Hollywood’s Mr Versatile
Cliff Curtis talks Clooney, Depp and Jesus
Rotorua-born actor Cliff Curtis has forged a healthy career overseas, playing a diverse range of ethnically nebulous action men and baddies. He also has appeared in some of the most iconic New Zealand films of the past 20 years, from Once Were Warriors to The Dark Horse.
Currently on location in Mexico, where he is filming the latest series of cult hit Fear the Walking Dead, he talks about fulfilling his lifetime dream of playing Jesus, and what it is like being compared to George Clooney and Johnny Depp.
You grew up a good Catholic boy. How was it playing Jesus in Risen?
I loved it, it was awesome. I was an altar boy, I thought I was going to be a priest, and it was a longrunning joke that I wanted to play Jesus. I never thought that in my late 40s I would get to do it. I had the best time. I haven’t done a film since that film and I thought when I finished, I’m done, I’m happy. I don’t know what I’m going to do next, but it doesn’t matter — because I got to do that. I’ve always lived with that one – that was the one. I’d like to [play Jesus] in a starring role, ha ha ha ha. That was a supporting role; I wouldn’t mind doing that as a lead role in a movie. Morgan Freeman played God, Keisha Castle-Hughes played Mary. [Putting us all in a film together] would be fun. My mum would be Keisha Castle-Hughes and Morgan Freeman would be my dad.
Risen was filmed in Malta and you spent hours up on the cross in the beating heat. Were those the most uncomfortable on-set conditions you’ve experienced?
I was having so much fun. I was on a high. I liked the silence, I went on this whole cleansing thing and I lost a lot of weight so I could go up on the cross. I didn’t mind the heat or the dust or the rocks or anything. I did a movie years ago on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) with very similar conditions over five months; that was really tough. I did a strange movie, 10,000 BC, down south and it was freezing cold and we had no clothes and we were running around killing woolly mammoths. I really enjoy the challenge of it. It’s like extreme sports really, extreme movie-making conditions. They make me happy.
You are renowned for having played a diverse range of ethnicities. Is there a nationality you couldn’t play?
Nah. When I was in theatre, I played a Ghanaian. Physically there are some roles I shouldn’t play. I think it would be terrible to pass me off as a Chinese man from the northern provinces, for example. But I don’t think there’s a role I wouldn’t want to try .I wouldn’t turn down the role of the King of Siam on Broadway . . . I don’t know if I’d be any good at it, but I wouldn’t turn it down.
A rather adoring Guardian profile last year praised your ‘‘Clooney-esque intellect and Depp-style cool’’. What do you make of that?
I’m kind of embarrassed. Either my wife or my sister showed it to me. I don’t think I can live up to the ‘Depp-style cool’. I have worked with Johnny Depp, and I can tell you he is much cooler than me. I know George a little bit and he is a very sharp, but playful and grounded guy. I’ll take it.
You are known for your roles in action films and serious drama. When can we expect to see you in a comedy?
I actually started off doing comedy in drama school. I was cast as a Woody Allen type because I was a skinny, goofy, awkward teenager. In my 20s I was uncomfortably thin.
I couldn’t do the new Pork Pie movie being shot at home because of my schedule. Taika obviously doesn’t want me in any of his movies.
Come on, Taika, hook me up. Do me a solid.
Are you asking him for work?
No. He’s got my email and my number.
Are you keen to try writing or directing? We hear you’ve been doing some work with Maori Television.
I am just trying to help with new talent. There isn’t really Maori drama on television anywhere — it doesn’t exist. In Australia they are getting really strong dramas up with [Aborginal people], and I am trying to figure out what can be done here.