A career of two halves
When his pro rugby was cruelly cut short, Joe Naufahu turned to acting. Siobhan Downes meets a star of the silver screen who’d rather stay home.
You might assume Joe Naufahu would be sick of playing rugby players. He was a gay footballer on the show Go Girls, and portrayed All Blacks legends Mils Muliaina and Frank Bunce in the TV dramas The Kick and Jonah.
Now he’s set to take on his fourth rugby role in the new local drama series Head High, which follows two brothers who end up on rival teams at competing schools. Naufahu plays their father, a professional rugby league player coming to terms with the fact he’s coming to the end of his career.
‘‘Talk about typecast, eh?’’ the soft-spoken star says with a laugh.
‘‘But I don’t mind at all. As long as the role’s got a bit of juice in it and something for me to play around with, I’m happy.’’
He’s uniquely qualified to take on such roles. Naufahu, who had been a schoolboy rugby star, was 25 and playing for the Glasgow Warriors when a knee injury cut his career short.
‘‘As a young rugby player, I was very tunnel-visioned – my plans for my future involved playing rugby and travelling around the world. My social circles were all based around the guys I played with. So when it gets taken away from you, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.
‘‘But what I found out was that rugby was a way that I was expressing myself creatively and when that was taken away from me, that was the thing I needed – that creative expression. That was what acting offered.’’
He got his first taste of showbiz through older brother Rene, who played ambulance driver Sam Eleni on Shortland Street. At 15, he landed a small part as Eleni’s younger brother.
‘‘I really enjoyed it but it was never going to be the way forward for me because my mum wouldn’t let me take time off school and rugby for it.’’
He found his way back to acting in 2005, when he was cast in the drama series The Market, set in South Auckland’s O¯ tara market.
‘‘It was what gave me a bit of hope in a dark place after I got injured.’’
Parts on Power Rangers, RPM and Spartacus came later, as well as his role as Eli Fa’asalele on Go Girls. But his big break came when he was cast as Dothraki warrior Khal Moro in the sixth season of the HBO smash hit Game of Thrones, which saw him filming in London, Belfast and Spain.
‘‘Shooting in those locations and spending time travelling during that period, I had so much fun.
I met so many cool people
– I got to go to the Formula
1 in Abu Dhabi and made friends with a sheikh in
Dubai.’’
The role also meant he got to star in scenes with ‘‘Mother of Dragons’’ actress Emilia Clarke.
‘‘That was the one thing all my mates were saying before I left, ‘aw bro, tell us what it’s like to work with her’. She treated everyone really nicely, she wasn’t a prima donna or anything. That’s what I remember most about her, she was really humble and
‘When I got injured, that was probably one of the worst periods of my life because the rug was pulled out from underneath me.’ JOE NAUFAHU
down to earth.’’
Despite rubbing shoulders with sheikhs and superstars, Naufahu hasn’t been tempted to pursue a full-time career in Hollywood.
‘‘I did a movie in Malaysia a couple of years ago and I was away for four months,’’ he says, referring to Enemy Within in which he played Hawaiian war hero Ben Kanahele. ‘‘That was a nightmare – I hated it.’’
It was too hard being away from his kids, Eva, 13, and Freddy, 11. But he also realised New Zealand is where he feels most at home.
‘‘I used to go and do auditions in the States and they’d say, ‘you’ve got to be a bit more cocky’. I’m like most New Zealand guys – I’m a humble guy, I love that about attend school there.
After the first six days the leaders found out he was staying, and confronted him.
‘‘They tried to get rid of me but I said I’m staying with my family and to my surprise they went away. I said to them the only way I’m leaving here is in handcuffs,’’ he said.
‘‘When I got back from work on the seventh day my 5-year-old looks up at me and said ‘didn’t the leaders stop you from coming here?’ I just choked out a ‘No’. Even a 5-year-old understands that she can’t live with her dad because of the leaders.’’
He was grateful to his wife, who had refused leaders’ requests to call police to have him removed. ‘‘I stood up to the leaders. Something I was afraid to do my whole life. And they went away. They are still figuring out what to do about the us. I love that we’re quietly confident in ourselves. I think we’ve got all the reasons to be super proud of where we come from.’’
Basing himself in Auckland also means he can focus on his other passion – his gym, Ludus Magnus, which he opened in 2010.
‘‘Ludus has been therapy for me, in that I get to improve my quality of life by improving other people’s quality of life,’’ he says.
