Bad boy role a challenge
Filming Tatau in gorgeous Rarotonga wasn’t all fun and games for Alex Tarrant, writes
Jack van Beynen.
Alex Tarrant thought his director on Tatau might hate him. When they were shooting the BBC series in Rarotonga, director Wayne Yip focused on the other actors, giving them feedback while practically ignoring Tarrant.
‘‘When it came to, for example, him talking to other actors, when I would ask something or need some feedback and he wouldn’t give me as much,’’ Tarrant recalls.
He initially thought he’d done something wrong, until he remembered a conversation he’d had with Yip earlier.
‘‘He was telling me a story about how whenever we want a certain thing out of our actors, from a director’s perspective, we tend to sometimes treat them as though they are the character.’’
Tarrant’s character in Tatau, Maui, is driven by a need for his father’s approval. Yip was treating Tarrant in the same way his character’s dad treats him to help him inhabit the character’s mindset. So, did it work?
‘‘For me as an actor, if that was the tactic I think it was an interesting tactic but I don’t think it worked that well for me,’’ Tarrant laughs.
‘‘I’m very much someone who, if someone gives a certain amount, I give a certain amount back.’’
Tarrant has been on our screens a lot in the past couple of years. He played a traumatised Maori soldier in When We Go To War, the illegitimate son of a wealthy businessman in Filthy Rich, and a bad-influence boyfriend in The 800 Words.
For someone who only graduated from drama school Toi Whakaari in 2012, that’s an impressive CV.
Tatau – a thriller about two young travellers who discover their Cook Islands paradise isn’t quite what it seems – was Tarrant’s first international series, although it was partly made by home grown production company South Pacific Pictures.
Tarrant found the atmosphere on set to be a little more formal than on Kiwi productions.
‘‘To a certain extent, I think in New Zealand we tend to be a lot more relaxed, and I think we know that we’re all making something together – and I don’t want to say that that’s not what happened [on Tatau], but I think it felt a little more formal.’’
Tarrant says he thinks of his career achievements like scout badges. After scoring his ‘‘overseas production badge’’, his next goal is to get his ‘‘feature film badge’’.
Tatau saw him working alongside Kiwi screen legend Temuera Morrison, who plays Tarrant’s character’s imposing father in the show. Despite the on-screen tensions between their characters, the pair got along famously.
‘‘He was an amazing person to kind of experience this with, he was like our island father,’’ Tarrant says.
‘‘We went over to his house and he’d cook up a feed, and we’d just all kind of have dinners like a normal family. He really made me feel at home and at peace with the island, if that makes sense.’’
Tarrant remembers watching Morrison cope with fans wanting selfies in the supermarket.
‘‘He’s a great example of how to handle all the attention – although he loves it as well,’’ he laughs.
Tarrant’s role on Tatau presented a unique challenge in that it was his first time playing a villain.
‘‘It’s been real interesting I guess playing someone who has a bit more dirt than the other characters. I’d say that he doesn’t really start off with the cleanest hands, he’s the one character I’ve played who almost kind of starts off as a villain.’’
Tatau,
Sundays, 10.30pm, Prime.