Cliff’s message to Ma¯ori: be yourself
LA-based actor Cliff Curtis is on a mission to get aspiring students to tell their own stories. Glenn McConnell reports.
Name any film about te ao Ma¯ ori and there he is, Cliff Curtis. Once Were Warriors, Boy, The Dark Horse, and now Avatar 2. Even when he’s playing a Na’vi chief in a Hollywood blockbuster, the theme behind much of Curtis’ biggest work has been Ma¯ori culture.
He is one of New Zealand’s headline actors, having broken into the industry 25 years ago with a performance he now jokes about.
‘‘Have you ever seen The Piano,’’ he asks. It was 1993 and Jane Campion was at work on her third feature film, about settlers arriving in Aotearoa – one who is mute and a passionate pianist.
‘‘There’s a scene in that, showing ‘natives’ without shoes carrying her piano. In it, there’s a shot of someone’s muddy feet – those are mine,’’ he says. He played Mana. ‘‘It wasn’t glamorous.’’
That casual, throwaway joke about his early years in film also shows the incredible transformation in New Zealand cinema, which mirrors Curtis’ career.
Curtis has gone from playing token
Ma¯ ori roles to financing films he says tell genuine stories about, and by, Ma¯ ori.
His company, Arama Pictures, was formed in 2013 to produce The Dark Horse, which told the story of Genesis Potini, a local chess legend of the East Coast.
The film hit a serious note, despite its game base. Potini had bipolar disorder, was shown in the film being abused regularly, and was close with his nephew Mana – a gang prospect who was also being abused.
Nevertheless, this was a story of hope of sorts. A story that Curtis, who played Potini, took extremely seriously. He put on about 27kg to play the role.
His personal investment into the relatively small time role is telling.
The actor normally bases himself in
Los Angeles but he meets Stuff in Auckland, during a whistlestop trip to encourage students to look for careers in the arts.
There’s a simple reason Curtis says he’s committed to talking with young artists and investing in niche New Zealand cinema.
It’s vital for New Zealanders to start telling their own stories, he says.
‘‘Don’t let them tell you who you are. You decide what your narrative is, you tell your story. That’s what I’m trying to get across.’’
After The Piano, Curtis made an entry playing the violent criminal Bully in Once Were Warriors.
That role has repeatedly reared its head as Curtis’ career has progressed. That was 24 years ago, yet the film still holds a strange place in New Zealand’s cultural psyche.
And it’s fair to say Curtis is sick of still being asked about it. ‘‘People want to keep tying me to this notion of being Uncle Bully. And, it’s something they love to do,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s just the past for me. It’s not what I’m about and it certainly doesn’t define me in terms of who I am.’’
But the film’s 20th anniversary was marked as a monumental occasion just a few years ago. Some say it’s the most influential film to have come out of New Zealand. It paints a grim picture of poverty, and domestic and sexual abuse.
A documentary, Once Were Warriors: Where are they now?, brought the dark film back to the spotlight. At the time, Curtis was too busy to travel back for a cast reunion.
He did say, however, that he hadn’t wanted to take the role. The reality is, there aren’t many jobs for actors and Curtis was taking every chance he was given.
In Auckland, he tells the crowd of aspiring creatives that they’ll need to work, work, work.
‘‘If you are not motivating yourself when the tap turns off, you’re done. When the job’s over, you keep at it,’’ he says.
In total, Curtis has starred in about 40 films. It
‘‘Don’t let them tell you who you are. You decide what your narrative is, you tell your story. That’s what I’m trying to get across.’’ Cliff Curtis
seems there’s rarely a time for him when the tap truly has turned off.
Of those films, none match the spectacle that is his next confirmed work. He’s been confirmed in all four of the upcoming Avatar films, to be rolled out after 2020.
With the arrival of Curtis, the multi-billiondollar franchise will also be receiving an injection of Ma¯ ori culture. Director James Cameron, who has moved to New Zealand, has said he wants to pay homage to te reo. He also asked Curtis to include haka into the film.
When he talks about his career, Curtis stresses time and again that he has ‘‘moved beyond’’ films such as Once Were Warriors.
‘‘If someone goes back and keeps referring to a past event to build a picture of who they are, that’s a very damaging possibility,’’ he says.
His focus since has been on telling stories about Ma¯ ori differently. It’s time, he says, to stop looking back.
‘‘I’m setting up new platforms to tell different stories,’’ he says – he’s done that through financing films and producing films, but also by bringing Ma¯ ori culture to the world via Avatar.
‘‘That’s the most powerful thing we, I, have been able to do in my career.’’