12 Questions
12questions@nzherald.co.nz Michael Moore fires back after Trump disses his Broadway show
pause. Inevitably people ask what you’ve been in and then it becomes this weird, awkward conversation. The thing I’ve been getting a lot lately is, “So are you famous?” to which the answer must be, “Clearly not.”
You’re 30 now. Which roles would you consider your career highlights?
When I was aged 21, I played my reallife grandmother in a film that my mum made, Home By Christmas. It’s a World War II drama inspired by interviews mum had done with her father on his deathbed and her mother in War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us. Martin Henderson and I played their younger versions. It was pretty magic to be able to put myself in my grandmother’s shoes. I tried to be what I perceived as her essence. There were moments of walking through scenarios she had lived that gave me the tingles. Standing on a train platform waving off a steam-train full of young soldiers going to war, the enormity of that really hit me. It’s not something we can really comprehend now.
What was it like working with your mum?
Really cool. It’s a scenario where you don’t take exception to being told what to do because that’s the director’s job. There’s a huge amount of creative respect. She’s very empowering to work with because she has a lot of respect for actors’ processes. We also worked together on Hope and Wire about the Christchurch earthquakes and it was great both times because we have an innate understanding of each other and a kind of shorthand language that allows you to bypass a lot of stuff.
Have you worked with other family members?
I just made a short film that I wrote and directed with my ex-partner Ray Edwards, a cinematographer. It was a very personal project with our 2-yearold daughter at the centre and I thought who better to film it than
Like many of President Donald Trump's tweets, the one lashing out at film-maker Michael Moore seemed to come out of nowhere. “While not at all presidential . . .” it began, before taking aim at Moore's Broadway play, The Terms of My Surrender, which had ended its run the weekend before. “I must point out that the Sloppy Michael Moore Show on Broadway was a TOTAL BOMB and was forced to close. Sad!” Trump tweeted. It's unclear what prompted the Trump tweet, though like Moore himself, The Terms of My Surrender, did not hold back on its criticisms of Trump and his presidency. Officially, the play was billed as “a hilarious satirical Chelsie Preston Crayford says her career was boosted by a meaty role in
Underbelly:Razor.
her dad because it was about getting those candid moments with her. I was in the film with her so it was great to have somebody I trust behind the camera to feed back to me what was happening. The film hasn’t got a name yet. It’ll be released next year. tour through the depraved new world we find ourselves in since appointing a madman as the leader of the free world”.
Promotional posters for the oneman show, which featured a rotating band of guests, trumpeted: “Can a Broadway show bring down a sitting president?”
The New Yorker's Michael Schulman called it “a cheeky rebuke to the Trump Administration that plays mostly as a liberal pep rally”.
A few hours after Trump's tweet, Moore responded on Twitter to dispute claims the show had bombed or closed early. The Terms of My Surrender began previews at the Belasco Theatre in New York on July 28 and officially opened on August 10. It was always scheduled for a 12-week engagement; its final performance was October 22.
Moore said as much at the weekend, reiterating that the limited run was because of his commitments to other TV and movie projects.
“On Broadway, Donald, they call it a ‘LIMITED ENGAGEMENT' — just like we're planning on making your presidency,” Moore fired back.
He also posted an undated photo of himself with Jared Kushner, saying he still had “one fan in the White
House”.
Which role represented the greatest turning point in your career?
Tilly Devine, a notorious madam in 1920s Kings Cross, in Underbelly: Razor. That was a great, meaty role, a real character role. I was playing opposite Danielle Cormack. We actually worked together on our audition tapes for it. I remember saying, “Imagine if we both got this” . . . and then it happened. It was amazing to play opposite someone that’s so good at what she does. We had so much fun.
Did you find the scale of production different to New Zealand?
Yes, I did. I think overall there is a feeling of a bit more money and a bit more infrastructure, which is nice. It’s amazing to walk on to a job and be handed piles of research for your character, which is not so commonplace here.
You had your first child at 28. Has that changed you?
Massively. Your priorities completely
In addition, Moore claimed The Terms of My Surrender, was the highest-grossing nonmusical play of the northern summer, “despite my offering US$29 ($42) cheap seats + free student tix so ALL could afford”. Broadway League statistics showed the show grossed US$4.2 million, just under half of its potential gross, with an average capacity of 78 per cent. Playbill confirmed it was the highestgrossing nonmusical play among those that opened this summer, though another that had opened earlier ( The Play That Goes Wrong) grossed more in the 12-week period in which Moore's play ran.
The Washington Post's theatre critic, Peter Marks, gave The Terms of My Surrender, a lacklustre review, calling it “less a jaunty excursion than an unvarnished ego trip” and “a slog through cringe-inducing skits and only occasionally engaging anecdotes about Moore's stumble into the life of a political gadfly”.
Moore also accused Trump of trying to distract from more-pressing issues, such as the situation in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and special counsel Robert Mueller III's ongoing investigation into whether Trump's campaign co-ordinated with Russians seeking to meddle in the 2016 election. shift — you’re not the most important thing in your world any more. For that first year or two especially, you really pour your whole being into your child. That’s natural but it’s easy to lose yourself. You have to really work to carve out time and space for yourself, which is very important. It’s probably only in the last six months that I’ve started to feel like me again but obviously a different version. I’ve changed forever.
How do you juggle childcare and acting?
My job has periods of intensity with breaks in between, a lifestyle that suits my personality. I’m not a person that needs to know too much about what’s around the corner. Her dad and I are both freelancers so we can juggle and we have a lot of family support. Mum splits her time between Wellington and Auckland these days. She loves helping out with childcare. Red Speedo, ASB Waterfront Theatre, October 31 to November 15