Millen Baird: the pros and cons of improvisation...

Interview – 2015

Writer, producer and actor Millen Baird made a splash with his award-winning comedy show The Millen Baird Show, before going on to make the popular web series turned TV comedy Auckland Daze. Baird has also appeared in episodes of Being Eve and The Almighty Johnsons, and took his top off one time on Step Dave.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Baird talks about:

Getting in too deep in his screen debut, playing a cult leader on Being Eve
How being in makeup too much got him fired as director on The Millen Baird Show
Enjoying watching Madeleine Sami perform in Super City
Being told to stop ad-libbing by director Taika Waititi, and some other people
Playing a lycra-clad courier on TV's The Almighty Johnsons
Convincing Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton to make Auckland Daze
How Kiwi celebs loved doing cameos on the show
Playing a monotonal ‘duffus’ cop in Housebound
His surprise at being asked to be part of Step Dave
How low-budget web series LeeWay turned out to be a creative highlight
The origins of web series Darryl: An Outward Bound Story

Watch also this extended Funny As interview with Millen Baird.

This video was first uploaded on 7 December 2015, 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

That's when I really nailed the process of improv: a very tight scripted structure, with no dialogue. And then we just shot, reviewed takes, honed the process, and the results...Yeah, it's the best thing I've done, without a doubt.
– Millen Baird on refining his improvisational techniques while filming web series LeeWay

Millen's Full Profile