Paul Gittins: From TV doctor to TV director...

Interview – 2011

Paul Gittins' largest screen role to date is playing Doctor Michael McKenna, original boss of the clinic on Shortland Street. He has also acted in films Other Halves, The End of the Golden Weather, and The Whole of the Moon. Gittins’ love of history led to the creation of popular docudrama series Epitaph, which he hosted and sometimes directed, and Shipwreck.

In this ScreenTalk, Gittins talks about:

How novice actor Mark Pilisi inspired him on the set of movie Other Halves
Playing the father on Ian Mune’s movie adaptation of classic play The End of the Golden Weather
Jumping from Hamlet onstage into the fast-paced shooting schedule of Shortland Street
How Gittins' long-running show Epitaph opened his eyes to the drama of real life New Zealand history
How he got to research, write, and direct on the show
Finding a solution to seasickness while shooting Shipwreck
Loving the process of getting into someone else’s head as an actor

This video was first uploaded on 12 October 2011, 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 love the process of discovering another person; you know, getting inside the psychology of somebody else's head. And probably more than anything I guess, being able to lose yourself...
– Paul Gittins on what he loves about acting, late in this interview

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