KEY POINTS:
I directed a production many years ago, Brain Dead The Musical, after the Peter Jackson movie. It was a great idea, but just way beyond our resources. At the technical rehearsal I realised the lighting design was never going to be ready and that the special effects were way behind. There was nothing I could do but watch as the thing started to crash and we had to postpone the opening - twice. This has never happened to me before or since, and the horror of losing control like that will never leave me.
Without doubt the happiest moments in my life are about my kids and my wife Jennifer [Ward-Lealand]. There are many single occasions: Jennifer saying "I do", the birth of our children, watching Jennifer receive her ONZM - but the whole family thing is a kind of mega-moment for me. A close second would be performing as The Widow Twankey in my own pantomimes - could be a control thing - and recently getting a grant from Creative NZ to produce and direct Brecht's The Threepenny Opera in 2008.
There was a show at Theatre Corporate in 1979 - Kafka's Metamorphosis, adapted by Steven Berkoff. A fabulous piece. To this day, people who saw it are convinced that I played the lead character Gregor Samsa, who turns into a gigantic insect and clambers all over the set. Well, it wasn't me. It was Kelly Johnston, famous for driving the yellow mini in Goodbye Pork Pie. Even when I tell people it wasn't me, the typical response is, "yes it was". Sometimes I have carried on the pretence just to get them to stop talking about it. Sorry Kelly.
I did at one time explore psychiatry as an option, but that didn't really fly. In any case, what I do now has more than a little psychiatry about it. I don't recall ever sitting down and saying I want to be a ... but when I left school, I was a prize-winning public speaker and debater, a champion fencer, first in English and History, recipient of several drama awards - what else was I going to be?
I learned to laugh at myself after my trousers split during a performance of the fight scene in Hamlet in 1980 - I was playing Laertes. It sounded like a strained fart.
I have had therapy on about three occasions. Various types ranging from Reichian Therapy to Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I think it is important to be able to talk to someone who has no personal connection to you. Therapy is kind of what you make it. For some people, astrology or tarot is therapy. The crucial thing is to make a sensible decision about what kind of work you want to do on yourself; what you want to change about yourself; or to be honest about what it is that you are feeling. Sometimes it takes others to tell you you might need help. I have to say, though, that sometimes my work is the most therapeutic thing I do. You cant play Hamlet, or Martin in Edward Albees The Goat, and not explore the deeper aspects of your personality.
I am good at making pies, plays, casseroles, traditional Bolognese sauce, Thai food, paper mache stuff, films, milkshakes, whoopee, soups, people laugh.
I love a hot, hot bath when I lie back with glass of wine and good book. I can do this almost any time of the day, though not necessarily with the wine. It is especially good if the weather is really cold and the rain pounds on the windows and roof. The water must be very hot - often I don't put any cold in.
It makes me really angry when people use the idea of God or religion to promote bigotry - something which seems to happen more these days, as if we were regressing to a kind of reactionary, almost medieval mentality.
My first pet was a big hairy dog called Raunchy. They say that if you take your first pet's name, and the name of the first street you lived in, you have your porno star name. Mine is Raunchy Twyford. Oo-er!
* Michael Hurst stars in New Zealand film The Tattooist, which opens on August 30. He also stars in Auckland Theatre Company's production of The Pillowman at the Maidment Theatre from August 23 to September 13. Hurst has been an actor and director for more than 30 years, working in film, television and theatre. He was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005, and is married to fellow actor Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
