“He knew precisely what he wanted. His knowledge of the lens and how to work the camera was just incredible.
“He was just amazing. An amazing man.”
Morrison recalled he was almost fired before Once Were Warriors and said Tamahori was the only one who supported him at the time.
“Lee just stuck with me. He just went ‘he’s got something’. He could see something in me. I was supposed to play Uncle Bully at first. We couldn’t find a Jake Heke.
“Everyone was nervous, how could Dr Ropata play this guy? This brute of a guy. How could Dr Ropata transform himself?
“But it was Lee who stuck with me and cast me as Jake.”
After the success of Once Were Warriors, a number of the cast – including Morrison, Cliff Curtis and Rena Owen – received calls from Hollywood, as did Tamahori, whose star was on the rise at the time.
“People like Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted Lee to direct his next movie. Even my role in Star Wars – direct result of Once Were Warriors.”
Morrison also paid tribute to the impact Tamahori had on indigenous film-making around the world.
“How this movie like Once Were Warriors transcended. The effect it had on other indigenous people in the world. People like Jason Momoa saw this movie and went ‘wow’. People could just not believe it.”
Even though Tamahori ended up directing Hollywood blockbusters, he returned to New Zealand to tell stories unique to the country.
Morrison said: “[Martin] Scorsese made mafia movies out of New York, Lee Tamahori’s best work came out of this whenua.”
– RNZ
