Trying times for rugby family
The fallout from a sudden death and teen pregnancy continues in this week’s episode of Head High. Kerry Harvey reports.
Actors Craig Hall and Miriama McDowell believe rugby drama Head High is scoring points both on and off the field.
“I feel like this is more of a relationship drama than it is a rugby drama,” says former A Place To Call Home star Hall.
“Rugby is the backdrop but it really is about the dynamics, all the things happening (in the family) that rugby brings to the fore – the struggling to keep food on the table and deal with marriages, with stepfathers and stepkids.”
In the series – one of the few prime-time dramas in 60 years of Kiwi television to have a M ori family at its heart – McDowell and Hall play Renee and Vince O’Kane, a couple who want the best for their three teenagers – Mana (Jayden Daniels), Tai (Lionel Wellington) and Aria (Te Ao o Hinepehinga Rauna).
Vince coaches the First XV at the low-decile Southdown High and both boys play on his team. But their world turns upside down when rival private school St Isaac’s tries to poach both Vince and his best players.
Meanwhile, police officer Renee shoulders a demanding job as a cop while, for the most part, keeping her family – and their friends – on the straight and narrow.
“Like many women I know – many mothers I know, many aunties I know – she’s the one that sort of ducks and dives and somehow seems to roll with every challenge that is thrown at her from all angles and manages to
“One of our writers is a coach at a school where that stuff is happening, so it’s really current.”
– Craig Hall, pictured with Miriama McDowell
hold everyone together,” McDowell says. “I say a lot in the show, ‘It’s not all about rugby, it’s not all about rugby’.” McDowell is an accomplished stage and screen actor, known for Shortland Street, This Is Not My Life and Find Me A M ori Bride, who won Best Actress at the 2016 New Zealand Film Awards for her lead role in the feature film The Great Maiden’s Blush. She is also a single mum raising two daughters – Talanoa, eight, and Hero, two – and has no trouble putting herself in Renee’s shoes. “I don’t think (Renee is) solo parenting but I do feel very deeply that (Vince) doesn’t have enough time for her and he doesn’t see her as much as he sees the boys,” she says, adding, despite that, she believes the couple have a “beautiful” relationship. “They’re very playful, they really try to work things out and do the right thing. They enjoy each other’s company, they’re affectionate, they have a good laugh. There are so many good things to play so that when the relationship has strain on it, it is quite gut-wrenching.” As the series progresses, the challenges facing the couple pile up. The O’Kanes must deal with the fallout from a sudden death, an unexpected pregnancy, unwanted house guests and the unexpected return of Renee’s first love – and the long-absent father of her sons – Jesse Roberts (Game Of Thrones’ Joe Naufahu), a professional rugby player based in Australia.
“It is an amazing script because you read it and it’s moving and then you take it off the page and it just gets you in the guts. The time when I felt most unsettled is in the stuff where me and my husband are in a sort of bad pattern of fighting with each other,” McDowell says.
“I’ve really learnt on this job that emotionally as an actor that’s the space I like to sit in the least. Just the feeling of you’ve got this ongoing fight with something. Maybe it’s because I recognise that feeling and I really don’t like it.”
Hall, who is married to actress Sara Wiseman and is currently wrapping production on Halifax: Retribution with fellow Kiwi Rebecca Gibney, is no stranger to telling New Zealand stories.
Head High, while a drama, is representative of what is happening in local communities.
“I’ve been coming back and making New Zealand stories every year since I’ve been in Australia. It’s not like I’ve had a drought of local stories but (Head High) definitely resonates strongly with me,” he says.
“One of our writers is a coach at a school where that stuff is happening so it’s really current – the poaching, families just trying to survive, trying to get through, I think that’s a really great story to tell. I think it’s happening more and more.”