Kiwi traces out career in Hollywood
Actress Thomasin McKenzie Harcourt is feeling lucky – and it’s not because she’s travelling New Zealand promoting her latest movie Leave No Trace, which features in this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival.
Nor is it that she’s starring in Taika Waititi’s Jo Jo Rabbit. Nor because she’s acting with some of the biggest names in show business, or that she’s being compared to Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence.
McKenzie’s feeling lucky because Hollywood is changing, and for the better for women.
‘‘I feel lucky that I’m breaking into the film industry at a time when people are becoming more aware of how long they have been mistreated and manipulated. It hasn’t been equal pay, and people aren’t receiving the same amount of respect as each other or that they deserve,’’ she said.
‘‘I’m kind of lucky that all of that is changing now. It’s really amazing that the young actresses who came before me had to experience all of that really horrible abuse and that fear. It’s great these stories are coming out so their voices are being heard and they are finally being respected and acknowledged.
‘‘It’s a really interesting time, it’s a scary time, but it’s also a hopeful time.’’
The Wellington actress, daughter of directors Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie, and granddaughter of actress Dame Kate Harcourt, celebrated her 18th birthday on the plane returning from Prague, where she spent two months working on Jojo Rabbit, in which she plays a young Jewish girl hiding
from Nazi authorities in the home of a single mother, played by Scarlett Johansson.
McKenzie said it had been wonderful working with the ‘‘goofy and humorous’’ Waititi.
Her latest film, Leave No Trace, is directed by Debra Granik.
Based on the novel My Abandonment, by Peter Rock, the story follows the relationship of a young girl called Tom (McKenzie) and her veteran dad (played by Ben Foster), who has post-traumatic stress disorder.
They live together in a makeshift campsite in the Portland forest until they’re found by state services.
‘‘What I love about it is that it is so truthful and real and raw, and it’s literally just following the love story of a dad and daughter,’’ McKenzie said.
Granik chose McKenzie because of her attention to detail.
‘‘I felt [she] had really tried to contemplate this character. Instead of approaching it like, ‘I’m going to read these lines but I don’t know what her life is like’, I think [McKenzie] went in a different direction and it was very different than a lot of the actors in [her] age range I was auditioning.
‘‘She read it in such an attentive way that she was able to bring that to what she thought she was going to be like and how she thought she would conduct the interactions,’’ Granik said.
‘‘It was a fusion of her commitment already and I thought that just leapt out of her initial work.’’
McKenzie is a vegan with strong opinions on the treatment of animals. It was that affinity that also caught Granik’s attention.
‘‘It really mattered that [she] had an affinity for nature. [She] would comment on a lot that, as a Kiwi, tree, greenery, moss, all mean something to [her]. [She doesn’t] come from a desert, a highly-built urban place, [she’s] not afraid of bugs – [she’s] not squeamish.’’
Vanity Fair called McKenzie ‘‘a force of nature, a clear-eyed adventurer you’d eagerly follow into the wilds of the Pacific Northwest’’.
Others compared the young actress to Hollywood star Lawrence, whose first major role was in Granik’s Winter’s Bone.
But McKenzie is not getting caught up in the hype.
‘‘Jennifer Lawrence is talented and witty, a really cool person, so I’m honoured to be compared to her. But she’s got her own acting style, and I’ve got my own acting style,’’ she said.
‘‘She’s probably like, gah, why are people comparing me to this random Kiwi girl, who is she? She probably doesn’t want to meet me.’’
It’s a typical Kiwi trait to deflect praise by ridiculing oneself, but it wasn’t the only slice of culture the down-toearth, natural and slightly ethereal actor took to Portland with her.
When she met Granik and Foster for the first time, McKenzie introduced them using the traditional Ma¯ ori greeting – a hongi.
‘‘This is something I’m trying to work on, to be respectful of the Ma¯ ori beliefs and traditions, like not sitting on tables and being aware of things that are tapu, which is something I think everyone needs to work on – well every New Zealander at least – but also just being really respectful of the trees and plants, because that was a big part for me, filming in the bush,’’ she said.
‘‘The reason I brought the hongi over to America was that it’s something that my mum does when she’s doing acting coaching because it is such a beautiful way of connecting with someone.
‘‘I’m from NZ and Ma¯ ori were there before my ancestors were, so it’s really important to respect that and to teach people that and just acknowledge that.’’
Her next projects include a role in the Netflix production The King, a Shakespeareinspired film starring Timothee Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Robert Pattinson and Lily-Rose Depp, and she soon leaves for Australia to start filming True History of the Kelly Gang, starring Russell Crowe.
As for the future, McKenzie said she’s just going with the flow to see what happens.
‘‘I definitely want to continue acting because that’s what I love and when I’m acting, that’s when I’m at my happiest. I just love telling stories that are important for people to hear and experience different lives and different emotions,’’ she said.
‘‘But I don’t just want to do acting with my life, I’ve got other things on my mind as well, but acting is my big love.’’