Cliff Curtis: Working global, acting local

By ELEANOR BLACK

Before he arrived in Ngati Konohi country, Cliff Curtis did some research. As a sign of respect to the people of Whangara, he checked his whakapapa, to see if there were any links between his Te Arawa forebears and East Coast Maori.

The Whale Rider star was in luck. It turns out he can trace his ancestry to eminent East Coast parliamentarian Sir Apirana Ngata, so the awkwardness associated with telling another tribe's story was neatly avoided.

When filming wrapped, local kuia told Curtis, who plays Porourangi the father of Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) more about his ancestry.

"They didn't tell me upfront," he laughs. "They must have been watching to see if [I passed muster]."

Talking on the phone from his hotel room in New Orleans, where he is filming scenes for Runaway Jury, an adaptation of a John Grisham novel starring Dustin Hoffman, Curtis sounds homesick.

In the US, Curtis has carved out a niche playing menacing men from a helter-skelter of ethnic backgrounds - Chechen, Iraqi, Colombian, Hispanic and now, for Runaway Jury, Cuban. He describes them as "character people" as opposed to real people: "I've had my fun with that. I'd like to do more stuff back home."

The problem with working in New Zealand - no surprises, here - is that it's tough "to bread the butter, let alone butter the bread". So Curtis has a dilemma when he is cast in a film like Whale Rider.

Curtis saw director Niki Caro's first feature film, Memory and Desire - a haunting tale about a Japanese couple whose New Zealand honeymoon ends tragically - and immediately wanted to work with her, phoning to offer his services for any project she liked.

"I thought, now this woman can put a film together," says Curtis. "She has this ability to create affinity with these people, with incredible sensitivity to relationships. She's very astute."

He particularly admires Caro's bravery in letting awkward moments hang, creating uncomfortable and authentic scenes where no one knows what to say or how to behave.

"There's this moment [in Whale Rider] when I'm hugging my dad [Rawiri Paratene]. You don't actually see that, except for in a really cheesy way in American Sunday TV movies. You don't see dad and son scenes where they hug one another.

"If it was American I would have gone up to Dad and I would have gone, 'I love you Dad'. [He would have said,] 'I love you too, son', and then we would have hugged."

Having played a piano porter in The Piano, and a rapist in Once Were Warriors, Curtis relished playing a father and son - a good guy - in what is likely to be another seminal New Zealand film.

"It's a very sensitive story about relationships and it explores them in a more subtle, complex way than perhaps Maori relationships have been explored in other films," he says.

Curtis also likes the film's nostalgic view of rural life in small Maori communities. He grew up in Matata, near Whakatane, and says his childhood was just like the life depicted in the film.

"[Matata's] not like that any more. Lots of people from Auckland and Tauranga and Hamilton are retiring there now. They're working-class, but compared to the local people, they're affluent. It's changed the whole dynamic of the little town where I lived."

So when is he going to come home and sort out the zealous retirees and their neighbourhood beautification committees?

"I don't know. Peter Jackson hasn't called me up to be an Orc yet. No one's writing any films for me."

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