Jennifer Ward-Lealand: from child actor to busy professional...

Jennifer Ward-Lealand began her celebrated acting career as a child, and made her screen debut on Gone Up North for a While at age nine. In her teens she played the rebellious Jan in soap opera Close to Home, and began a busy diet of theatre work. By the 1990s, she was on-screen playing everything from glamorous 19th century drapers to French prostitutes.

In her first ScreenTalk interview, Ward-Lealand talks about:

• Playing rebellious teenager Jan on Close to Home
• Her experience in theatre, including with Auckland's Theatre Corporate
• Working with Temuera Morrison on 1986 TV drama Seekers
• Acting in gritty About Face drama Danny and Raewyn
• Flying to France in the middle of making Leon Narbey's The Footstep Man
• The extraordinary experience of making movie Desperate Remedies, including the lavish costumes and acting with Kevin Smith
• Joining Australian comedy series Full Frontal, after the producers saw her performing in The Front Lawn
• Larry Parr’s ensemble movie Fracture
• Appearing in TV series Interrogation
• Meeting her husband, fellow actor Michael Hurst, and later working with him on Hercules and Xena
• Her theatre shows reprising Marlene Dietrich songs and cabaret classics

Watch a second interview with Jennifer Ward-Lealand here.

This video was first uploaded on 21 March 2009, 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 - Clare O'Leary. Camera and Editing - Leo Guerchmann