way. Potential audiences can visit the Demand Film website to express their interest in seeing the film and a screening is arranged if there’s a demand.
Saunders said it is possible for anyone to make their dreams become a reality. ‘‘Just get out there and do it. At times we felt stupid for what we were doing but at least we were out there making it happen.’’
For more information about how to view Find Your Voice, visit nz.demand.film/find-your-voice/