Kingsley dons moko for sci-fi role
‘This wonderful face tells his warrior history.’
HE HAS played Gandhi, Lenin, and Oskar Schindler’s Jewish accountant – now Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley has been made up in full facial moko as half-Maori war hero Mazer Rackham in upcoming sci-fi movie Ender’s Game.
Kingsley has told how he sat down with a Maori expert, who explained the meaning of his moko. ‘‘Every gesture in the tattoo carries family history, family struggles – it’s your past,’’ the actor told Entertainment Weekly.
‘‘I was so enthralled. He’s in quite a contained, stylised uniform but then this wonderful face tells his warrior history,’’ Kingsley said about Rackham, an almost mythical presence in Orson Scott Card’s 1980s bestselling novel.
‘‘There’s quite a lot said about him in Ben Kingsley who plays Mazer Rackham the story before you see him – by the recruits and by his fellow officers – and that’s useful as far as preparations.’’
Wellington patent attorney Lynell Tuffery Huria questioned how much involvement Maori may have had with the moko’s design and usage.
There was no legislation stopping international organisations misappropriating Maori imagery, she said. ‘‘There’s no legal mechanism to do that even if they wanted to – even if there was an objection.’’
Card’s novel takes place in the future, after humanity has survived a war with an alien species. In preparation for the next invasion, the International Fleet trains the best young children to find the future leader of the International Military.
Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is their biggest hope, and is trained by Rackham to lead the military into a war that will determine the future of Earth.
The film, which also stars Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin and Viola Davis, is due for release in November.