Film role Christmas gift for Nelson boy
A Nelson boy has secured one of the lead roles in a new Kiwi movie.
Nelson Intermediate student Samuel Clark, 12, is playing the character Sam in Kiwi Christmas.
The movie follows Santa, who heads to New Zealand for a holiday when he gets fed up with the materialism of Christmas.
When two Kiwi kids Sam and Molly, figure out who he is, they have to find a way to get him back to the North Pole in time for Christmas.
Sam said his school drama teacher suggested he audition.
After a few auditions in Auckland, he was phoned in Nelson with the good news he got the role.
He and his mother and father did a little victory dance out of excitement at hearing he had secured the role.
‘‘This was the first audition I had ever done.
‘‘It was a little strange, it just came out of the blue.’’
The movie was shot at the beginning of this year at Te Muri Bay, north of Auckland.
‘‘It was pretty remote, there was a big gravel road to get there,’’ Sam said.
‘‘It was really beautiful and an amazing beach.’’
Sam said he took the first term off school while they were filming.
‘‘I was shooting most of the days, there was a lot of waiting around.
‘‘There was lots of school work to do, I had to do two hours a day to keep up with it.’’
Sam said he loved acting and being on camera, but he liked working together with the rest of the crew the most.
‘‘There was a lot of downtime, it was really chill and there were loads of people to talk to, lots of games to play.’’
Sam said he was looking forward to doing more auditions and keeping up the acting.
‘‘I’ve been doing drama since I was little and I liked it just a little hobby.
‘‘I never knew it would be turned into something like this.’’
Sam said he would ‘‘love to’’ do another movie or a TV show or advertisement.
‘‘I can’t wait to see what other roles there are and just see what I can do.’’
Written by Andrew Gunn, Tony Simpson and Dave Armstrong, Kiwi Christmas is produced by double BAFTA award winner Tim Sanders (The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings).
The film stars Finnish actor Kari Vaananen as Santa and Sam’s on-screen sister Molly is played by Luca Andrews.
Kiwi Christmas is coming out on November 30 at cinemas nationwide.
The Nelson premiere is on November 23 at 6pm at State Cinemas.
Everyone attending is asked to bring a Christmas present to go to the Women and Children’s Refuge.