‘‘When I got injured, that was probably one of the worst periods of my life because the rug was pulled out from underneath me.
‘‘I was lucky enough to have amazing family around me that picked me up by the scruff of my neck and said, ‘there’s a life beyond this for you, you’ve just got to ride this time out, because the pain that you’re going through is going to be your greatest teacher’. I got that tattooed on my arm – this pain will be useful to you one day. It’s a hard place to get to, it takes a lot of work on yourself.’’ Taking on all those rugby roles could serve as a painful reminder of what could have been, but Naufahu doesn’t see it like that. In fact, he enjoys being able to put his background to good use.
‘‘When there’s things in the script that involve playing rugby or rugby jargon, I can actually help out with the technical stuff. It’s quite handy.’’
In some ways, it’s the best of both worlds. ‘‘The great thing about acting is you can keep doing it till you’re old and grey, which I’m heading towards.
‘‘Rugby’s got a very limited lifespan – but with acting your role just changes, you go from being the sports jock to the uncle then the dad, then maybe the granddad or the godfather. We’ll see what happens.’’
premieres at 8.30pm Sunday June 28 on Three. riddle that is John Ready,’’ he said.
Ready’s younger sister Prayer Ready, who had Down Syndrome died in 2015 at 14 when she choked on a piece of meat while locked in an isolation room.
His other sister Connie Ready spoke out about the abuse she and Prayer suffered at the hands of their father Clem. Clem Ready was convicted and sentenced to 12 months’ supervision for multiple assaults on his daughter.
Gloriavale teacher Just Standfast was sentenced to six months’ community detention last year for indecently assaulting a 9-year-old girl by repeatedly kissing her and exposing himself on a bed during a playtime break. He was supported in court by a Gloriavale leader and served his sentence in a farmhouse owned by Gloriavale.
I’m often asked what’s the best thing I’ve done in New Zealand. And I usually fudge it. My answer changes more often than a chameleon with an identity crisis.
But I’m ready to divulge. In winter, there’s one place I can’t go past.
In the stunning Mackenzie Country, surrounded by snowy peaks, you’ll find Tekapo Springs. At night, the hot springs provide an exceptional stargazing tour. Let me take you there.
We were told to meet late at night in Tekapo village. A bus arrived, and as we wound our way up to the pools, the headlights were turned off. All the guests onboard, inexplicably, started talking in hushed tones.
You soon notice the entire complex glows red at night, it’s the only light allowed so that there’s no light pollution.
After a welcome cup of hot chocolate, we were given a brief introduction on the world-class skies above. The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, which we happen to be in the middle of, is one of only 16 across the world.
But wait, it gets so much better. This is not just a stargazing tour where we stand around in the cold. We’re going to enjoy the universe in a hot spring, on an underwater hammock.
Now, from this moment on, my partner has no idea what happened. After a few minutes, I heard a little nasal concerto and turned to discover she’d promptly fallen asleep, wrapped in a blanket of hot water.
On the other hand, I was transfixed. One of the stargazing staff – who had so much knowledge he’d pass as an astronaut – got out a laser. Yes, one of those ultra-powerful ones that can temporarily blind a pilot. But, here, at this time of night, the skies are full of everything else but planes.
For the next 45 minutes, we were hit with a meteor shower of amazing facts. There are 200 to 400 billion stars in our single galaxy, and there are billions of galaxies beyond that.
The light we see from some stars has taken so long to reach us, the star may have actually blown up in the meantime.
And the Moon is thought to be formed from a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized rock. It’s believed the impact threw bits of our crust into space which formed the Moon. How do scientists work these things out? Meanwhile, I still don’t know how to make a toasted sandwich without burning it.
There are many more incredible things pointed out, but I don’t want to ruin it.
When you’re soaking there staring at the unknown, you can’t help but feel how insignificant humans are. We’re just little creatures on a rock called Earth hurtling around space at 30 kilometres a second – and we don’t really have a clue what’s going on.
I’m certain many have looked up at the stars recently – especially at a time like this – and thought the same thing. But very few would have done it from a hot spring hammock – my favourite place to spend winter in New Zealand. I’m sure it will be yours too.
Spoilt for choice
For more travel ideas ahead of the school holidays, read our feature in ETC, P20-21
‘Young people who leave, it destroys them: the treatment, the lack of support. It’s a miracle they survive.’ JOHN READY
This article was produced with the support of Air New Zealand and ChristchurchNZ.