Peter Elliott talks about life as a ‘jobbing actor’.

800 Words star Peter Elliott talks about life as an actor in New Zealand and explains how Gloss helped change the face of the local television industry. Sarah Nealon reports.

Peter Elliott is one of New Zealand’s most recognisable actors. From Gloss to Shortland

Street, Marlin Bay to Captain’s Log, he has been a regular on our screens for four decades.

And now the 61-year-old Auckland actor is drawing on that time in the industry in his role as Big Mac, a wealthy businessman and the local mayor, in 800 Words.

“There is an ease that comes with 40 years of experience,” Elliott says. “But at the same time there are tricks and things and I’m still learning.

“But as you get older your memory isn’t as good as it once was and your synaptic leaps aren’t as brilliantly quick as they used to be. And also, you still suffer from nerves – well I do anyway.

“And it’s one of those things. You’ve just got to work with it and that’s part and parcel of the gig.

“‘Do I still love it?’ is probably the more important question and, yes, I do. I’ve had more fun in 800 Words than I have for ages. It’s a terrific show to do.” 800 Words, a co-production between New Zealand and Australia, is set in Weld, a fictional coastal town where

single dad and journalist George (Erik Thomson) relocated after his wife’s death.

The show, which is in its third season, has a mostly Kiwi cast and has been a ratings success here and across the Tasman.

“There isn’t any murder or lust or blood or hatred or whatever,” says Elliott, who has been with the show since it began.

Last season his character Big Mac developed a crush on George’s good friend Jan (Bridie Carter). But there is no romantic storyline this time around.

“I think Big Mac goes back to his major love which is money,” says Elliott. “It’s the stablest relationship in his life. He hasn’t had a lot of luck with women.”

Elliott describes Big Mac as being “utterly different” from himself.

“I’m a hand-to-mouth jobbing actor as it were,” he says. “In this country it means you earn very little and find lots of other things to do. But I recognise the type and I understand him (Big Mac).

“He comes from a point of view where he believes what he thinks is correct and is best for the town, but he does that without regard of the town’s feelings or thoughts. Or certainly doesn’t bring them into it because he knows that they would get destabilised by any major plans he may have for the future. And he has plans.”

Big Mac isn’t the first shrewd businessman Elliott has played. In the 80s, he starred as Rex in the Kiwi soap Gloss.

“The thing about Gloss was that it was unashamed entertainment,” says Elliott.

“Up until then we’d been trying to be worthy. We had Close To Home, Pukemanu and all those sort of shows.

“It was always those sort of gritty, 50s just-out-of-the-war, rationing kind of mentality behind it.

“Gloss was the first break out of that to say, ‘Bugger this. Let’s just do bright-eyed entertainment’. So of course there was an energy about that, of that 80s period of conspicuous consumption, and on screen we embraced it.” Outside of acting, Elliott writes reviews about motorcycles and boating for magazines. He is also on the board of Baseball New Zealand as his son is involved in the sport.

“I spend a lot of time with my family who are still around and haven’t gone overseas, and we’ve just got a new puppy called Twig and she is a little staffy cross,” says Elliott. “We’ve never been dog owners before so this is a massive learning curve for us. So we’re all going to puppy school.”

Elliott and his wife Susan, a former Limbs dancer, have three children – Grace, 25, an optometrist, former Shortland Street actress Lucy, 23, and Joss, 16.

“Joss has done a lot of acting and done various bits and pieces and purports to hate it, but he’s 16 years old,” says Elliott. “If he’s going to an audition his questions to me are, ‘How much is in it? Will my face be seen? Will it be screened in New Zealand?’ before he’ll agree to do it.

“Mostly he’ll only do it if it’s not screened in New Zealand and he’s being paid enough.

“I’ll say, ‘Mate, you haven’t got the job’ but invariably when he doesn’t care about it, he does get the job.”

“I’m a hand-to-mouth jobbing actor as it were. In this country it means you earn very little and find lots of other things to do.” – Peter Elliott