When Boy met the girls
James Rolleston overcame fear and injuries to return to doing what he loves in The Breaker Upperers, writes Bridget Jones.
Madeleine Sami always wanted James Rolleston to be her teenage lover. After years of hoping, wishing, and working hard to make it happen – she’s got her wish.
Sitting together, the pair are playful, and pretty tight. Rolleston laughs as Sami apologises for being a little late, explaining how she had to jump in the shower with her poo-covered 5-month-old daughter just before leaving the house.
While their love story might not be ‘‘real’’, the actors have clearly formed a pretty solid friendship after working together – as pretty explicit lovers, if we’re honest – on The Breaker Upperers, the first film from Sami and costar/writer/director Jackie van Beek.
The big-screen comedy is a buddy-romance between Jen and Mel, two women (played by Sami and van Beek) linked through a previously-shared a boyfriend and break-up, and who are now dumpers-for-rent. For a fee, they will make up a ludicrous story, and do the breaking up on behalf of lazy (or scared) people yearning for romantic freedom.
Sami and van Beek had long pinned their hopes on Rolleston to play Jordan – a teenage rugby jock, who employs Jen and Mel to break up with his high school sweetheart, before falling headover-heels in love with Sami’s much more, uh, mature character.
While working on the script for literally the past few years, Rolleston was the only actor Sami and van Beek had in mind for the not-so-smart, but oh-so-funny role.
‘‘We actually called the character James for a while. When we were writing it, our characters were called Jackie and Madeleine and James. Those were the three people we wanted in the movie,’’ Sami explains. ‘‘That’s how lazy we are as writers. It was a really lazy way of remembering which character we were.’’
So what was it about Rolleston’s previous work – the likes of Boy, The Dark Horse and The Dead Lands – that made him the perfect pick to play Sami’s teenage love interest?
‘‘Yeah, good question,’’ Rolleston asks, shooting his costar and director a cheeky smile.
‘‘Writing this character is very close to me, if that’s not weird enough,’’ a bashful Sami says. ‘‘I was really excited to write a character that was really comedic … and even though there’s a naivety to him, he’s essentially the most honest about his feelings.
‘‘What drew me to James as an inspiration for the character, is that whenever I’ve seen him in anything, he’s always so open. [This character] needed to be someone you would believe when they say all this crazy stuff about animals in the wild having sex with each other. And rather than saying, ‘oh that’s just dumb, no one goes to Kelly Tarlton’s for their 18th [birthday]’ – Jordan ABIGAIL DOUGHERTY does, and you believe it, because James is such a good actor.’’
She’s right. After seeing him play more on the serious side of things since bursting on the scene before he’d even reached his teens, watching Rolleston stretch his comedy chops seems pretty natural. And working with Sami as a co-star and a director made things a little easier, in what was a pretty momentous move for the 20-year-old.
‘‘When she’d give me directions, she’d always make it playful so it wasn’t so difficult for me to understand what she was wanting to get out of the scene.
‘‘That would have been partly my brain injury – having trouble understanding that sort of stuff.’’
Sami clearly feels protective of Rolleston. It’s been almost two years since the car he was driving crashed into the Otara Bridge near Opotiki. The accident, which happened in July 2016, put the young actor in intensive care for a month and also injured his friend, Kaleb Maxwell.
Filming on The Breaker Upperers started not long after Rolleston left rehab. Physically he was on the mend, but there were limitations to his stamina and memory. At times, he would take naps on the set, and coffee quickly became a handy tool to keep his energy levels up during long filming hours, where his character carried much of the movie’s dialogue in the form of over-the-top monologues, often improvised on the spot.
Rolleston hadn’t missed film sets, exactly – his recovery had been his focus – but he had missed the connection that comes with making a movie.
‘‘I was definitely afraid of just jumping into [the film] so soon after my accident,’’ Rolleston says, ‘‘but having these guys on board, they helped me a lot.
‘‘Once I got on the horse and we were galloping down the road... I began to feed off everyone and get into the swing of things.’’
He still struggles to find the right word at times, and talking to them together, Sami is quick to support him as he thinks about what it is he wants to get across. But Rolleston’s enthusiasm and pride in finally starring in his first truly comedic role was clear to everyone.
‘‘The first day of shooting, James just kept coming up and hugging everyone and thanking everyone. Do you remember’’ Sami says, giving her co-star a nudge. ‘‘You were buzzing out... It was like your first day of school