George Henare: acting on screen and stage...

Interview – 2010

George Henare is New Zealand acting royalty, thanks to a large body of work in theatre, television and movies. His first screen performance was as a butler in 1976 TV play The Park Terrace Murder. Then he played Hōne Heke for TV epic The Governor, and later an evil chief in movie The Silent One. Henare's other screen credits include Mercy Peak, Shortland Street, Rapa Nui, and Kaitangata Twitch.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Henare talks about:

The responsibility of representing a historical ancestor in The Governor
Having his entire body waxed to play a villain in The Silent One
Being blown away by the intensity of the storytelling in Once Were Warriors
Witnessing some rapid "downsizing" of the budget on the set of Crooked Earth
Fantastic catering and an awkward child co-star on Hercules
Playing father to a gay son in Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Having his role in the The Lovely Bones dramatically downsized
Why evil characters are the real heroes

This video was first uploaded on 31 May 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

We had a huge attendance there because apart from all the actors and extras who were there on the Waitangi grounds where we filmed that historical scene, there were a whole lot of tourists as well, all watching. And so I thought ‘wow I'm creating history here, this is great!’

– George Henare ons the thrill of playing Hōne Heke signing the Treaty of Waitangi, for TV epic The Governor

George's Full Profile