How a Kiwi movie-maker went from filming Sly to Siouxie
REMEMBER that ‘‘better work stories’’ advert? Well, you’d have to go a long way to beat the career anecdotes of film-maker Gwen Isaac.
She’s just finishing off a doco on microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles called Ms Information, which follows her through the past tumultuous couple of years of the pandemic – but in an interview with Alison Mau on Stuff today, she reveals a colourful work backstory packed with Hollywood A-listers, including Silverster Stallone in the final throes of Rambo, wrangling a wobbly-throwing Paris Hilton in Guatemala, and Rod Stewart insisting she looked just like his former wife Rachel Hunter.
Some of the best stories come from the Thai-Burmese jungle in
2007, where, between ‘‘smoking cigars and directing’’, Stallone was also the star of the film, and Isaac was shooting an electronic press kit – the behind-thescenes view of Rambo.
She tells Mau that Stallone – ‘‘very well-read, highly intellectual, and very sweet’’ – was also fond of blowing things up.
‘‘[He was] a fan of the real effects before they became fashionable again. He blew up a few hectares of the jungle on the last day of filming. We all flew home before the police could question him.’’
After working on some reality TV projects in the UK, Isaac married and moved to Los Angeles in 2007, plunging into some truly strange job scenarios including a ‘‘traumatising’’ three days in a hotel in South America with socialite/ businesswoman Paris Hilton.
‘‘I was asked to produce a documentary about celebrity philanthropy, and I befriended Paris Hilton’s philanthropic agent. We ended up in Guatemala with Paris and her entourage and two camera teams, [and then] she refused to meet the Guatemalan president. Apparently it wasn’t convenient. She was in her hotel room and we were begging her to come out.
‘‘And I thought, maybe this filmmaking business isn’t quite as I dreamed of back in the jungle with Sylvester Stallone.’’
Isaac also explains why she has ended up back in New Zealand working with Wiles. The new project is an update on Siouxsie and The Virus, Isaac’s 2020 short film following Wiles through the first days of the pandemic.
‘‘My attention was piqued by this pink-haired woman, gesticulating wildly on talk shows and breakfast television. And she answered my Facebook message.
‘‘I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a science communicator back then. I was fascinated by that . . . [But] you know, she’s really carved out a niche.
‘‘Love her or hate her, I thought, I’ve got to figure out what’s driving this woman.’’