Rima Te Wiata: imitation as the sincerest form of flattery...

Interview – 2012

Rima Te Wiata won fame with her impersonations of famous New Zealanders in comedy shows Laughinz and More Issues. Her most famous parody was of newsreader Judy Bailey. Te Wiata is also a successful dramatic actor, having appeared in Shark in the Park and Shortland Street. Her film credits include Via Satellite and — after this interview was conducted — movies Housebound and Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Te Wiata talks about:

Learning about screen acting from legendary Australian actor Pat McDonald on soap Sons and Daughters
The joys of playing a cop on Shark in the Park
Having huge fun performing on comedy shows Issues and More Issues
Impersonating newsreader Judy Bailey, and Bailey's reaction to being parodied
Heading to Australia to join sketch show Full Frontal
Being conned by fellow Full Frontal actor Eric Bana
Having to learn to drive for documentary Motormania
Playing a "mean cow" who also had a sensitive side, in film Via Satellite

This video was first uploaded on 2 April 2012, 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

I watched tapes of her for quite a while: videotapes of her reading the news and so on, and I brought it down to a sort of a squashed smile thing, and then getting the tone of the voice and the eyebrows . . . I thought if I can bring it down to about three or four things and just play those, it will be much more powerful than trying to play the whole person.
– Rima Te Wiata on developing her impression of newsreader Judy Bailey for comedy show Issues

Rima's Full Profile