xx info // presse // screentalk with craig parker // originalversion
Mit Dank an Bettina für die Mühe des Transkripts, die Übersetzung findet ihr hier, das Video auf der Video-Seite.

... Gloss
It was the most terrifying experience for me in the world, but it was the introduction into the mad world of being on telly in NZ -and - eh - nothing else like it had been around. And it was the first time, you know - it's a dreadful word - but it was the first time, there were a sort of stars or celebrities in the country. So we were arrogant, horrible creatures. We travelled in packs, go to these fantastic parties and think we were terribly flashing important and we'd borrow clothes from the wardrobe 'cause they had really good clothes. So it was a great jumping into that whole world. I remember, even, when I was doing the show we would all get together at someone's house on Wednesday night I think than it was on, and have champagne and watch the show and get "Woow!" At other people's bits, anyway. My bits were in a fetal position on the sofa.

... Shortland Street
Guy Warner was an annoying social worker. Everyone else got to be doctors, but I got to be a social worker. But it - that first two years - I think- was the beginning of the Shortland Street mentalness and - eh - and within those years it was like everyone in the country watched it. You became a "Shortland Street actor". But when you work on the show, it's so all-consuming. You're there every day. You start very early, you finish very late. We all were friends before the show anyway, so we tended to hang out together and it does become a little bubble - I think - you end up losing track of a few things. You're doing twenty/thirty scenes a day sometimes and every scene (snips his fingers) - you just - you get very good at going "What's important about the scene?", "What do I need to get…?", "What story are we telling?" Technically you get very good at working out that stuff. It gets rid of the wishiwashi-indecision of an actor and it also kicks your ego out the door when it comes to work, a lot. You just have to get on, you have to do it. I worked a lot with Theresa Healey and we would get - about three o'clock we'd always get sugar-depleted and mental and basically do terrible things around the studio and they put up with this. They great thing when you're an actor: You can be terribly misbehaved and childish and stupid and people just sort of get "Ahhh. OK." And let you get away with it.

... Hercules and Xena
Hercules was the first one and when the scripts came out, everyone was reading through and just: "It's dreadful, I'll never be on this. It's awful. That will never last." And sure enough, it lasted ten years and spun off Xena. For actors it was like Phanto season. Every now and again, you got a role, you put a different wig on, a different moustache and go and play for a couple of weeks and get paid fantastically well at the time and have a real good time. And it's still kind of mental fun to watch.

... fighting with Lucy Lawless
She and I were shooting a horse-fight scene, this big battle at the end and where the horses go (shows movement of the horses) and a couple of the American exces had come out with their kids and they'd been walking around the set, going: "Hey, how are you?" "Oh it's great." Kids were just blown away because they loved Xena and thought it was really cool… And we were at the end of the day and there wasn't much time, so we were trying to do the horse-thing (waves an imaginary sword around) and the horses were a bit fractious. So, Lucy just said: "Right, I've got an idea." And we put the sandbags down in the middle of the ground, took some bungee-cords which tied to the sandbags and tied the - bridles ? - are they "bridles"?- those things to the bungee-cords, had our swords, camera's sort of here (shows view through the camera's lens at about shoulder-height) and she and I a sort of trotting, doing horse-trotting around these bungee-cords, having a fight. Really stupid! Looks great on the screen. And I remember seeing these two kids American kids, who'd just thought we were so cool the whole day and then their look on their faces: "You dicks! You sad losers!" (grins broadly).

... Mercy Peak
It was a sort of gentle, character-driven show about people just out of Auckland or anywhere. It wasn't specifically Auckland. Relationships, dramas, but it was smart. The characters were beautifully subtly written. I think I described way at the beginning it's about these people and stuff happens to them which of kind it was.

... the effect of on-set catering
We had fantastic catering on Mercy Peak and a couple of years ago, I was looking at all the eps for to put a showreel together. So you see in fast forward three years of your life, you see yourself in fast motion and it would start at the end of summer, so the first couple of eps everybody is tanned and looking healthy and great and as you're fast forwarding through, you realize that over winter and over great catering everyone goes bluuuuuuurb! (shows growing dimensions of people) and then about a month and a half before the end if the series - summer's coming, people have seen themselves on screen - "Oh my God! I've got fat!" So everyone goes mentally getting healthy. So over your six month you start slim and then it gets "bluuuuuurb!" and then shrinks again in the next series. So - it was this - my memory of myself in Mercy Peak.

... a sex scene with good friend Robyn Malcolm
It was one of those very complicated shots that started from the buzzer and travelled down, came under the radio booth and discovered us in full flagranti. So we had to be kind on top of each other, ready to go through the scene (makes a characteristic movement). It seemed like hours just pressed into each other and it was - it was so awful, because we were just there going: "I'm lying on top of my sister." and she was going "My brother is trying to hump me." And - yeah - we giggled through nervousness a lot. It's hot! When you see the scene, it's really hot, but - yeah - (shakes his head): This brilliant, genius, professional Roby - but crap at shaggin

... Lord of the Rings
I played the fat elf, Haldir. That was ahead good catering of three amazing films, you know, they're just beautiful and we'd never done anything of that size in this country and I don't think we have since. And we were a really good group of people that assembled for the cast, I think, there was very much a sense of - Peter and Fran at the beginning going: "We are going to spend three years with these people, we've to make sure that they are good human beings. Otherwise, it would be a nightmare." So it was a sense of fun and joy, and I think, the only way people got through that length of the shoot, that arduous issue, was kind of clinging together and being nice to each other.

... Diplomatic Immunity
I absolutely adored doing it, though I don't know, how well it translated into the final piece. It was on quite late at night, so I don't think, that a lot of people watched it. It was a strange one. I'm very fond of the experience of it, but I don't know, how successful we were in creating that sort of final product of the show, which fascinates me, because it's - there are so many things that go into getting it right and I know, on that one every single person worked so hard to get it right and it was a crew, that adored it and we - you know - people put huge hours that they didn't necessarily get paid for. People were paid, extra [hours, I mean]. And yet something doesn't quite happen. I don't know. (shrugs).

... Spartacus
It's about a world, where everyone was wanting power basically. If you didn't have power, you have nothing. People achieved it through sex and through violence and through manipulation and destroying other people in the most terrible way. Life was cheap in these days, you know. People had slaves, peoples could - they were chattels they could do with, what they want. So, you've got this world, which is incredibly violent with sex as a very powerful tool and the show is just shot so beautifully. It's all green-screen surrounds. It's beautiful; every shot is like a painting. Within it, you've got these characters: Lucy Lawless' and John Hannah's characters. They are kind of like car-salesmen, who want to get ahead. They've got a bit of power and they've got a whole lot of people underneath them, who rely on them and fear them, but they don't - They want to be posh. So, it's quite a mundane suburban power struggle set in this mental world. I think, it's - from what I've seen -it's a truly amazing show. And that's why I wanna sit down every weekend and just watch and watch and watch. (imitates a zapping couch potatoe).

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