The Questionnaire

What are you plugging right now?

Right now I am teaching a course for third-year students called Acting for Camera at Sydney’s Excelsia College. I am also getting ready for the release of a miniseries for Foxtel called Fighting Season. I am about to release a children’s book for Scholastic New Zealand in October called We’ve got a Boat about winning the America’s Cup. I am also looking at visiting schools and drama and performance groups throughout the country as I tour with Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

‘‘[I’d like to] to create a colour blindness in our industry so that everyone is judged on their skill and not their skin colour.’’

What’s your idea of perfect happiness?

I love is seeing my wife struggle to find something for me to do because everything is done!

Which living person do you most admire?

I so admire my little sister, Debra. She gave up her life in Melbourne to raise my other sister’s two kids. She’s never been married but she came back to New Zealand to look after not only her nieces, but also my mum. Her daughter recently turned 21 and is a wonderful example of a human being – and that comes back to my sister Debra.

What’s your most embarrassing moment?

When I was hosting a very important business awards ceremony. It was televised and I thought I would be clever and write some of the hard names down phonetically so I wouldn’t forget how they sounded. Needless to say, when it came to reading out the names, I found that I couldn’t read my handwriting and every name came out wrong.

What is your most prized material possession?

My most prize possession is my Maton six-stringed guitar. I had it made in 1998 with the first pay packet I earned working on the cop drama Water Rats. It is my performance guitar and has travelled the world with me.

What is the most adventurous thing you have done, which has taken you out of your comfort zone at the time?

Flying a helicopter for the movie Nims Island. In actual fact, the copter was tethered with chains inside the Movie World studios on the Gold Coast, but I still had to get the skids off the ground. I also had the added pressure of having Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler sitting next to me.

What gets your back up?

Stadium churches and ministers who live lavish lifestyles, while their followers struggle to put food on the table.

If you could time travel, where would you go, and why?

I would go back to the 1950s and early 1960s. People were polite and music was diversifying. Things were being discovered and everyone was cool. Obviously, we would also do something about the racial tension in the world, too.

What life lesson would you pass on to your children?

To take ownership of their decisions. Whether it be right or wrong, own your actions and it will go a long way to creating the person you want to be.

What job would you do other than your own, and why?

I would love to be a props maker. Creating huge intricate designs and solving problems would be a dream come true. Walking around a recycled shop finding things to make would be great.

If you were given three wishes that a magic genie could grant, what would they be?

My three wishes would be to end poverty in the world, create renewable clean, free energy for everyone, and to create a colour blindness in our industry so that everyone is judged on their skill and not their skin colour.