Snap Chat: Nic Sampson

Nic Sampson stars as Constable Breen in The Brokenwood Mysteries.

My first job was... Acting in an episode of a New Zealand TV series called A Twist In The Tale when I was 11. It starred a pre-Boston Legal William Shatner as this weird man telling stories to a group of children in a house full of taxidermy animals. I don't why the children were in his house, maybe he had kidnapped them? It was unclear. I played a kid whose mother was a mermaid or something.

It taught me... That in most jobs you will have to deal with William Shatner. This has since proven not to be true. For instance, when I worked at the Courtenay Place McDonalds, I barely ever saw William Shatner. Once I saw the lead singer of The Black Seeds though, that was pretty cool.

The cast of Brokenwood: Neill Rea as Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, Fern Sutherland as Detective Kristin Sims and Nic Sampson as DC Sam Breen.

My big break came... I was cast as the Yellow Power Ranger when I left high school. A lot of people in NZ don't know that Power Rangers is still going and every year they change the theme and the cast of the show. It just so happened they were looking for a really nerdy Power Ranger that year and I got it! Our season of Power Rangers was wizard-themed. We had flip-phones that turned into wands and broomsticks that turned into motorbikes. I think it was one of Power Rangers' most widely-hated seasons.

The last job I quit was... Most jobs don't last long enough for me to get a chance to quit! The last proper job I quit was probably working at Pandoro Bakery and I only quit because I was cast in a movie. It was a sweet gig, I got to take home as much bread as I liked. Why would I want to give that up!?

The most famous person I've ever met is... Other than my BFF William Shatner? Maybe Tommy Lee Jones. I had a small part in a movie and Tommy Lee Jones was in it. He arrived on set, having just been in Antarctica surveying ice flows with Al Gore (I arrived on set having just been at Pandora Bakery surveying cakes). We had a scene together where his character was supposed to yell at me and my mate AJ, then AJ forgot his lines and Tommy Lee Jones started yelling at us for real. Being yelled at by "K" from Men In Black is an experience I will always treasure.

They were... I remember everyone being very nervous because Tommy Lee Jones is famously a bit grouchy, but on the first day instead of staying in his trailer he sat at the lunch table with me and some other Kiwi actors, which he totally didn't have to do. That was nice. He also told us how vulnerable to attack our country is, which we definitely already knew.

The best time I've had on set was... Working on Seasons 1 and 2 of Funny Girls (season 3 coming soon) because it was mostly hanging out with my friends, trying to make each other laugh and create something together that we were all proud of. Pretty much a dream job!

Sampson says working alongside the Funny Girls team is the best time he's ever had on set.

But the worst was... I haven't had any terrible experiences! Though a few months ago, I filmed an awkward, sweaty, half-naked sex scene with Jackie van Beek for about four hours as part of her and Madeleine Sami's new comedy The Breaker Upperers, and they just broke the news to me that unfortunately that scene has been cut from the film, so essentially the whole thing was purely for the enjoyment of the crew.

My dream project would be... A buddy comedy with Sam Neill where I'm his son and we don't get along at first, but we learn to appreciate each other. Also we solve ghost mysteries.

• Nic Sampson stars in The Brokenwood Mysteries, Sundays, 8.30pm on Prime.