In the dark
Secrets abound in the local thriller series Dark City: The Cleaner, which is set in Christchurch and features a serial killer. Shaun Bamber talks to Chelsie Preston Crayford about her latest role.
Actor Chelsie Preston Crayford’s latest role is so super-secret that if she told you about it she might just have to kill you.
Or then again maybe not. Truth be told, almost all of the main characters in the new thriller series Dark City: The Cleaner have their secrets, surprises and skeletons in the closet waiting to leap out.
Some of those characters are played by an array of leading New Zealand actors including Robbie Magasiva, Cohen Holloway, David de Lautour, Hannah Marshall and Elizabeth Hawthorne.
We can’t even really talk about any of the plotlines either, because this show is so full of twists, turns, misdirection and mind games that to do so would mean either dropping heavy spoilers or totally misleading you and that’s just not what responsible televisual journalism is all about.
Suffice to say there is a serial killer. And plenty of bodies obviously.
Crack detective team hunting for said killer? Check. A mild-mannered janitor? Abusive spouse? Miserable old crone dripping more acid than the first three Alien movies combined? Check, and check, and check again.
But we can’t talk about any of that. Not yet anyway. Not quite yet... Instead, let’s start with a little background.
Dark City: The Cleaner is based on a novel by New Zealand crime author Paul Cleave and first published two decades ago.
Set in the author’s home city of Christchurch, it quickly became an international bestseller, with sales exceeding half a million copies, and he has since gone on to publish at least a dozen more books.
Calling Christchurch “a great setting for crime”, Cleave has previously described the city as having two sides to it – “there’s the picture-perfect setting you see on postcards everywhere, but there’s also a dark, Gotham city feel here”.
For her part, Preston Crayford believes that Dark City puts
forward “a very specific kind of vision” of New Zealand’s garden city.
“Not being from there, I don’t know if I can really tap into the same thing as Paul, but I do think the world of Dark City is like an invention of his that is drawing from Christchurch and also a kind of place of its own I reckon.”
While she won’t admit to having read Cleave’s novels or not, the Wellington-born actor says it was “pretty awesome” talking to the author – who also scripted the Dark City TV series – about the journey his characters have been on.
“He wrote the characters we’re playing 20 years ago, and obviously those characters have already had a whole life. They were really popular and they’ve lived in a lot of people’s imaginations already, and in other subsequent books and stuff, so it was pretty cool to have all of that to draw on.
“You know, the character was created, but when you come in as an actor, you also then create your version of it, and Paul was really encouraging and affirming of where we took them, which was great.”
Without wanting to give too much away, Preston Crayford says the role she plays in Dark City: The Cleaner was “super juicy”.
“One of the things I really loved about the character is that I don’t think she really has any self-doubt – which is super unusual to play as a woman.” And if Preston Crayford is calling a role unusual, you know it must be true.
Now in her mid-30s, she has a more than 30-year acting career behind her, having started out aged about four in an early 90s Lotto Water Safety ad best remembered for its ‘Hey Big Person’ catchphrase. (Or if that doesn’t ring a bell, how about ‘Do I look like a fish to you?’ That’s a classic slice of advertising Kiwiana right there.)
“Those lines are burned into my brain,” she laughs. “I will never forget them.”
As the daughter of filmmaker Gaylene Preston (Ruby & Rata, Home By Christmas, Hope And Wire), Preston Crayford got an early introduction to the world of professional acting, but it wasn’t until she took a year off after turning 18 that she knew she wanted to make a career out of it.
“I really missed it, and I realised it was something that was kind of important to me – and also just a part of me by then,” she remembers.
Fast-forward to 2024 and Preston Crayford is now working as writer-director on her very own feature film, as well as continuing to act in various other productions.
She’s excited about where she’s at right now she says, but admits that it hasn’t always been easy.
“It is really difficult to sustain an acting career in this country – because it can be a super brutal industry.”
Dark City: The Cleaner is also scheduled to screen on Sky Open in the next couple of months.
“I don’t think she really has any self-doubt – which is super unusual to play as a woman.”
– Chelsie Preston Crayford