Culture

Rima: I’m just sitting in a park in Wellington; it’s very nice, it’s very sunny.

Critic: Oh wonderful! So, yeah, one of our reviewer’s here at Critic for our film section finished their review saying that Housebound was “International funny,” not just “Kiwi funny.” I guess in terms of the style of comedy, I know that you have done English things, I recently saw you in Jumpy at the Fortune Theatre, as well as The Little Shop of Horrors and plenty of other things; how did you find the style of comedy?

Rima: I agree that it has turned into an internationally recognised group of characters but it is specifically Kiwi. That’s what’s been the major surprise and relief for all of us that these characters have translated into an international context, which is fantastic when they were so specific to our Kiwi world.

Critic: Yes! I know that there were some production setbacks early on, were you guys feeling a bit nervous in the making of the film?

Rima: Um, to start with we were, [but] not so much nervous [it was just that] we didn’t really know what we were doing. It took a while to sort of grab on to what best we actually had to work with; we didn’t really know, it just sort of evolved and we just started to get a grip on who the people were– (to a passerby in Wellington:) “Oh, sorry, I’m just in an interview.” Sorry, someone just stopped me in the park; that’s just the downfall of having interviews in a park – people will actually come up [to you]. (To the passerby:) “Thank you, thank you.” Sorry, what were you asking again?

Critic: Just sort of how you felt about the film while it was in process.

Rima: Yes, so we didn’t really know what it was until we started shooting it. Gerard knew he wanted a mix of genres and he wanted to try a number of different things to achieve that mix and so we tried it a bunch of different ways and so, as an actor, I didn’t really know what dynamic I’d end up with over all. I didn’t know that in this scene that I’d be crying or I might be doing this, I didn’t know how that was going to end up in the end because we’ve tried it all these different ways so I didn’t know what I’d end up with and in a way that takes quite a lot of trust. You don’t get an idea of what it’s going to turn out like in the final product. You have to surrender your own context and go with a variety of experiments, that’s how he works. You still stick to the script but you tried it all at different volumes and moods.

Critic: So you had the ability to really explore creatively with Gerard and you had time to try different things?

Rima: Yes, we did. He had a lot of ideas that he wanted to explore and he’s also really meticulous. Say you had a turn to do what you wanted to do, he’d really start honing in on exactly what it is he likes. And sometimes that can be, like you can feel a bit stifled, having to do it over rather than just have another go. So you’ve got to be incredibly focused. It’s not just all having a ball.

Critic: I guess I wonder in terms of the creative freedom in your performance. BadassDigest describes you as being a total scene-stealer, in a really positive way! And you’re performance is so nuanced, so I guess I was wondering in comparison to doing, like, you know, recent theatre work like Jumpy, what do you find more satisfying?

Rima: Um, well, the control that an actor has in theatre with a two-hour piece and a lead role is completely different to a movie. For a start you rehearsed the whole thing, you’ve discussed it, you’ve made the decisions before you perform it in front of other people, but with a film it’s not like that. You don’t have that sort of rehearsal period. You can rehearse things in terms of blocking but you don’t actually know what you’ll be doing until you’ve started shooting and you will still be trying it a number of different ways – some of the scenes are still being written that you’re going to approach later and, of course, once you hit a location you start to get an entirely different feel for what’s going on. So, yeah, it’s just a completely different thing and, uh, yeah, just the whole thing of it taking so long, because it took us three years on and off to finish it, and just the length of time and having to return to things sometimes after months and try to grasp on to the mood you had last time two years later, you know?

Critic: Absolutely. So your co-star Morgana O’Reilly was meant to be, or in the text is, a teenager but obviously O’Reilly isn’t a teenager. How did you guys deal with that as a casting decision or how did that change the dynamic for you?

Rima: Sorry, pardon?

Critic: I guess I just wonder how it changed the way you interacted with O’Reilly just because she’s supposed to be very young but she’s not; was that something that you guys felt was able to be an in-context joke or did you play it as is?

Rima: No, no, I mean, if the character’s meant to be, you know, just a teenager, you know you just believe it, that’s what you do. It would be the same, you know, if I was a hundred years old in it – she’d have to believe that and so would I, it’s just whatever you get told really. And then that’s your job, you’ve just got to imagine it and make other people believe it. (She laughs.)

Critic: Fantastic! And so I know that the official US release date for Housebound is coming up next month, are you excited or nervous, how do you feel about it?

Rima: I’m absolutely thrilled that the US has embraced this film. Thrilled for Gerard because I know that he’s going to get a lot of work out of this and he deserves it, he worked so hard. We all did, everybody did. But it’s his baby at the end of the day and it’s so great that he’s had this feedback. The fact that it’s been embraced by the US is fantastic; they really understand it and like the quirky off-kilter thing that he’s offered.

Critic: That’s wonderful. And I know that it’s also set down to play in the Spectre Fest, [and Housebound] is that sort of horror film that celebrates the horror genre and, leading up to Halloween, Hollywood loves that, but [Housebound] is also a real mix of genres – do feel that [Housebound] is an appropriate kind of film for something like [Spectre Fest]?

Rima: Yes, I do. I think [the mix of genres] has removed it from just being a goofy kind of spoof sort of horror and it’s not that, and it’s also not one of those horrors that you’re going to be terrified of for the next ten years – you know, about getting in the shower or whatever. It’s in between those two sorts of things, and its funny but it’s not self-consciously funny, if you know what I mean. In that sense it’s dramatic and the characters are quite eccentric in a very ordinary New Zealand small town way. I think that’s what people around the world seem to have locked onto – that there are people like that in every community no matter where you are – and I’m just so thrilled that it’s been recognised that there are people like that everywhere even though we were honing in on something so specific.

Critic: Are you quite excited about the way that the New Zealand Film Industry has been producing things in the last few years?

Rima: It’s fantastic that there’s been so many lately! It’s absolutely ridiculous. That is fantastic. The downfall of that is that the funding gets spread among a lot of people, so the risk of it falling any lower than the funding you get now is going to be that people aren’t going to be able to afford to do it. Like, everyone was doing another job: I was acting in a play at night for the last part of the shooting – you have to earn a living as well. You know, I mean, we were getting paid but not masses of money or anything, and with the bouts of shooting where it went over several years, you have to make sure that everybody’s free to do the next round of shooting and some people would be in plays and other television programs that they had to do, you know, [so they could] get the money in order to be able to afford to complete the movie. That’s the logistical nightmare that can occur if funding fell any lower in order to make a variety of New Zealand films, to make sure that everybody gets that creative opportunity, and there’s such a wide range of creative endeavours, but the down side is that you might not be able to afford to do it professionally.