Rena’s new movie vision
‘Once Were Warriors’ star takes on a mountain of a film project, writes Lee Umbers.
SHE blazed her way into the Kiwi consciousness with her soulstirring role as Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors.
And now Aotearoa screen queen Rena Owen is preparing for her return to her homeland to live with a renewed sense of mahana and maru.
Owen was swept away to Hollywood 16 years ago to pursue her award-winning career. But on the way, she had to give up her dog – a part staffie, part blue heeler – and her cat.
‘‘My cat and my dog were my babies. My dog was Maru – protector – and my cat was Mahana – comfort. I’m looking forward to having pets again, and being able to have a veggie garden,’’ she says.
The 53-year-old will build that garden at her property at Muriwai, on Auckland’s west coast, which she bought using some of the money she earned from the early 1990s film RapaNui, in which she starred alongside Jason Scott Lee and Esai Morales.
‘‘I could have bought any house in any suburb in Auckland. You know what the going rate was in 1993? It was $89,000.’’
Owen, who is planning an autobiography, says her ‘‘milliondollar view’’ is ‘‘a perfect environment for the writer in me’’.
‘‘I spend a lot of time writing, and I’ve written many things including multiple screenplays. I’m also a published playwright, a script consultant, and I assess scripts, which generates income.’’
Critical acclaim doesn’t necessarily lead to financial security, she says.
‘‘I remember when we did Once Were Warriors and I had gone to a school to talk to high-school kids, and one of them said, ‘We saw you driving down Queen St and you were in this beat-up old car’ and they were like ‘where’s your limo?’ I said, ‘you know, guys, that’s a really good question!’ because if you’re interested in this industry for fortune and fame, forget it. One does art first and foremost for love.’’
Own says that even though Once Were Warriors still opens doors for her career-wise, she wasn’t ready for the spotlight of celebrity after the film’s 1994 release. It has taken her two decades to be comfortable with promoting her success, and she only reluctantly set up a Facebook page after her agent urged her.
Her next movie venture is an adaptation of Behind The Tattooed Face, a project she has been working on for the past decade.
The epic novel, by Heretaunga Pat Baker, is set in the late 1700s in what is now the Bay of Plenty, at a momentous time for a powerful Maori society.
‘‘The screenplay’s done, now it’s a matter of locking down the pivotal people, which means the director and the producing team.’’
Owen says she was swept away by the book during a Christmas break at home after being invited to read it with a view to making a film and possibly starring in it.
But she felt the logistics of translating such an epic onto the movie screen would be daunting.
Any doubts were swept away by a vivid dream featuring her grandmother. She’s saving the details of that dream for her autobiography, but she ‘‘woke up the next morning with no doubts that it was a calling on my life’’.
She says she has come to terms with not having had children of her own.
‘‘I’ve had my moments where I’ve grieve for the fact I chose not to have children, but I could never have travelled the world and done a lot of the things I’ve done had I had children.
‘‘And ultimately, I’m at an age now where you can’t spend your time looking in the rear-view mirror.’’