By ALAN PERROTT
Foreign actors can be seen but not heard on New Zealand television, claims English actor Martin Haywood.
The regular extra on Kiwi soap Shortland Street says he has been told he will never get a speaking part on the show because of his English accent.
Mr Haywood said he walked off the Shortland Street set and dumped his acting agent on Friday after being given the bad news.
He had hoped to win one of the new parts being created to replace the long list of core characters about to be axed, but said he now wanted nothing to do with the show.
"I don't want to be working there any more. I feel like I'm being used.
"It's the same as saying you're black and we don't want you."
Mr Haywood said the programme's casting crew also dismissed his offer to adopt an Australian accent for a part.
The actor was so angry he laid a complaint against the show's maker, South Pacific Pictures, with the Race Relations Conciliator, Dr Rajen Prasad.
"They've had other people with accents on before. Why do I get discriminated against? Is it because I'm British?
"I've lived in New Zealand for 16 years. It's not like I just arrived and want to take over the world."
Dr Prasad confirmed that he had received Haywood's complaint and would investigate.
Shortland Street executive producer Tony Holden said he was not aware of the complaint, but the show's maker had no policy against casting accented actors.
"That's not our policy at all. You may have noticed we have a Russian character on at the moment.
"He [Haywood] may have chosen to take that interpretation [to his rejection]. A lot of people have failed to get parts who don't understand why.
"Maybe somebody tried to let him down lightly.
"Maybe his skills were not what we were after."
Mr Holden said Shortland Street was a distinctly New Zealand programme, so most of the characters would be New Zealanders, "as they rightly should be."
But Mr Haywood said successful New Zealand actors such as Russell Crowe and Sam Neill were able to get work when they travelled overseas and the same opportunities should be given to foreign actors here.
National Actors Equity organiser Alison Enright doubted that there was any discrimination issue and said Haywood might be unwise to pursue his case.
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