Actor excited about his role in Emmy-nominated doco

Rotorua's David Rumney (left), as Murray Halberg, alongside his fellow actors on the set of docu-drama The Golden Hour. Photo / File

Rotorua's David Rumney says starring in a documentary nominated for an International Emmy Award is "pretty exciting".

Rumney, 24, played the part of long-distance runner and gold medallist Murray Halberg in The Golden Hour, a drama-documentary which relives the true story of New Zealand's greatest day at the Olympics.

The documentary aired on TV One's Sunday Theatre last July. It has since received a nomination for best documentary at the 41st International Emmy Awards Gala ceremony to be held in New York on November 25. "It's pretty exciting. [Last Tuesday] I got an email from the production company.

"Earlier that day I had seen some obscure posts on Facebook from people who had been involved with the film, so I knew something was up."

The Golden Hour goes up against documentaries from South Korea, France and Mexico for the top award.

Rumney said the documentary took about two years to make with all the interviewing and organising. "We [the actors] were a pretty small cog in a big machine that has done really well," he said. "We were only filming for two weeks but the director was working on it for about two years."

The film is made up of interviews with the real runners Murray Halberg, Peter Snell and coach Arthur Lydiard and dramatisation from the cast, who acted out their experiences.

Rumney said it was the first feature-length film he had acted in, so it was great to see it do so well. "As we were working on it, it felt like what we were doing was really cool. But at the same time you never know how it will come out."

He said it would be his dream to act in films or on a television series fulltime.

"If that could be my job every day I would take it in a heartbeat. But that is not really a reality for many people in New Zealand," he said.

"But I will keep trying and this is certainly a nice acknowledgment along the way."

Rumney is currently finishing up a year-long tour acting in schools with the Duffy Books in Homes programme, helping children see the importance of reading. Palmerston North-based Rumney, who attended Western Heights High School, said he will be returning to Rotorua during the summer to race stock cars.