Actor: Bargaining rights are the key

Robyn Malcolm does most of her work overseas now, but says if New Zealand actors had better employment conditions, she’d be back in a flash. The well-known Kiwi actor became the de facto spokeswoman for actors opposing the 2010 Hobbit Law — prompting vitriol not only from the film industry establishment, but also some members of the public, who saw her as working to deprive the country of the opportunity of a lifetime. “It was a deeply unpleasant time; it was horrible,” she says. “Having said that, I’d do it again.” Malcolm believes the law had no effect on the number of films made in this country. “I think the only thing that makes a scrap of difference to productions coming here is the New Zealand dollar,” she says. The law’s only impact, she believes, has been to drive Kiwi actors overseas after they got “a punch in the solar plexus”. “All my work now is pretty much in Australia, unless I’m doing something very specific here, because the conditions are so much better.” Would she do more work in New Zealand if employment standards improved here? “Hell yes,” she says, adding the same is true for many New Zealand actors. “The cornerstone to any changes to the Hobbit Law needs to be the ability to bargain collectively,” Malcolm says. “People in my industry, we are so, so easy to exploit because we’re desperate to work — everyone wants to work. And there’s a whittling away of the conditions under which we’re prepared to work which has been going on for decades now.” Recalling the 2010 protests, which she has largely tried to block out, she says it was stressful and frightening. “The fallout in terms of how the New Zealand public perceived New Zealand actors, that there was somehow this belief that we were these selfish, moneygrabbing narcissists when in fact the average income of a New Zealand actor a couple of years ago was about $15,000. “I thought it was incredibly embarrassing that those Warner Bros guys could turn up on the doorstep of our Parliament building and get labour laws changed. And that was reported around the world and it was humiliating for us as a country.” Now, she says, “mostly, I hope that actors can come out smiling and feeling supported and strengthened by these new laws, and supported by the New Zealand Government.”

It was horrible. Having said that, I’d do it again. Robyn Malcolm