Actress Danielle Cormack. Photo / Janna Dixon

Actress Danielle Cormack. Photo / Janna Dixon

Danielle Cormack is going mental. At least that's what she says on the phone when she calls to again postpone our interview – not that you can hold it against her.

On the day we finally meet, the award-winning TV/film/theatre actor is dashing between three jobs — as wardrobe mistress for short film Redemption, and filming two TV shows: new local, Lost-esque drama The Cult (onscreen in September) and Walt Disney fantasy series Legend of the Seeker.

She's also just seen off 13-year-old son Ethan on his first day back at school, but is somehow squeezing in a soda and a chat in the lead-up to the release of homegrown 'dramedy' Separation City on August 6.

After a stint criscrossing the Tasman for theatre gigs, Cormack was ready to sink her teeth into the relatively rare meat of a New Zealand feature film (penned by cartoonist Tom Scott). In her signature naturalistic style, she plays uber-organised, overtired, libido-less mum-of-two Pam, whose relationship with husband Simon — played by on-the-up Aussie actor Joel Edgerton — has become about as familiar and exciting as an old sock. This has left him with a wandering eye that settles on mutual friend Kati, played by heavyweight English actress Rhona Mitra (Boston Legal, Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans). Cormack, who admits everyone knows everyone in the New Zealand acting fishpond, relished the injection of internationals into a film that "didn't necessarily feel completely Kiwi".

Because she's flying from Auckland to the Wellington premiere on Wednesday, Cormack hasn't watched the film (on DVD) until just before we met. "I thought I better take a look at it before I start talking about it." She agrees it's a little depressing about the prognosis for long-term relationships. "But I don't necessarily aspire to that conventional relationship anyway — the ones I've had haven't particularly conformed." She can relate only vicariously, not personally, she says, to the film's "successful, white, middle-class family with two kids" and their smug-married friends.

Cormack hopes the film will inspire debate about the nature of romantic relationships. "Are we supposed to be monogamous for the rest of our lives? How do you keep that element of surprise going in your relationship because, you know, the biology of humans is such that we don't have chemistry pumping through our veins for our entire relationship with someone."

The 38-year-old is notoriously private about her private life. Partly because other people's feelings are involved; partly because her work is the raison d'interview; and partly because she just doesn't think it's that interesting. "I wish I could say I'm dating Judy Bailey right now," she jokes, "but I don't know what Judy would think of that!

"But hold on, let me think about this because maybe I don't feel so guarded about it now — it's a cliche isn't it, the actor or the person in the spotlight wanting to keep their personal life personal. I'm a walking cliche!" She ponders but decides it's still not for public consumption. "Maybe I never kiss and tell. If I do, I'll give you a call."