John Callen: the distinctive voice behind Oin the Dwarf…

Interview – 2013

Actor and director John Callen has a voice that is hard to forget. Callen has appeared in many TV shows and films including Close to Home, The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and The Hobbit. His directing credits include Shortland Street, Epitaph and Taonga.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Callen talks about:

Why The Hobbit has been his most extraordinary job
Still enjoying a good fight despite being older than his contemporaries
How costuming was a hassle on The Hobbit set, and memorable moments with cast member Billy Connolly
How playing a murderer on Close to Home appealed to autograph hounds
The excitement of directing actors on Shortland Street
Enjoying directing "real" stories for Epitaph
Learning about Māori history on the series Taonga
Doing rewrites on war documentary The Kiwi Who Saved Britain

This video was first uploaded on 22 April 2013, 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

An awful lot of young people go through Shortland Street as actors, and some of them click into it brilliantly, and that exites me: to find young people who are talented, who have got intelligence, and who know how to tell a story.
– John Callen on directing Shortland Street

John's Full Profile