Greg Smith, actor and artist

The Aucklandbased actor, glass artist and DJ shares tales of his colourful life with Grant Smithies.

Twenty-plus years ago, you were living on the West Coast, teaching yourself to be a glass blower. How did that come about?

As with almost all the major events in my life, it came about by accident. I ended up on the coast by going to a party there in the late 70s. After I had managed to impregnate someone by accident, I decided to stay. The glassblowing thing came about a year or two later. I was asked by the head honchos of the local commune. They had a dream. I bought in.

I heard tales of you and some mates building your own kiln in the bush, and reusing glass from bottles of spirits you’d drunk. True?

Yeah, we built a dam for water power, chopped wood to make gas and basically tried to re-invent the wheel. The bottles were donated by the large population of imbibers that lived in the vicinity. We did actually melt a whole lot of brown beer bottles one day: it wasn’t attractive.

You once went over and lectured in the States as some sort of pioneering Aotearoa ‘‘bush glass’’ artist. What was the guts with that?

I was invited to speak at the American Glass Conference in Seattle. The title of my talk was ‘‘The Blood, the Drugs and the Fear’’. It was a sort of stand-up with cool music and wicked images. I got a standing ovation. I had realised a dream I had 20 years earlier, when I first experienced making some strange blown-glass thing with my buddy and saying: ‘‘One day man, we’re gonna be there in Seattle, telling them how good we are and blowing their minds’’. Ha ha – came true.

These days you’re living in Auckland and working as an actor. How did that come about?

There was no plan. I was moving to Barcelona with my girlfriend so I moved my glass stuff to a studio and came to hang out for a couple of months while my girlfriend worked at the America’s Cup village. It was her suggestion that I do some acting work as an extra there and I really enjoyed it. Things turned to s... with my girlfriend but I ended up staying. I had no training, and had to do classes. I got an audition for King Kong and ended up working with some amazing people for fourand-a-half months in Welly.

What kind of roles are you generally cast in?

In my first feature film I played two brothers. One was a serial killer. That was fun. In my second feature, I got to play a really nice guy who narrates the story. It gave me confidence in my ability as an actor. I have played a boxer, several gangsters, a priest, and a well-meaning social worker who becomes corrupted by his patients.

You can also be found from time to time playing records at Ponsonby bar Golden Dawn.

I’ve loved music since I was 8 years old. I have always hunted down records and CDs in secondhand record stores, so any opportunity to inflict my dodgy and eclectic taste on others is always seized upon with relish. I

What’s inspiring you right now?

I am inspired by the new challenges of being a film producer. It’s exciting to finally be in control of the whole process of telling cool stories with film.