At 17, New Zealand actor James Rolleston already shares something in common with Al Pacino, Keira Knightley and Naomi Watts: starring in not one, but two standout films at the 2014 Toronto film festival.
In The Dead Lands he awed festival audiences with the story of a young warrior, Hongi, avenging his father’s murder in the pre-colonial era. In The Dark Horse he plays a teenage boy called Mana on the edge of gang life. This, the same Rolleston who previously charmed as the title character in Boy, New Zealand’s highest ever grossing film at the domestic box office.
At The Dead Lands premiere, Rolleston and his Kiwi co-stars performed a memorable haka. Now, fresh from a gym session with those same friends, Rolleston has to step past a gaggle of Benedict Cumberbatch fans scuttling around outside the upscale Toronto hotel lobby where we have arranged to talk.
His sharp haircut has a story. “Oh bro, a highlight of the trip was going to Onyx barbers, just around here by the big-as mall. You’ve got to go get a haircut there. They’re so friendly, so welcoming.”
Rolleston’s accent prompted a conversation with the barber who requested to see The Dead Lands trailer. “The guy just snatched [my] phone up and went out the back and grabbed all the bosses and then he plugged it into all the TVs around and everyone in the shop was just buzzing out watching it,” says Rolleston, animated.
Relaxed off screen, Rolleston plumbs some dark territory in his films. Hongi’s entire community is wiped out by bloodthirsty cannibals. Mana is brutally beaten up and pissed on. How does he level this subject matter in his head? “On the day I just switch into mode,” he says. “I just try and get into the character as much as I can. And when it’s all over, I’m just me again. Go see my family. Back to norms.”
The Dark Horse is fundamentally a story of love, says Rolleston’s co-star Cliff Curtis, who plays Mana’s brave uncle Genesis. The Bringing Out the Dead star is proud when he talks of Rolleston’s career progress, recalling their trip to the 2010 Sundance film festival for Boy. “He was in the snow in his jandals [flip-flops],” remembers Curtis. “I’m not as charming as James, I’m not as loveable. He’s got a lot of wisdom. Cool under pressure.”
For his part, Rolleston says Curtis’ intense method acting inspired him. “Really pushed my performance having him around,” says the younger actor. For The Dead Lands, meanwhile, it was the “tight” team vibe that director Toa Fraser created which helped him along. “We just all became like one big family.”
Fraser’s film unspools entirely in Maori, which Rolleston learned from his fluent grandfather at an early age, growing up in Ōpōtiki in the eastern Bay of Plenty. He hopes the energetic action movie will inspire people to better learn the language, in addition to being “such an amping film, a mean-as story”.
Fraser tells me Rolleston is not just an extraordinary talent, but a committed one.
“I love a good old challenge,” Rolleston says. “If someone does a flash-as move I ask them how they do it and then I’ll try and conquer it; I’ll learn it hard out.” Such as learning to fight with traditional Maori weapons, such as the patu and the taiaha.
Now in his final year at East Coast Ōpōtiki high school (he recently rode a horse to his school ball), Rolleston keeps up with a range of extracurricular activities alongside his film work, from hunting (“ducks, pigs, deer”) to team practise for the Kapa Haka nationals (“it gets everyone in the zone”). Rolleston also plays wing for the school’s first 15 rugby team. “We’re a small school though,” he adds by way of qualification. “I’m tiny for rugby.”
He’s not as keen on Los Angeles – “It’s different ... I prefer good old Ōpō” – but he has straightforward advice for young people interested in creative work. “Just give it a crack. If you really wanna do it just knuckle down and go hard; and if you get the opportunity, pounce at it.”
For all that, and despite being poised for an international breakthrough, Rolleston has decided he’s studying building next year.
“I like hands-on stuff and I want another skill, something else to fall back on. I’ll just get that trade and then hard-out act. I really want building skills so I can build my own things, too.” There’s a course in Whakatane, 30 minutes from his hometown. “Or there’s a good one over in Tauranga, so I might have to move over there to my aunty’s.”
He’s excited about building his own home in Ōpōtiki (population 8,950). “Nothing flash-as. Nice, comfortable. Back in the bush, maybe with a good view of the beach.”
• The Dark Horse is released in Australia on 20 November. The Dead Lands is scheduled for international release in early 2015
