Craig Hall, star of Burying Brian, Outrageous Fortune, and just about every film made in New Zealand in the past two years
KEY POINTS:
We spoke to your King Kong co-star Kyle Chandler recently and he asked us to give you a shout out. So consider this your official shout out.
Oh cool, thank you! Actually I'm going to be up in LA on Sunday so we're going to catch up for
a beer.
It was interesting he mentioned your name because you seem to be everywhere at the moment. You're on Burying Brian and Outrageous Fortune ...
Just making hay while the sun shines.
Is it simply a case of everything going to air at the same time or have you been working flat out?
Well, Burying Brian was shot last year - in February, March, April. And Outrageous Fortune only wrapped last Friday. I think it's just a matter of everything landing at the same time rather than me running myself ragged. But yeah, everything's going well.
And are you heading to LA for work?
No. My wife and I have green cards but because I'm about to go to Australia for work, I'm not able to get up there. So I'm going there for a week to get an entry visa thing and to prove I have contracts keeping me from being a resident in America.
You seem to be doing pretty well for yourself carving out a career in New Zealand. You haven't been tempted to move to LA and try the Hollywood thing?
No, I've been really lucky. I'll always want to work in New Zealand. I love being here, I love working here and there's lots of people here that I still want to work with. I never want to give up my career in New Zealand, I've worked too long and hard for it! Working in America and Australia is more about spreading the net. Sometimes when things dry up here, you've got to go elsewhere to work.
Is it getting easier? Is there more work around?
Absolutely. From what I've seen there's been a really amazing amount of work coming through on a regular basis. And really good stuff too. It's just a matter of having faith that there's going to be something there and keeping yourself up to speed so that when something does come along, you can get into it.
You're also starring in Anthony McCarten's Show of Hands, with Melanie Lynskey, due out later this year. How was that?
Yeah, we shot that in October last year. It was great. Melanie's fantastic. It sounds a bit of a cliche but she's a total professional. She knows what she's doing and she's really generous and supportive when you're working.
She's someone who has gone and done the Hollywood thing ...
Yeah, well she's lived over there for a quite a long time now. She's got a couple of films coming out, a Steven Soderbergh film with Matt Damon and something else quite big. She's got really good cred up there because she's always solid, and her show Two and a Half Men is so big. I think it was kind of strange for her coming back because we shot in New Plymouth, which is where she's from.
Looking at your CV, you've been in an awful lot of NZ-based films lately. But then you went back and did Outrageous Fortune and Burying Brian. Are you more interested in film than television?
I've always loved film because there's something really cool about sitting in a dark room with a bunch of people focused on something. It has a focus that television doesn't have. It's a complete thing. You go and shoot a story that has a beginning and an end. And I'm a bit of a film buff, I love watching films. In saying that, any medium that let's you ply your trade is invaluable. You can be choosy if you want to be but ... as far as Outrageous goes, I've always been a fan so that was a fantastic opportunity. I love the show and I love the writing.
You play polar opposites in the two series - on one you're a cop and the other a crim. Was one more fun to play than the other?
I try not to be typecast, you know! It's always fun to play the bad character because you don't get to do that in real life. Well, you do but you have to suffer the consequences. It's always nice to do some stuff that's a bit dodgy. But then it was interesting doing Brian, because apart from The Waterhorse, I'd never played a father before. Especially playing a father to a teenage girl, and being a cop as well, I found myself being very straight and moral.
So what else in on the cards for this year?
I'm off to Australia to do a series called East of Everything, which is shot in Byron Bay. And then if Outrageous is going again, I'll get get back in there.
