MANON’S WILD SIDE
The Kiwi star’s daring new role
She’s known for her cutting one-liners as mean teen Lindsay McNamara on 800 Words, but when it comes to dishing out pain, Manon Blackman has just upped her game!
The 21-year-old actress is playing New Zealand’s most infamous dominatrix Renée Chignell in TVNZ 1’s upcoming Sunday Theatre offering Mistress Mercy, and she smiles as she acknowledges she has some rather large, nine-inch leather boots to fill.
“When I learnt I had an audition for the part, I did some research,” explains Manon, who wasn’t born in 1989 when the country was gripped by the murder case involving 18-year-old bondage and discipline mistress Renée, her 34-year-old lover Neville Walker and her client Peter PlumleyWalker (51), who died during a bondage session in their home dungeon in Auckland’s upmarket Remuera.
“I thought, ‘Wow,’” says Manon. “I can understand why this caught the public’s attention.”
Following the unexpected death, Renée and Neville made a night-time dash to Taupo and heaved the cricket umpire’s body over Huka Falls, hoping that would be the end of the matter. Not long after, they were arrested and charged with murder.
To get a feel for the veiled world she was about to step into, Manon spent time with sex workers and even visited a dominatrix parlour.
“It was very dark, the walls were black and there was equipment everywhere – stuff I don’t even have names for,” tells Manon. “They were so helpful, showing me the equipment and teaching me how to use it. You’ve got to get the wrist flick for the cane right. They also helped me get the attitude right. You need to be very firm and snap out short, sharp instructions.
“I was surprised by how many people the B&D place had on its books – hundreds of people. For the women who work there, everything was so matter-of-fact. It was their everyday, their normal.”
The movie-length docudrama incorporates re-enactments, archival video footage and recently filmed interviews with Renée, who is now 47. She and Neville Walker went through three trials before being acquitted when the jury accepted that Peter Plumley-Walker most likely died accidentally during the bondage session.
It was later revealed that Renée’s year-long relationship with Neville had been abusive and she’d tried to run away from him twice before the life-changing events of the night Peter Plumley-Walker died.
The teen dominatrix had also grown up in a violent household and her father’s favourite photograph of her as a baby was of the tot propped up with a cigarette in her mouth and a beer in front of her.
While she has not met Renée, Manon says it was details like these that helped her to understand the woman who became a household name for all the wrong reasons.
“In order to do Renée any justice, I had to be able to justify every decision she made and really understand what went into her decisions,” tells Manon.
“It’s made me quite defensive of her. What happened that day wasn’t pre-meditated.
I don’t think anyone can really say what they would have done in that moment.”
Playing Renée involved some interesting costume changes, including a latex catsuit, “that the wardrobe ladies had to undo so I could sit down” and it also brought with it an added bonus.
The former pupil of Baradene and Glendowie colleges in Auckland is a fourth-year law student at the University of Otago and the legal aspects of the case were “super-interesting – the secret witnesses, the police informants, the multiple trials. I loved the days we spent filming in court.”
Combining her law studies with filming 800 Words and Mistress Mercy have been a juggling act for Manon, whose first acting gig was as teenager Celeste on Nothing Trivial.
“I dread to think how many times I’ve flown between Dunedin and Auckland in the past four years,” she grins. “There’ve been times I’ve flown to Dunedin for a test, then flown back again in the morning for another’s day’s filming.”
The role of Renée, she admits, “felt like a huge step up, going from teen roles into a very adult role”. But off screen, she’s embraced her Scarfie life.
When asked what else she fits into her hectic life, she laughs, “I live with five girls. Drinking tea in my dressing gown with my friends is one of my hobbies!”
As for the future, Manon says it’s a “big question mark”.
“I haven’t had to choose yet between acting and law. I love them both. Blair Strang, who I worked with on Nothing Trivial, is a barrister. He did both, so there’s a part of me that thinks that maybe that could work.”