By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Teenage actor Keisha Castle-Hughes has appeared in a music video by the rock megastar Prince, which depicts her character seemingly blowing up a crowded airport terminal.
The Oscar nominee and star of Whale Rider flew to Prince's Minneapolis headquarters about a month ago to film the video for his
song Cinnamon Girl. She is shown as a school girl of mixed heritage facing taunts from classmates over her ethnicity after a terrorist attack.
Later in the four-minute clip, in which she is filmed against animated backgrounds, she appears to push a button to blow herself up at the airport.
The scene is then wound back, reassembling the airport terminal from the wreckage of a bomb blast, and raising questions about whether the detonation was intended to be real or fantasy.
Keisha's agent, Graham Dunster, is in no doubt, after listening to the song lyrics, that the scene is fantasy and the character played by the 14-year-old star decided against going through with the bombing after reflecting on the likely consequences.
Asked whether he had any concerns that American sensitivities may make it harder in future for his client to travel to the United States, he said: "In the context of the song lyrics, there is nothing to be aggrieved about."
Keisha had simply taken on the role as a professional acting job after Prince decided she was the one to play the part, without requiring any audition.
"I have to assume he has seen Whale Rider - it is huge in America."
Mr Dunster could not confirm Keisha's character was intended to be of Arab-American heritage, as suggested by one US media commentator, saying he believed she was meant to be a "melange" of many young women rather than any particular figure.
But Jewish Council chairman David Zwartz said on TV3 last night that the video seemed to glamorise suicide bombers and gave "a rather superficial" explanation of what motivated them.
Prince is apparently not helping to clarify the meaning, as his publicist has told US media he does not intend expanding on the lyrics.
These include the couplet: "Cinnamon girl mixed heritage, never knew the meaning of colour lines;
9/11 turned that all around, when she got accused of this crime."
