The high-flying star of Amazing Extraordinary Friends talks to Joanna Hunkin about his life in and out of lycra
KEY POINTS:
Just like his small-screen superhero character, Carl Dixon is living a double life. When he's not back in New Zealand starring as Ben Wilson and his alter ego Captain Xtraordinary in kids' show The Amazing Extraordinary Friends, he's on his OE in Britain, working in a London
call centre.
TimeOut caught up with the 24-year-old, back in the country to film the third season of the teenage superhero series.
Now, we're a bit confused. Do you live in Britain and come back to film Amazing Extraordinary Friends or are you based in New Zealand?
It's a bit tricky because at the moment I'm not really sure. I've been living in London since July last year. I do, sort of, tentatively plan to come back here, do this shoot and go back over, simply because I don't feel that my time in London is up yet. There are still things I want to do. I want to spend a whole summer there and do some more stuff around Europe. It's all up in the air though. My life, generally, is pretty variable. I just sort of go wherever things take me.
So when you're over in Britain, what do you tell people you do? Do you tell them you're a superhero on New Zealand television?
Um, no, not really. If people ask, I say I'm an actor. But that usually means you do some other bum job. I just worked in a call centre there with a whole bunch of other out-of-work actors. At that workplace, the rumour did spread around and people asked me about my work in New Zealand. But even then, I'd never really go, "Oh yeah, I'm the lead role on a show in New Zealand', because I just think that's a bit cocky.
Have you ever been tempted to break out the Captain Xtraordinary costume at a fancy-dress party?
No, I've never been tempted. I do enjoy going to fancy-dress parties, actually, but I just think it would be a bit cheesy if I went as Captain Xtraordinary. People would think I'd gone a bit too far.
If you could play any of the world's superheroes, aside from Captain Xtraordinary, who would you be and why?
Good question ... ooh ... I really like Batman as a superhero because he's all dark and menacing. But he's still human, he doesn't actually have any super powers. I also really like Superman, not so much for the Superman part, I love the Clark Kent bit. I like that whole aspect, the keeping-your-identity-a-secret side of things.
What are Captain Xtraordinary's powers?
Well, there are new ones all the time. The first one was what we call laser blast vision, which is firing lasers out the eyes. He can move very fast and he can fly. We've done things where he has superhuman strength, so very much like Superman in that respect. In the second series there was an episode where he travelled back in time when he sneezes. They developed that so that whenever he farted he went back even further. In the episode, I needed to change something way back in time, so I ate loads of chilli and did a huge fart and ended up back in the 1930s. So he's got that power as well.
Quite. But if you could add one power to his repertoire, what would you add?
He's got quite a good repertoire of powers already but I'd probably add the ability to breathe underwater, so he could swim around and stuff.
Apparently the hardest part of playing the character is filming the flying sequences. How so?
Yeah, it's more of a physical thing. First of all you've got to pretend that you are actually flying. It's hard because you're standing on the ground, there's a green screen behind you and you have to look like you're really free and moving around in, well, nothing. It's mostly a physical thing though, I'll be lying on a box, for example, in a flying pose, on my stomach, and you have to hold that pose for a while. When you've done three or four takes, you start to be, 'Ow, my back.' It gets a bit wearying.
You do most of your own stunts. Were you quite a rough-and-tumble kid?
Um, yeah. Not like Patrick [Morrison, who plays Roy Bottle]. Patrick was doing gymnastics and trampolining and was mad as a kid. I wasn't that extreme, but when I first moved to New Zealand, when I was 12, we used to live in Warkworth. Obviously there's a lot of country and bush there, and me and my brother would spend a lot of time making huts in the forest and having fake wars and stuff. In England, not so much. The weather for a start and also there isn't that sort of greenery around, just parks and roundabouts. Although I do love roundabouts. They're great fun.
So what's the most dangerous stunt you've got to do on the show?
To be honest, they're not really dangerous. My character jumped off a wall at one stage and they got a stunt person in to do that because if I get injured the show's a bit screwed for a while. I did jump off a platform, it was just under two metres off the ground, I jumped off that, flattened out in the air and landed in a bunch of boxes and rubbish bags. That was a good couple of metres falling and landing on my stomach. But it's not like doing great big car chases or anything. Mostly it's "jump and land on a mat".
LOWDOWN
Who: Carl Dixon aka Ben Wilson aka Captain Xtraordinary
What: The Amazing Extraordinary Friends, third season
When and where: TV2, Saturdays 4pm